Wedding in Red – Perfect Marriage

I just wanted to take a poll as to who is planning on having kids at their wedding and who is not.

I also will say that I think it’s RUDE to not include family in such a joyous occasion and this includes children. The key to having kids at a wedding is to simply keep them busy. We made goody bags for all the kids who came to our wedding (except for 2 infants), in total it was 23 goody bags. They included a bunch of crafts and an activity book we downloaded for free off the internet along with a box of crayons. But, the best thing we did was give every child ages 4+ a camera and a scavenger hunt list. The kids, as well as their parents were so into it. It really made the kids feel like they were a special part of the wedding. We put things on the list such as: take a picture of the bride’s hair, a centerpiece, the bride’s shoe, your parents dancing, somebody making a silly face, somebody under a table, your meal before you eat it, the groom and his mom, the bride’s something blue (mine was appropriate), one of the bridesmaids, the parents of the groom, the parents of the bride,etc. EVERY camera was returned! My mother had all the film developed into double prints and sent one copy to the child who took them, and if they completed their scavenger hunt list, they got a prize! She mailed them a gift certificate for an ice cream sundae. Believe it or not, some of the pictures came out really awesome. My only regret about it is that I didn’t put on the directions to make sure you use a flash, but with the technology of computers, we were able to fix most of the pictures!

As for the infants, I didn’t hear a single cry. There were 2 babies under a year old at my wedding. I strategically sat the couples with infants close to exits, just in case the child started acting up. Not only were the infants well behaved, but all the children were as well! They were all so into their scavenger hunts, they didn’t have time to do much else!

My wedding was a HUGE success and I wouldn’t have had it any other way! Having all of my little cousins there meant the world to me.
I don’t have children of my own, but I view weddings as the unity of 2 people AND THEIR FAMILIES. I just feel its wrong to discriminate against family members because of age. In the end, it is the couple’s decision. People do have a right to exclude family members, but the couple also should realize that people also have a right to be upset by this.

In old times it was required to have children attend weddings, which is where the modern ring bearer and flower girl ideas come from. Because people did not keep records of marriages, as they got older, they needed the children who attended their wedding years before to vouch for them to say they are in fact married.