Children are such a gift, and we’re reminded of this at wedding ceremonies in which the couple has carved out a special place for their children. Seeing kids as part of the festivities can warm your heart and bring smiles to everyone’s face.
Today we’re talking about ways to incorporate them into your wedding. Unless you’re eloping and planning on leaving them behind, they’ll be with you on your wedding day. It’s important they aren’t an afterthought.
It’s not all about just keeping them engaged, active and entertained while the adults have their fun. It’s about bringing them into the fold and letting them have some fun too. Las Vegas destination weddings aren’t just for grownups. There are family-friendly places all over the valley that are perfect for kids.
This blog focuses on planning a wedding and including them at every turn. If you think about it, when kids can be a part of the days leading up to the day, they will be more invested when it’s go-time.
Here are our suggestions, tips and tricks for including your kids in your wedding.
Planning
DIY Crafts & Decorations
If you’re making some of your own decorations, then this is a great place to start incorporating your children in the wedding.
Kids with the ability to squirt glue, tie bows, cut things with scissors or do any other helpful crafting tasks could come in handy when DIY-ing decorations, preparing party favors or putting together welcome bags.
Can they count? Then put them to work counting out one box of cookies for each guest or the right number of ribbons to tie around your vases.
Many hands make light work, and your kids will be delighted by the final results and will be able to take pride in making the space look beautiful.
Food & Drink
Cake
Take your kids with you when you have your cake tasting! Elicit their opinions on goodies like cupcakes vs. traditional cake.
The merits of each are strong, so the more diverse group of people you have offering their thoughts, the better.
In the end, you can still choose the one you like best, but it’ll be fun for them to eat all the cake.
Entrees
There’s also the possibility of taking them to your meal tasting session. What foods will you serve and which are their faves?
Have the chef add one for the kid in all of us by taking cues from what your kids like best.
Signature Mocktail
Kids might also get a kick out of crafting a signature non-alcoholic drink. Mocktails are having a moment, just like craft beer.
See what options your caterer or bartenders are putting together these days to try to keep up with the trend, and have your kids give their concoctions a try.
Invitations
Make their inclusion official by putting their names on the invitation. If you’re becoming a blended family, then what better way to bring everyone together?
Modern times call for modern invitations, so go ahead and put their names right next to the names of the two of you. It could say something like this for example:
Mr. and Mrs. Smith Invite You to the Marriage of
Joe and his daughter Josephine
to
Mary and her sons Mark and Martin
Wedding Day
Morning-of Gift
There are a number of gifting traditions that surround weddings, so it might be a good idea to extend the gift giving to your little one(s) as well.
This might be necessary to help keep them from feeling left out at a time when seemingly everyone else is getting a gift.
And a new toy might keep them distracted at just the right moment when you need them out of your hair — maybe while getting your hair and makeup done LOL!
First-look Photograph
If your kids are part of your wedding day, they’ll no doubt be part of your photographs, but don’t forget to have them be a part of a special moment caught on camera.
Give your kid(s) a chance to have a first look too. This can be incorporated into the first look that the two of you get or it can be separate.
Maybe you’re getting all dressed up while someone babysits for you. Have your kids get a surprising reveal right before you go out and do the just-the-two-of-you first look.
First look moments can be really cute without kids and extra cute with kids. Their facial expressions and reactions tend to be adorably exaggerated compared to adults.
Ceremony
A Starring Role
The most obvious way to include kids into the ceremony would be to have them have a role to play. Kids make great flower girls, ring bearers and escorts.
They could even be part of the wedding party as a junior bridesmaid or junior groomsman.
Wedding ceremonies also need some “performances.” Could one or more of your kids play or sing a musical selection? If they want to be part of the show, let them put those dance lessons you’ve been paying for for years to work by doing an interpretive dance.
Or how about a poetry reading, prayer or bible verse? Adding these sorts of elements into the ceremony make it more personal to the couple and are a good way for kids with the desire and the ability to pull it off to participate.
The Vows
Another way to make them part of the ceremony is to write them into your vows. Promise each other that you will love your kids as much as each other.
Promise to be a good parent and to take care of the family and nurture the relationships of the whole group.
Marriage is a commitment that sometimes involves committing to the kids as well, so why not write it into the vows?
Reception
Speech
The speech portion of the evening has its lovers and its haters.
For some, the longer the better, and for others, any longer than a couple of minutes might as well be a lifetime. So adding another speaker to the agenda may not be for everyone.
But if you already have a long list of speakers, what’s the problem with one more? If the list is short, there’s definitely room to hear from the kid(s)!
Handing off the microphone to a young child could be cute, or it could just come off as taking their participation one step too far, so be careful with your decision on this one.
Older kids, teenagers and adult children might be more appropriate speech givers.
Decor
We already mentioned having the kids help with the DIY parts of your decorations, but what about making your kids a part of the decorations?
We’ve been to a number of weddings with pictures of the couple scattered around the venue; adding photos of the kids throughout the mix is an easy next step.
Family photos would be a great addition to these sorts of personal touches in your event space or venue.
Cake Topper
Custom cake toppers can be a fun and subtle way to include the kids in your wedding.
It’s another small but meaningful way to show how important it is to you for them to be part of your special day. And it’ll remind you, them and everyone else how big of a part of your lives they are.
Intros
A super informal part of the reception is the introduction of the wedding party and the newlyweds. This part of the evening can be molded to fit your clan in any way you want.
Making your kids part of the excitement is another good way to show them you love them. They’ll even get a round of applause!
Come out with them or send them out separately so that they can get their own moment in the spotlight.
Dance
One way individuals receive special recognition at the reception is through special dances.
As the couples you’ll have a full dance card. There’s the first dance with each other. There’s the dance with your parents. There’s the anniversary dance, in which all the couples in attendance are invited to the dance floor and then dismissed slowly based on how long they’ve been married.
They all have meaning and all create special moments. So why not add a dance to the card for you and your kids?
They could even be involved in picking the song!
Just keep in mind that as you’re building the timeline of the evening you’ll realize that a few minutes here and a few minutes there add up in a hurry.
Given that the length of the average pop song is about three or four minutes, you may not want to devote the full length of a song to this dance.
Instead, consider sharing this dance with another one in a multi-generational effort or along with one of the other dedicated dances.
Kids at weddings don’t have to be an afterthought. Be cognizant of how to include them from the beginning and they’ll enjoy your day as much as you do!
