The Nest

We didn't have kids because there was no room at the reception.  I have a large extended family.  I would not have been able to invite friends if my family brought all of the kids.

I stated on the invitation (maybe..don't really remember that far back) that an Adult reception would follow.  For those OOT guest that had kids, I included an extra RSVP for a babysitter that I provided.

I hired a baby sitter

on my website it stated no children and a babysitter would be provided at no charge

I have a huge extended family in town (and my dad wanted all of the adults there), so it would have been crazy if we had invited everybody's kids.  We included children of close family only.  All of our out-of-towners were close family or had no children, so it worked out well.  Hopefully everyone understood.  We love kids and would have been happy to have had more there, but I honestly had never even really met some of my dad's cousins' children.  It was just getting to be way too many people.

Our wedding had under 100 guests and started at 7pm.  Kids were never in the picture for me.  Our FG was there, but that was it.  Our reception had no dancing, just a formal 6 course dinner, not very kid friendly.

I am trying to think of a wedding I have been to that had a lot of kids there...I think it just depends on the circle you travel in.

We just didnt not include their names on the invitation, we still had about 8 kids? but they were family or close family

We did not want kids because 

1. The Church could pick up every little noise

2. We wanted the parents there to have fun and not have to worry about their kids running around, and we wanted them to not worry about that

We did have a guest call my sister the day before the wedding to ask if she could bring her 2 kids and we kindly said no, and she "conveniently" found a sitter...

Drinking and dancing at the reception and I didn't want kids disturbing any of my peaceful time.  I've been to enough weddings to see kids carried out the ceremony because they were too loud or having a melt down at the reception.  I don't care how well behaved kids are, most of them have their moments!

And honestly, although I feel a bit different now, I didn't really care for kids at the time I got married.  Even now, only those under two appeal to me.   (kiddin!  kind of....)  None of my friends had kids and only a couple of my cousins did.  I hand't been around them that much and I didn't want people to have to deal with them at my wedding.

There.  Now y'all all know what a grumpy old scrooge I am.

An adult like atmosphere is much more enjoyable when celebrating this new chapter in your life. 

We had a no kids wedding because the venue required a "kid wrangler" (their phrase, not ours) if there were more than 10 kids in attendance. So, we just said, "no kids" because a lot of time people don't RSVP with their toddlers.

A lot of people were appreciative of not having littles ones there either, because it became a "date night" for parents and everyone felt more comfortable just having a good time. 

houstonkdw:

An adult like atmosphere is much more enjoyable when celebrating this new chapter in your life. 

This..not everyone listened though. We wanted the only kids to be those that were in our wedding party since they were older (7+) but two of my cousins brought theirs (a 6 month old and a 3ish year old). Whatevs.

I 100% agree with what Pook said. 

We didn't even have a flower girl or ring bearer.  We wanted an adult event with drinking and dancing. I have been to very few weddings with a lot of kids.  Our venue also had awful stairs that were very dangerous and not child friendly.  Mostly, I didn't want anyone crying or screaming during our ceremony.  We had a very small venue, so one cranky child could have ruined the entire ceremony. 

We have kids over all the time to our house, doesn't bother me one bit.  I just feel that there are some occasions that are more formal where children don't need to be.  Do people take babies with them to the prom?  No, b/c it is a formal event.  Same with some weddings.

We also had a "no kids" wedding.  We didn't out and out say "no kids allowed" but we didn't include children on the invites.  The wedding was at 11am with a lunch reception which was over with by 3pm.

We didn't want to include children for several reasons - the reception venue was small and we knew it would be packed (Brennan's banquet room upstairs), one couple we know has very ill-behaved children and we knew they would bring them, and if I remember correctly Brennan's didn't even offer an entree option for children.

It actually worked out very well and several guests commented on how happy they were to be able to come to the wedding sans children, and know they'd be able to relieve the sitter at a decent hour.  I realize that receptions that run late into the night, however, may pose a problem.

I would have honestly wanted a no kids wedding (besides our 3 nieces and 1 nephew who were in the wedding) but DH's extended family would have been very offended so it wasn't worth the battle.

My reason would have been the same as some of the others...disturbances, crying, adult atomsphere, just being able to enjoy ourselves with out children.

I will say that we did end up having kids, quite a few and with a guest count of about 260 there were no problems at all and everyone had fun besides those few parents who did have to be on top of their children at all times.

We were sort of like AnyDrinkie. We didn't flat-out say 'no kids' but they weren't included on the inviation. The only children who were explicitly invited were those belonging to my two bridesmaids (one of whom happened to be my sister-in-law.) And neither of them brought their boys.My bridesmaid from out of town was going to leave her son with her dad, but then her husband couldn't get off work, and she wasn't driving in from Austin with a 5-month-old by herself! So the baby stayed home.

 We decided we weren't really going to fight kids if they showed up, but we weren't inviting them, and we spread it around that the venue was not totally kid-friendly. We had a lunch-time wedding and the reception was up a long flight of stairs... with a courtyard downstairs. No grass. No real place for kids to run and play. We just didn't want to deal with it.It might have been different had we had a venue that was more kid appropriate.

 The only kids we had were a coworker of mine brought his boys, in large part because they had two weddings to go to and the second was kid friendly so they left directly from mine for the second wedding. And one of DH's cousins brought his kids, who were around 8-11 and old enough to enjoy and entertain themselves. 

we had a evening wedding outside on my parents ranch.  They have a pool with no fence...  My 2 nieces were invited and 2 little boys that came with their parents from Japan for our wedding..  We hired a sitter for the 4....  Honestly, it wasn't a kid friendly venue... and not a child friendly wedding...  way too much trouble they could get into...

we don't know that many people with kids, so we didn't have to deal with this issue, however, we just didn't invite any kids.  Our friends who have kids wouldn't have wanted to bring them anyways.

I personally don't have children, but if I was going to an evening wedding, I would rather have our parents watch the baby than to bring the baby with us. It would be fun to enjoy a night out with DH.

bpaullo:

we had a evening wedding outside on my parents ranch.  They have a pool with no fence...  My 2 nieces were invited and 2 little boys that came with their parents from Japan for our wedding..  We hired a sitter for the 4....  Honestly, it wasn't a kid friendly venue... and not a child friendly wedding...  way too much trouble they could get into...

 This sounds exactly like our wedding.  The owners of the home requested no children because of the pool.  In addition, our wedding ceremony didn't start until 6pm and there was a lot of drinking going on.  It just wasn't a "child-friendly atmosphere".  Kids were invited to the ceremony only (my entire kindergarten class came) and then I provided a babysitter for the reception. My sister-my maitron of honor- was annoyed.   She walked down the aisle, took a few pictures and then went home.  She wouldn't stay if my niece couldn't.   

My wedding was a very formal evening event with alot of alcohol consumption...not a kid-friendly environment. I know some weddings are very kid-friendly, but mine was not. I wouldn't invite children to a cocktail party or a NYE party either....some places are not for children. Plus, in my experience as a parent, I do not have fun at ANY adult event (including dining out at a restaurant) if I am stuck trying to occupy/entertain my kid, let alone a formal one. I wanted the adults to have fun and be merry....and stay past 8pm.

 

That being said, I got married at age 25, none of my friends had kids. We had some older kids. Ages 6, 7, 10, and 11. They were family and/or ring bearers.

Kids certainly could have come to the ceremony if someone wanted to bring them, so it's not an issue about disturbing the ceremony.  The reception was no kids (except kids who were actually in the wedding - neices and nephew - and, I had a babysitter for them who could take them back to the hotel when it got late).

The reason for us was that we had a very elegant, evening reception with a sit-down, plated, dinner.  It was a very adult-oriented event with alcohol, dancing, etc., and was not appropriate for lots of children.  Most people we invited didn't even consider bringing their kids because they knew it was that kind of reception.

We had kids, but only because my wedding was at 11 a.m. (my husband wanted to wear a traditional morning suit as his father, grandfather, etc. had done, so a morning wedding it was -- some women even wore hats -- it was really neat).   Even then, very few people brought their children.

I would not have wanted children there at all had it been an evening wedding.  My circle of friends and family likes to knock back a decent amount of champagne/scotch/choose your poison.  No one would want to have to worry about having kids around, and chasing them, and minding their Ps and Qs around them.