The Dress Up

5 Ways to spice up your wedding day for kids!

In a child’s mind, weddings seem like they should be a barrel of fun. Remember, happy kids = happy adults!

They get to dress like grown-ups, hang out with their favourite uncles, get spoilt with sweets and sumptuous food, and of course, meeting and playing with new friends.

However, in reality, they often find ceremonies long and arduous, and dinner receptions really dull. Think back to a time when you were young - sitting in one place for a few hours always went painstakingly slowly, all you wanted to do was jump up, explore, and enjoy yourself.

A vicious attack taking place at a ceremony.

If you do decide to have children at your wedding or ceremony, or both, you should think carefully about how you’re going to manage and entertain them. In our humble experience, bored children plus a long day often spells a recipe for disaster – and that’s the last thing you need on your special day.

Often we make use of children’s willingness to be involved and help for the wedding ceremony itself as page boys and flower girls (click the links if you have little ones you need getting ready for a wedding), but you can only have so many people walking down the aisle! Here are some fun ideas we came up with to make your wedding day enthralling for all attendees and avoid any viscous pillow attacks!

1. Scrapbook manager

A scrapbook is a great way of collecting some personal memories of the event from each guest, and what better way to distribute this than some very enthusiastic helpers! A nice touch with this is to have a Polaroid camera and get guests to write on the back of their picture. This is a great job for an older child who can add their own creative flair to each photo.

2. Photographers assistant

If the child in question is a little young to be handling a camera and taking photos as a scrapbook manager, they can be very useful for a photographer to point out special guests! It can be difficult for a photographer to know who to take pictures of, and there are only so many pictures you want of your neighbours sat sheepishly in pews. However, you should make sure your photographer doesn’t mind a helper at their side.

3. Gift manager

There’s always a table full presents, and sometimes you lose track of who gave what. Having a little or not so little gift helper who takes presents off their hands, thanks and labels them can eliminate guests awkwardly holding a present throughout the ceremony, and figuring out who to thank for that new toaster.

4. Wedding program distributor

This can give a child a great sense of purpose at the ceremony stage of the wedding. When they would normally be sat at a pew, twiddling their thumbs, giving them a handful of programs to hand out at the door lets people know how the day is planned as well as doubling up as a cute greeter.

5. Musicians helper

If the child has a bit of a musical side to them then they may jump at the chance to help out the orchestra or band if you have live music! Just a simple job such as page turning gets them involved and helps out the band – again just make sure whoever is playing the instrument doesn’t mind.

The most important thing to keep in mind is the child themselves. If they are shy, then maybe meeting and greeting guests isn’t for them. You want to be giving them jobs that they want to do, not that they feel like they have to do because you’ve asked them – the goal is to make the wedding and reception as fun for them as it is for adults, you’d be surprised at the difference it makes!

A sweet way to hand out programmes we found on Pinterest.

Remember HAPPY KIDS = HAPPY ADULTS!