This is Tiny Niece and Tiny Nephew. They are at a wedding. Clearly, despite the respective pink nail polish and red bus, they are bored out of their minds. This brings us to an interesting question: what do do with tiny people at weddings? He-Mouse and I have many, many friends who come to weddings accompanied by Tiny People.The first part of this is about money. No, thanks, I am not interested in paying $32 or more per child for a dinner they will not eat. At our wedding, the kids will get some sort of nicely packaged sack lunch. We negotiated this with the venue. We're also lucky enough to have a kids' dining room adjoining our main spaces, complete with a DVD player and--from us--a babysitter. (Babysitters only cost about $15 an hour, did you know? Completely worth it to quell the revolution.)
The second bit is about official roles. At the moment, He-Mouse and I are leaning against having Flower Children, for the following reasons:
1. In our outdoor venue, there is already drastically too much walking time in our ceremony. Tiny People don't walk on anybody's schedule. They meander, they skip, they dawdle.
2. The burden of assigned wardrobe is already high on Country Mouse's family. Bridsemaid dress plus flower children garb adds up quickly, even on the budget end.
3. They are damn cute, and will be damn cute in the wedding whether or not they are flower children. They will also get to walk down the aisle and feel part of the wedding as family.
Finally, there is an issue of entertainment. I'm planning pinwheels, toys, coloring,* a scavenger hunt, and plenty of older kids to shepherd the younger ones through the night. Plus a babysitter. Other ideas? What are you doing for munchkins?
*On butcher paper. With waterproof crayons.
16 comments:
A place to run around outside. Also, animal noses.
We didn't do anything special for the kids because right after the ceremony, they first ate dinner, and then the band started playing, and they all went nuts on the dance floor. They were the least bored guests there, I think! Don't underestimate the power of a dance party.
i have to agree with accordians on this one. we had about 10 kids under the age of 10 at our wedding and they all danced their asses off... FOR HOURS. my niece and nephew we're flower girl/ring bearer, and they did AMAZING (at an outside wedding, no less). she is 3 and he is 5. sofia started to get a little worked up during the ceremony, but her grandmother handed her a paper fan we had put out for our guests and she was totally fine. so if anything, i would suggest having something for them to look at/hold during the ceremony and let them have the time of their lives at the reception.
I think you're completely on top of things, Mouse! The separate room with DVD player and coloring books is a great call. A lot of kids will want to dance and play when the music turns on, like at A.'s wedding, but some (like the painfully shy little girl I used to be) might love nothing more than to sit quietly and color, or watch a movie.
Wow, I commend your foresight. Since there will perhaps be one toddler and one baby, tops, at our wedding, I haven't even given a specific plan for kids any thought.
I agree with others, it sounds like you've got plenty to work with here. A place to play outside sounds good as well, but with the heat I imagine that wouldn't go over so well. Oh well, they can get their ya-yas out on the dancefloor.
By the end of the night, you should have some cute pictures of children passed out!
The kids are so going to remember your wedding as the funnest one when they are grown up!
A room with DVDs and coloring books sounds like the ticket. They will probably want to join in on the dancing when it starts (my favorite part of the wedding as a kid, after the bouquet toss) but they'll probably want to retire to the DVD room later in the evening.
Re: the scavenger hunt. It is such a fabulous idea, but unless you are a way better person than I, you will not want to be setting up something like that right before the wedding. Things are usually a bit frantic just trying to get the necessary bits taken care of.
We had coloring sheets and crayons in a basket at the front with a sign encouraging parents to help themselves.
Also, if you decide you do want a dress for one of the tiny ones, we got a wonderfully sweet one from the ebay seller below. It was cheap, but didn't look cheap. Yay!
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-FLOWER-GIRL-PAGEANT-EASTER-DRESS-SZ-2-4-6-8-10-12_W0QQitemZ200423447109QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGirls_Wedding_Apparel?var=&hash=item746a652bc8
I saw someone who made a centerpiece out of candy (a vase full of candy) and I am totally going to steal that. We will also sit them at a table next to the dance floor (so we can watch them) that will be littered with toys (found in the kiddie favor aisle at WalMart) I might set out boardgames, but only because I really looooooooove boardgames. I suspect they will be dancing, as the others said.
A place to run around. Being allowed to run around. Other kids. Their Aunt in a pretty dress.
Seriously, all this stuff would have been 110% wasted on our munchkins, I know they say you should have it, but that is only because it makes a cute picture for the mags/ blogs. For our kidlts there was cake to eat, punch to have, other kids to play tag with, off limits flower beds to root in. Oh, and one of their favorite grown ups was wearing a really pretty dress and the center of a big party and they all wanted to twirl with said lady, have said lady pick them up, have said lady dance with them. Coloring? No THANK you.
Tweens will be grumpy off in the corner. But they won't color eaither.
We provided kid favors of rubix cubes. Kind of depends on the ages, but they were only $1 at a craft store, and the kids seemed to like them!
First of all, I'm enjoying your blog (I've been lurking for a few weeks). We are not planning on having kids in the wedding, but we will probably have close to 40 kids at our 150 person wedding... all our cousins/siblings/etc. have small children. We want their kids to be having a great time so they are more likely to hang out longer. We are having an outdoor wedding and reception at my mom's vineyard, so it should be a great place for them all to run around. I agree that most kids love a dance party, and I love the idea of animal noses and Rubix cubes. We are also planning yard games for everyone and pinatas for both adults and kids. Sounds like you've got lots of good ideas! Thanks.
Pinatas! Noses! Running! Yessss.
Also, I wish my mom had a spare vineyard lying around. :)
We had all these things planned, and one of my wedding elves forgot them at the house. But, the five or six kids under the age of 7 had a tremendous time, dancing and all. Some of that may be that we were outside, but nonetheless.
Word to the wise on scavenger hunts: Easiest way to do this is to get them to take photos of things they are scavenging (A red dress; people dancing, etc). Martha Stewart had something about it last year.
We gave disposable cameras to the kids during cocktail hour, so they'd have a fun project before the dancing started. Haven't gotten the pix developed yet - I'm curious to see how many pictures of knees we have! Also, we had an origami table where one nephew taught kids - and many adults - how to make origami cranes (his passion, and a symbol of good fortune at weddings.) In case the kiddos got tired later in the night, we piled a bunch of sleeping bags and thermarests in the kids' room, so that they could crash out. We hired some graduate students to watch over the little ones so that their parents could drink and dance.
When we got married this was a big deal because our son was 3. We ended up having a room with DVDs and coloring books and a babysitter too.
We had to turn off the Sponge Bob so the kids would eat some cake - and then they danced or went home. Lastly, it was like 100000 degrees that day and we had a sno-cone machine. That one was a hit even with the grown ups.
You definitely have enough going on. But the one thing to remember, parents usually can handle their kids and its their responsibility to do so. Dont stress too much about that part!
Post a Comment