Keeping Children Entertained At Your Wedding

There is – and probably always will be – a huge debate about whether or not weddings should be a child-free events. Some happy couples say that, having spent thousands of pounds on such a sumptuous occasion, they don’t want it to be distracted by children who are likely to get over-excited and over-tired and therefore become badly behaved and disruptive. Others say that they want ALL of their family to be present.

Image Credit: Hugh Forte

These days, people are getting married older and for many, a second time, meaning that the likelihood is one or both partners will have young children of their own. They are therefore much more likely to want to organise a child-friendly wedding – it would be a very harsh parent indeed who wouldn’t welcome their own offspring to their wedding!

How to keep the children engaged

However welcome children are at your wedding, they will get tired, and there will definitely be aspects of it they find boring, so you will have to think of things for them to do whilst the adults are occupied. I’ve performed at hundreds of weddings and seen some great ideas, so I have a few suggestions.

Garden Games

You can buy (or just hire!) all sorts of garden games, from giant Jenga to golf, skittles and side-stall games – they are enormous fun and the adults will enjoy them as well. The great thing about these games is that they’re very safe for the children to use, and who doesn’t love harmless fun?

Bouncy Castle

Yes that’s right! You can hire a white wedding bouncy castle that everyone will enjoy. Not to mention it’s a great opportunity to get everyone together for a fun photo opportunity.

Image credit: mrbouncycastle.com

Cinema

Arrange a separate ‘cinema’ in a different room or small marquee/bell tent so you can show films for the kids when they start to get bored. This would also be a great time to bring in a wedding magician as well, as all the children would be gathered to be amazed by some fantastic magic tricks.

Activity Packs

You can create a nice activity pack with quizzes, games and colouring books. You can pick most of these things up from your local 99p shop. They’re not only cost effective, they’ll also keep the children happy and you don’t have to keep such a close eye on them, giving your more time to enjoy the speeches or the company of your friends and family. You can have these on the dinner table, or most venues can accommodate a separate room for the children if they want to get away.

Children’s Magic Show

I’ve found that during speeches in particular, children are unlikely to keep themselves from fidgeting, but at one wedding I went to, there was a very simple solution – the kids were taken into a different room and treated to a magic show for the duration of the speeches. What a great idea!

So not only can you hire me to entertain your guests, you can also chop and change what I do between the wedding reception, the ceremony, and the evening entertainment.

If you’d prefer a wedding magician, check out my videos for a whole range of the tricks I could be performing at your wedding. If you would like to know more about how I could entertain both the adults and children on your special day, contact me here or just call me on 07747 141 238.