Children At The Reception...

We struggled with the same thing. I wanted children there, but I also didn`t want them bored and acting out later in the day. So, here`s what we came up with: Our hall is in a recreation center that has 3 rooms that can be together or divided into 1 large room and 1 small room, so we are using the large room for the reception and the small room for a kids room. In the reception room we are having a kids table. It will be covered in paper and has a "special" kids centerpiece. Each child gets a package of crayons and a special wedding day activity book. All I did for that was go onto the internet and look up activity bood pages. I was able to get colouring pages, fill in the blanks, connect the dots, etc. I printed them up and then at the end of the book, I put a picture of my fiancee and I that I had scanned, and drawn the colour out of. Now the kids can colour the bride and groom! I am looking forward to this last page as we are then going to take them and put them in our wedding scrapbook. In the kids room, after dinner, we have hired a babysitter. The rec center is setting up large kids toys (castles, slides, etc). We are also setting up a quiet area for mats, blankets, pillows, etc. We will probably decide to rent some kids movies to show as well. We did have the option of renting the pool as well for the kids, but we were concerned about cost with having to hire more babysitters and lifeguards (so no pool, though if you had the money, a great way to entertain the kids). Anyways, we thought that this was perfect for us because the kids will be there for the dinner, no one will be offended that they weren`t invited, the kids will have fun, and they are right next door so that we can keep a good eye on them.
Just a note: Our recreation center has the nicest, biggest and least expensive ballroom in our city. We were also able to rent the kitchen and everything for less than $475 Canadian dollars (such a good deal!). So look around, sometimes you can get great deals in places that a lot of people would never think about.

We had a fancy evening black tie wedding and reception. Lots of kids and no special rooms or planned kids activities or toys. We had them seated together at their own tables and all the kids had a wonderful time. Not saying you shouldn`t plan special things. I`m just saying no need to go overboard with it. They`ll have each other to be with and have fun with, and children will dance, eat and mingle just as adults do.

I stressed over children at my daughters wedding this past August and as my mom always says .... Things have a way of working themselves out so.... Don`t worry so much. The kids at my daughters wedding had a blast without coloring books or anything they danced with their parents, and family members and my daughter even picked them up and danced individually with each of them and the pictures are precious.

Children at your reception is a great of being accepting to those family and friends that do have children!! It would be great to offer a sitter for those that may have to come from out of town or may not be able to find a sitter on that day (considering everyone in the family will be attending the wedding). It would be great if you could let them know that tips would be appreciated for the sitter.
If you have an older niece or neighbor (teenager), I`m sure that they would love the opportunity to make the extra money. Order pizzas, provide coloring books, and children`s movies and everything should work out great.
Be sure that the child to sitter ratio does not exceed 5:1 or it can become a little overwhelming.
If you decide to have them at the actual reception, set up children`s tables with a cup full of crayons as a centerpiece, and have a fun dinner. Maybe fried chicken and potatoes instead of baked chicken and string beans. Most facilities will be happy to accomodate you.

Depending on there ages, you can set up one of those fisher price picnic tables in the corner with cryons coloring books and etcha scketch or perhaps a magna doodle...

I can`t tell you how much this made sense to me.
I`m a twin and so as a young child me and my sister were asked to be flower girls in a large number of family and friends weddings. I guess that they found it really cute.
I remember being very bored at many of them. I`ve always been a quiet, shy kid so they didn`t need to worry about me acting out, but I would have loved to have had a kid`s table with coloring books or something to do.
Of course, As I got older I wanted to interact with the adults more.
I can see why some people would want to have an adults only reception and why others would want to have children there, but all in all I really encourage having some things for the young people to do. Keeps them from being bored and allows the parents to relax and enjoy themselves more.