How to Entertain Children at Your Wedding

How to Entertain Children at Your Wedding

When planning a wedding, children are always a contentious issue. Do you allow people to bring children to the ceremony or not? If you do have children at the reception, are they going to get bored and run riot through your carefully planned event? How on earth do you keep them entertained, along with the grown-ups? Well, you needn’t worry, there are plenty of options to keep children busy and happy at weddings these days. Here are a few of the best ideas out there for entertaining children at your wedding:

Outdoor games

If your reception is outside, or the venue has an outside area available, then you could set up an outdoor games area for the children to keep them entertained. Try the outdoor big versions of games like Jenga, Twister and Connect4 to keep them busy. Things like hula hoops and a ball pit will also keep them busy for hours.

Board game table

If the reception is indoors, or the weather is not great, then you can set up a games room or games table. Set up with all the kid’s favourite games to play, like Hungry Hippo, Jenga, Snakes and Ladders etc. so they can all play together and stay busy. See our list of the best board games for 6-year-olds for more ideas.

Arts and crafts table

If mess isn’t an issue then why not set up an arts and crafts table for them to make wedding related things using crayons, glitter, stickers etc. so they can build their own wedding favours or make cards for the happy couple.

Professional kids entertainer

If you have a lot of children coming to the wedding it might be worth splashing out for a children’s entertainer such as a magician or balloon modeller. Check if any of them are frightened of clowns first though!

Children’s cinema

You could create a room for the children to sit in and watch some of the latest films – use beanbags and children’s chairs to make a comfy area for them all – perfect for the evening if the reception is going on a bit later. Combine it with movie popcorn and ice creams and they will be perfectly happy

Disposable cameras

Give the children some disposable cameras and set them a challenge with a list of things they have to take photos of during the event.

Kids photo booth

Hire a photo booth and a box of dress up clothes and props and the kids will have a great time dressing up and having their photos taken in various costumes. If your budget is stretched you could even hire a professional photographer to do it instead for some amazing wedding memories for their parents.

Katie from Orlajames.com laughed “We did this for our wedding it was great fun, I think the adults used it more than the kids after a few though! Definitely some great pictures for the scrapbook.”

Wedding babysitters

You can actually hire professional childminders just for your wedding day who will mind all the children in a designated area and also provide entertainment for them at the same time, so it’s a win-win situation. You know all the children are safe and looked after and the parents can relax. You might need to check with your venue that they have somewhere which can be dedicated just to the children first.

Children’s wedding favour bags

Don’t let the children feel like they are missing out. If they are sitting at the tables as part of the reception, then give them an activity bag when their parents get the wedding favour bag. Provide them with activities they can do while sat down, like miniature toys, colouring books, bubbles to blow, confetti to throw. You could even include a little storybook about weddings, or some sweets to keep them occupied at the tables.

As you can see, there are many activities available to entertain children at wedding receptions so don’t stress about how you are going to keep your younger guests busy and stop them running riot and ruining your big day.

If you want to keep them out of the way in a safe but entertained way, by hiring a babysitter or entertainer, or setting up a private kids cinema for them, there are plenty of options to do this, freeing up the adult guests to relax and not worry about what their little ones are up to. Or if you prefer the children to be involved, but still want them to behave, then setting up their own table full of activities where they can play together, but remain with all the adults, could be a perfect option. Arts and crafts, games and challenge activities will all help to entertain them.

Try not to stress about this aspect of wedding planning as there are many ideas out there, none of which will cost the earth and it’s only about keeping kids busy for a few hours, so not the end of the world.