Tips For Throwing A Child-Free Wedding

If you are planning on having a wedding that is constrained by your budget to be small, then you probably want to invite the family that is going to appreciate it. Small children tend to not appreciate long wedding ceremonies or staying up past 8 in the evening. As a result, you might want to have a child-free wedding. Some people might be upset about this. Here are some ways to throw such a wedding without alienating members of your family who have kids.

1. Hire a Sitter

Check your budget without including all of the meals and other expenses that including all of the children would involve. See if you have enough money left over to hire a childcare professional for the duration of the reception and ceremony. Then, contact the venue where you are planning to have a ceremony. See if they have a room where you can put the professional sitter, several toys, a television, and some nap mats. See if the venue would allow you to monopolize this room for the duration of your wedding and reception. This will allow any of your family that have kids to come to the wedding without having to worry about finding a sitter themselves. It will also show that you care about their children and have thought about them, which can lessen the sting of you not wanting them to come to the ceremony.

Hiring a sitter is often cheaper and less noisy than having all of the children in the reception itself.

2. Help With Finding Sitters

If it is out of your budget to hire a sitter for that time, offer to do everything that you can to help the families that you are inviting that have kids find sitters themselves. Offer a certain, small, amount of money per child that you are not inviting to the wedding. Offer to help call sitters and find people. Make sure that you let everyone know in advance so that they can be sure to find someone. This will also show that you care.

3. Have a Separate Event

Finally, if you absolutely can't do either of the above, let your guests know early so that they can make arrangements. Be fine with some parents not being able to come. If people are upset with you, offer to take the kids to the zoo or some other child friendly venue when you get back from your honeymoon to show that you don't hate kids, but you would just rather not have them at your wedding.

For more information, talk to a company that specializes in event planning, such as Chez Shari.

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