Keeping Children Busy at a Wedding Reception
Including children in your wedding party is usually a given. What bride and groom doesn’t want to have a young child as their ring bearer and their flower girl? During the ceremony children are occupied and happy to sit and watch the wedding take place. It’s usually at the wedding reception that issues arise, most often because the children get bored. So how do we plan for that?
One of the easiest ways is to have some type of activity for the children to do. This can include giving them a coloring book and crayons at their place setting. Or you may want to set up a small table that has different activities on it. This works really well if a number of children will be present.
Don’t forget that you can make even the simplest activities more interesting if they are presented in the right way. This includes putting all the items into a box, suitcase or lunch box for them. This also gives them an additional gift to take home.
If you are holding your reception outside you could even think about setting up a small tent for all of the children. Again they can sit, eat their food and mingle with other kids around their own wedding table.
Disposable cameras and holding a scavenger hunt can really help to entertain children of all ages. One note on disposable cameras though… we had these on the tables thinking adults would take pictures, um wrong! The kids had a blast with them. You might not bother developing them though, just saying. You may even want to set up some type of carnival or fair game such as a ring toss.
Other ideas
Other ideas that are perfect for a summer wedding include hoola hoop competitions, running races or even mini golf. Of course some of these activities would need to be supervised. This could be done by a teenager or just by sharing responsibilities amongst the parents, everyone supervises for an hour at a time. At Denison Ridge after the ceremony is done we have an area that can be used for games.
If you anticipate any type of problems with the children being bored during the meal time try creating centerpieces that will hold their attention. This might be a small gift pack that they get after the meal is finished for example.
Don’t forget that young children may need a nap, so having somewhere quiet for them to go would be nice but not always available. You could take along their blanket and spread it out on the grass picnic style.
As you can see it isn’t that hard to keep your children busy at any wedding, but it will take some planning. This approach is just one that often gets overlooked ahead of time. So if you know you are taking your children with you plan out some activities for them. This way everyone will have an enjoyable and memorable day.
