Easy Event Ideas

When you’re planning your wedding and deciding on the guest list one thing you must determine is whether or not your wedding will be child friendly.  You might say this is an easy answer, none of my family or friends have kids, or on the opposite side your family and friends all have a lot of kids and need to be included in the day.  If you’re having a little flower girl or ring bearer it might be hard to exclude them from the party as well and you need to plan for the little ones to be in attendance.

The ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception can make for a really long day for little people who can become restless quite easily.  So it’s always good to have something special to entertain the little ones while everyone else is doing the traditional wedding activities.  You can do this by giving each one a special little bag with activities or just having them out for them to use.  Below you will see some great examples of what you can do to keep kids entertained at your wedding.

Goodie Bags

Put together some goodie bags full of activities, toys, and possibly even some healthy snacks to keep them going during long waits in between meals and something they might prefer to the fancy food being served.  Some ideas of what to include would be: Games, Books, Puzzles, Toys, Crayons, Coloring Books.  Notes: if you’re including snacks or toys make sure they are quite toys that won’t make a lot of noise if the child takes it out during the speeches.

DIY Activity Books

If you don’t want to include a full goodie bag you can leave on each child’s seat their very own activity book.  If you’re feeling ambitious you can even create one yourself themed specifically to your wedding.  Activity books often include: mazes, puzzles, coloring pages, dot to dots, and blank pages for free drawing.   Make sure you at least include crayons as well to go with the book.  For a free example eel free to check out Lovely Indeed’s free printable! 

Babysitting Room

If you have a spare room at the wedding or if you’re in a hotel and can rent and extra room another great option is to provide a babysitting room so tired parents can get a little break.  Kids can come to the ceremony and meal of the reception and then when it becomes to much for them they can head up to the babysitting room.  Often hotels can help you get a babysitter for these occasions.  Make sure the room is stocked with healthy snacks, games, toys, child friendly movies, and books.

Scavenger Hunt

Another fun activity to give kids and really adults of all ages is a scavenger hunt at the wedding.  Provide a list of things that they should look for at the wedding to take a picture of.  Include a disposable camera or ask that they use their mom or dad’s phone to take the pictures.  I included my scavenger hunt for my wedding on the wedding program. I also had my guests upload all of their pictures to a free picture sharing server so that in the end we all got to see the pictures our guests took.  It was a great addition to our party!

If you are planning on inviting children to your wedding be prepared to keep them entertained throughout the day.  Keeping kids entertained means mom and dad have more time to enjoy your wedding and celebrate with you!