Children at weddings

anncoates wrote: »

The next morning? Pretty hardcore.

Ignoring the typo, what is it with "sulking off to bed" at 11pm? Not everyone wants to spend another 4 hours in the residents bar listening to really bad singsongs with drunks. Being invited to a wedding does not oblige the guest to a 16 hour marathon, they can leave when they want. Only a bridezilla would describe leaving at 11pm as "sulking off".

Angie Early Mineral wrote: »

A good friend of mine is getting married in a few weeks and sent the invitations out just after Christmas. She has heard back on the grapevine that a couple of invited guests are bitching because their children weren't included in the invite. She's quite upset about it. I've told her they're the ones who are in the wrong, most people do not assume their kids will be invited to a wedding unless it's a very close relative. And even then, very small children often aren't included.

I haven't been to a wedding in about three years, but I presume that's still the case? Or has it now become the norm to include friends' and colleagues' children on wedding invitations?

We are a big family, numerous of weddings over the last few years, all but one with kids invited.
The weddings with the kids were brilliant, kids and adults both had a great time dancing and having fun with each other.
The one wedding that no kids were invited was so unusually boring. The bride and groom brought their 2 kids, naturally, but told everyone else kids were not invited, the two kids that were there had a dreadful time, no one to play with, no one to dance with, got bored with the DS's after an hour, spent most the night lolling around bored. At breakfast the next morning, the bride and groom admitted it was a big mistake on their part, every wedding after that has had kids at it and couldn't of been better.
The bride and grooms no kids wedding is still the talked about wedding at other weddings for being the worst ever

It should be made clear on the wedding invitation, rather than leave it as a guessing game, leading to an awkward phone call.

If someone doesn't invite a family unit, then the expectation should also be that the parents can decide not to go without any repercussions (and not take it as a sign they don't like you, are cheap etc.).

Angie Early Mineral wrote: »

Seriously, the wedding was boring simply because the children weren't there? I can understand the bride and groom's children being bored. But why would the other adults be bored, unless they were determined to be because they were annoyed their children weren't included.

No there was just no fun, nobody was dancing, well the odd aunt and granny, everyone just sitting in groups of 5 or 6, people even went up to their rooms at 11pm, and they were people without kids.
People who dont have kids dont realise how much life they bring to a party and how much fun they are, a wedding is totally different to a house party, kids behave differently. When the kids were at the weddings the Mams, Dads, Aunts, Uncles and Grannys were up dancing with them, having fun with them and so on, at the all adult one the guys and few girls ended up watching football in the hotel bar and the rest of the women stayed chatting with each other and giving out about the rest watching the football.
Everyone was pissed by the dinner and didnt eat half of it and when the dinner was over it was back to the bar, at the weddings with the kids everyone held of on heavy drinking until the kids were asleep and it was just a much better time.

I had no kids bar the one flower girl at my own wedding yet one fecking far off cousin of the husbands send us back an rsvp with two extra names on it. We hadn't a clue who Owen and Niall were and they were uncontactable as the couple had fecked off on holiday. Turns out they invited their own kids - one of which was only a month old at the time - to our wedding without asking us. We didn't even know they had had kids!!

Cue one very awkward phone call to the cousins parents (as we couldn't contact them) to explain no kids allowed. Very, very flippin awkward.

Gets worse though - They brought them along anyway! Yup, that's right. They didn't bring their cherubs to the mass part, not because they weren't going to but because we supplied a bus from hotel to venue and my dad caught them boarding and told them to step off.

They did bring them to the dinner without our knowledge though - we didn't know until we got the bill for two extra dinners - not the kids dinners either, two full adult dinners!!:mad: They also didn't give us a wedding present- even the 100 euros to cover the kids dinners would have been cool. Nope, nothing in the envelope. Cheeky bastards.

Must explain - we didn't invite kids coz we are both from huge families and there would have been hundreds of kids that had to be invited if we invited one. So we decided to invite none.

alchemist33 wrote: »

I think you care a lot more than your username suggests

Wowee...you're like the first ever person to mention my username in the form of some sort of insulting comeback, how original of you....sarcasm:rolleyes:

I Heart Internet wrote: »

How did the one month old eat a dinner? In fact, having a a month old at a wedding is fine. The baby will need feeding anyway so is likely to need to be with Mom, and they don't make much of a fuss. It's the toddlers and giddy 7 year olds that are a hassle. Babes-in-arms are fine.

i would agree that inviting cousin's kids is a nonsense....but forcing them off the bus once they've turned up...that's harsh (though they're asshats for bringing them).

I'd love to know too - child would have been maybe 4 months by the wedding and other child maybe 2 years old - their father obviously ordered a dinner for both his kids so himself and his wife could make pigs of themselves and charge us for the pleasure. Maybe to punish us aswell, who knows.

Well, I think my dad did the right thing. There was no toilet facility or sound box like churches do for the kids - it was in an old castle which was tiny. If the kids started working out they had nowhere to take them. They'd have to sit there with their roaring children. Also, it wouldn't be fair to the rest of our families who did comply with the rule and got babysitters to see one family there with babies roaring and running about. Why would she even want to bring her kids- surely that particular part would be boring for a baby/toddler?

mauzo! wrote: »

I had a 2 week old baby at my sisters wedding, and I was a bridesmaid. He was good as gold though. Didn't cry once and slept for most of the day. I went to bed early with him, as I was wrecked too. My sister was annoyed with me over that, I told her she could replace me as bridesmaid if she wanted, but she chose not to.

Now she'll have an 18m old at my wedding! We'll have my fiancès 4 nieces and nephews, my 4 nieces and nephews and my 4 year old there on the day. So 9 kids under the age of 7. I can't wait to see them all having fun and dancing. They are all well behaved kids and the parents won't let them in peoples way or let them scream the place down.

Ill see about hiring a babysitter for after the dinner to keep them amused with a DVD or something.

Let me tell you, your wedding is doomed, doomed I tell ya.
Just ask some of the posters around here.

It will end up being a cross between a gremlins movie and the after affects of a level 5 hurricane.
The poor guests with no kids will be damaged for life.
Your wedding might go down in the annals as one of the worse affairs ever.
How could you live with that shame.
You wedding will be the subject of long ranting threads on boards for years to come.

Rent a warehouse or better still a prison of some sort.
Maybe there is an old ex Garda station nearby with still functioning cells that might be of use for the day.

Just to warn some folk .... Please turn on sarcasm detector.

jmayo wrote: »

Just to warn some folk .... Please turn on sarcasm detector.

You may also wish to turn down your sarcasm ray gun.

whatdoicare wrote: »

Wowee...you're like the first ever person to mention my username in the form of some sort of insulting comeback, how original of you....sarcasm:rolleyes:

My my, aren't you cranky? Maybe you could change your username if you're so precious about people commenting on it.

Was the winky smiley not enough to tell you it was in jest?

billie1b wrote: »

We are a big family, numerous of weddings over the last few years, all but one with kids invited.
The weddings with the kids were brilliant, kids and adults both had a great time dancing and having fun with each other.
The one wedding that no kids were invited was so unusually boring. The bride and groom brought their 2 kids, naturally, but told everyone else kids were not invited, the two kids that were there had a dreadful time, no one to play with, no one to dance with, got bored with the DS's after an hour, spent most the night lolling around bored. At breakfast the next morning, the bride and groom admitted it was a big mistake on their part, every wedding after that has had kids at it and couldn't of been better.
The bride and grooms no kids wedding is still the talked about wedding at other weddings for being the worst ever

A room full of adults with music and booze and you were all bored? Simply because there weren't kids there to entertain you? That sounds like a group of very very boring people who don't know how to enjoy themselves.

homemadecider wrote: »

A room full of adults with music and booze and you were all bored? Simply because there weren't kids there to entertain you? That sounds like a group of very very boring people who don't know how to enjoy themselves.

Ha ha, couldn't be further from the truth, the kids just make it the much more special

I remember as a kid going to some weddings. I hated them. People getting drunk. Nothing to do at all. Kids would rather be at home playing a vid game, toys hanging out with their friends or watching a film. It's an adult event and no kid has any idea what's going on par they want to be out of their fancy clothes and out of the snorefest that is weddings.