Wedding Traditions: Children at Weddings

Traditionally, young children help populate a wedding. We'd prefer to change that tradition.

Don't get us wrong... we love children.  We think they're wonderful, fun, cute, and adorable.  We like holding them and playing with them.  We like visiting our friends who have them.  We like watching young infants grow into small children on their way to growing up.  We even look forward to having little Davids and Elaines running around.  However, there are three considerations in which we believe:

Kids are noisy.  Nothing breaks up a serious wedding ceremony more than a crying infant or a child who decides it's time to throw a temper tantrum.  We realize they're infants and children who can't help it, but that doesn't alter the fact that it's unfortunate when it happens. There are times and places for families to bring young children, but a serious ceremony isn't the best place.  If you don't think this can be distracting and affect a serious and important ceremony like a wedding, try listening to the background sound you should be hearing now while watching a favorite movie. (If you don't hear the background sound but your speakers are turned on, open it here and try it.)

The catering is a wedding gift to us. The Ramada will be preparing the food, and the cost per person is very expensive. We are very fortunate to have the food paid for by a very generous family member; we are extremely grateful for this gift, for the food constitutes an extreme expense. Having young children who must count as a full serving of food is an unjustifiable expense, especially since the cost of the food is a wonderful gift to us.

The reception isn't for kids.  Our reception will be at the Ramada, where they will open up the wall separating the ballroom from the bar, and the full cash bar will be open.  We feel that an alcohol-laden affair isn't appropriate for young children.  A bar certainly isn't, and the ballroom will, frankly, be filled with a lot of alcohol.  We don't believe this is an appropriate environment for young children.

We beg of you: get a babysitter.

Hopefully, we won't be offending anyone here; but ultimately this is our wedding, and we'd prefer not to have disturbances nor children attending a cash bar.  As such, we respectfully request that children under the age of 12 not be brought to the wedding. We hope everyone will understand this and not decide to skip our wedding over the issue.

"But you have children in the wedding!" Yes, we do have a couple; this is another exception because, after all, it is our wedding. We thank you for your understanding.