If you accept kids at your wedding, it is important to plan some wedding activities for kids to keep them busy and entertained. You want all your guests to fully enjoy your wedding. Not having anything planned for kids might mean having kids bored and parents who are not able to fully enjoy the day.
So, here are a few tips and activities to make your little guests fully enjoy your wedding.
Hire wedding babysitters
Before talking about wedding activities for kids, it is important to talk about the structure.
Having babysitters for your wedding means that none of your guests will have to supervise the kids during the night. Furthermore, some wedding venues do ask guests to take babysitters for kids for security matters.
But, it is important not to choose any babysitter. During your wedding, babysitters might have to take care of a lot of kids and will have to keep them entertained and to create games for them. It is then recommended to take specialized wedding babysitters or people who already worked in kids’ recreation centers.
Get them involved in the wedding
Involving them in the planning
Kids love to feel useful. Asking them at the beginning of the wedding to put all the place cards will keep them busy. You can also give them the responsibility to ask people to come for photos or to ask everyone to get inside for dinner.
Create their own little event
Wedding guest book
You will certainly have a dedicated room for kids. But a great way to make them participate and to keep great memories is to plan a wedding guest book for them. The babysitters will make them write a few words. You might find out that they made some drawings or wrote “thank you for the candies” but it will be a great souvenir.
Camera
Another way to make them participate in the event is to give babysitters some cameras so that they can take pictures of the kids. So, even if the parents didn’t spend the night with their kids, they will have beautiful pictures where they will see their kids having fun. Also, kids love to pose in front of the camera. So, you can do a mini photoshoot with these cameras.
Wedding favors
You planned some wedding favors for your guests? So, why not plan some for the kids? This can be a box full of goodies like puzzles, plasticine, felt pens and coloring books. This will keep kids busy and will leave them some souvenirs from your wedding.
Wedding activities for kids
Outdoor wedding activities for kids: Treasure hunt
Wedding venues often have a big outdoor space. If that’s the case for your wedding venue, a treasure hunt might be a great idea for wedding activities for kids. This will enable kids to enjoy the outdoor space just as much as the adults and to keep them busy for a long period.
Board games
A really simple example of wedding activities for kids is board games. This will keep kids entertained. And it will surely be less noisy than a treasure hunt and easier to organize. If there is a lot of kids at your wedding, do not hesitate to plan a different board game for each age group.
Some makeup and costumes
If you plan to have some cameras for the kids, a great idea is to also plan some makeup if they want to have a butterfly painted on their face or a pirate look. This will enable them to have their own party theme and to create some beautiful memories. You can also ask the parents to bring some costumes for their kids to create a total look.
DIY activities
Kids love to create. So a great way to keep them busy is to plan some DIY activities. This can be some painting, sculpture or pastry. It is not about asking kids to bake some cakes but more to ask them to add icing on cupcakes or donuts. You can plan different flavors and they will choose their favorite one and add some decoration on top.
Some movies
It is important to plan wedding activities for kids for each part of the party. At the end of the evening, a great way to slow down the rhythm and to end the night is to plan some movies. You can turn off the light to create a cinema effect and plan some pillows where they can lay down. They will then progressively fall asleep.
Global organization of the night
Dinner
It is better to not bring kids to the adults wedding dinner. The traditional wedding dinner is quite long and is definitely too long for a kid. Kids might then get bored quite quickly.
So, the best option is to plan a space where kids can dine at their own rhythm with a specific menu. It is better not to give them the same menu as adults with half portions as it would be too long for them.
Rest areas
All kids don’t have the same rhythm. Some will get tired at 9 pm whereas for other ones it might be at midnight.
It is then important to plan some rest areas that are apart from the activities area. You can, for example, plan some tipis with some pillows where each kid can come when he is tired. This will enable each kid to enjoy this special day at his own rhythm and to have a great night.
I hope this blog post gave you a lot of ideas of wedding activities for kids to have a totally kid-friendly wedding.
If you have any other ideas, do not hesitate to add them in the comments section.
