Wedding Weekend - Solving the Kids at Dinner Problem.

It's a tough decision and most people have to address it at some point in the wedding planning process.  To invite kids or not to invite kids?  With us, it was an absolute from the moment we started planning.  We would be inviting kids.  Jeremie has several nieces and nephews and I have a young cousin, not to mention I babysit for two kids that I'm extremely close to.  We didn't want to celebrate one of the most important days of our lives without these little people by our sides. 

So the question became not whether or not to invite kids, but how to keep them from disturbing everyone else at the wedding especially during dinner.  Let's face it, people don't care about kids being invited to a wedding.  They care when the kids are running amuck when everyone else is trying to enjoy their dinner.  After that, everyone is up, dancing and laughing and having a great time.  Nobody even notices the kids!  So what do you do during dinner time so that everyone is happy?  

here's what we did:

We made kid packs!  They're simple, cheap, can be made weeks before the wedding (definitely a plus) and they really help to solve the problem at hand. 

To make them I shopped around for fun, kiddy items at the dollar store and at Target.  I originally planned to just put them together in paper bags because it would have fit in with the rustic theme of our wedding, but we found these cute little chinese food containers at the dollar store and they were 4 for $1!  I call that a win.

I purchased a variety of items that I thought would be fun for the kids like toy cars, crayons and drawing pads, silly straws, stamps and the icing on the cake - glow sticks.  I found that the hardest part of the process was trying to pick items that would keep kids of all ages busy.  We had kids as young as 2 all the way up to 12.  But it all worked out in the end.

Finally, we put a little note on top that said: 

"Something to keep you happy while the grown ups are being boring at the dinner table!"

Stacy & Jeremie

I'm so happy we did it because I had several parents come up to me during the wedding to thank me for the kids packs.  If nothing else, I'm sure it gave parents a few minutes of peace during dinner time where they could enjoy a couple bites of food!

So if you have kids that you absolutely must have at your wedding, go ahead, invite them!  Just make some kids packs to help them out during that long and torturous dinner time before the real party starts!