Wedding Wednesdays Q&A: Babysitters

We’re celebrating Mother’s day all week, so this week’s Wedding Wednesdays Q&A is about, you guessed it, mothers:  I’m inviting kids to my wedding because so many of my friends and family have kids.  I also totally love kids, so it’s not a bad thing.  Now that I’m getting our RSVPs though, I’m starting to realize that we really will have a ton of kids and I want to make sure it’s fun for them and for their parents.  So, I’m thinking about hiring babysitters to help at the wedding, do you think this is a good idea?

I think it’s a great idea!

Because, let’s be honest, weddings really aren’t that fun for kids.  It’s long and pretty boring (lots of adult talk).  And you have to be quiet and sit for most of the time.

Not real fun if you’re a kid.

So when weddings have a large number kids (or even a small amount of kids), I always recommend getting babysitters for the reception portion of the wedding.  They’ll not only look after the kids, but they can play games with them or do art projects or set up a movie for them to watch.

You can provide all kinds of fun activities for the kids (e.g. coloring books, legos, etc…).  Or you can hire a babysitting company to provide all of that for you.

This should go without saying, but please make sure you hire someone legit.  You can hire either a babysitter you know and trust or a company who does events and screens their nannies.

And you’ll want to have a separate room ideally or an area off to the side for the kids.  That way they can have it all to themselves so they can run around or lie on the ground and not bother anyone else.

There is side effect to making the kids happy and that is that their parents will be happy!  You’ll give them a chance to have fun too.  In particular, your friends and family who are mothers get a chance to be child free for a little while.  They can go dancing or just mingle with friends and talk without having a child tugging on them every moment.

Trust me, they’ll love it and thank you for it later.  It’s truly a win, win, win and everyone is happy, which is what you really want on your wedding day.

(Photo credit: Arrowood Photography)

What’s your wedding planning question?  Don’t be shy, share it with us in comment below.