How to Plan a Wedding for Younger Guests

Entertain the Kids at Your Wedding Party

If your wedding is going to be family-friendly and you want to make sure that everyone is entertained at the wedding reception, you will need to keep the youngest guests in mind because that will free up the adults to have a good time themselves. Here are a few wedding planning ideas that might help to ensure that the kids at your wedding party remain engaged and excited to be there:

• Seat children at a kids’ table. If there are going to be a lot of young children attending the wedding reception, it will probably make sense to set up a kids’ table that is separate from the main tables. Instead of seating children with family at the wedding, you can create a fantastic reception experience that is unique to the youngsters. Consider stocking the kids’ table with various age-appropriate items and favors, such as wedding coloring books, crayons and markers, puzzles, stickers, board games, and arts and crafts supplies.
• Hire children’s entertainment. The adults at your wedding might not have time to focus on their children. One way to make sure that the parents are free to mingle and enjoy themselves throughout the evening is to hire a special guest such as a face painter or balloon twister who can entertain the kids. You could also simply hire a children’s entertainer as an “opening act” so that the kids get their fill of excitement and entertainment at the beginning of the wedding reception before presumably tiring out later.
• Provide childcare. If you want to keep your wedding theme a bit more serious, perhaps you can simply hire a sitter whose sole responsibility is to watch over the children during the reception. This will reduce stress by allowing the parents to enjoy the festivities without having to worry about whether their kids are being looked after.
• Arrange kids-only events. One way to keep the young kids at your wedding reception entertained and engaged is to give them something to do. So, think about arranging tabletop activities, games, or events that are just for them! Perhaps you can provide the kids with arts supplies and ask them to compete in a drawing competition. At the end of the night, the winning child can have their artwork displayed for everyone to see.
• Play modern music. While wedding music typically caters to a mature audience with slow-moving hits and classics, a younger audience might be more interested in dancing the night away to modern music. So, think about talking to the wedding DJ and encouraging him or her to play the kind of music that would be recognizable to clubgoers – especially as the reception goes into the later hours.
• Set up a photo booth. A wedding photo booth can be a really fun way to make sure that younger guests can entertain themselves during slow moments at the reception and also capture a memorable image that they can take with them to reflect on later. Arranging a photo booth at your wedding will likely require an outside rental, so start exploring vendors and looking for discounts.
• Serve food from a children’s menu. The cuisine at a typical wedding may be delicious, but it is likely to appeal primarily to the adults in attendance. So, provide the children at your wedding with their own special menu. If you want to focus on one specific part of the menu, think of the dessert portion of the wedding reception meal as your opportunity to appeal to everyone. After all, who wouldn’t enjoy a delicious ice cream sundae? Setting up an ice cream sundae bar can be worked out in advance with the caterer, and you can even offer non-dairy options for guests with allergies.