Planning a wedding when you have kids can be a lot of fun, but it can also be stressful. Toddlers and younger children can pester you for your attention while you’re trying to finally nail down your guest list, sampling cakes, or trying on your grandmother’s veil, and teenagers might voice more opinions than you’ve bargained for! To minimize wedding preparation stress in your family home, it’s a good idea to actually involve your kids in planning certain aspects of the big day, so they feel useful and listened to while hopefully leaving you to deal with those areas where you want absolutely no input. Here are some ways to get your kids involved in wedding planning.
Choosing an outfit
Many children and young people, whether they are three or seventeen years old, love putting an outfit together. If you have a little fashionista on your hands, why not ask for their opinion? There are lots of different outfits to think about when planning a wedding: bride(s), groom(s), bridesmaids, groomsmen, and, of course, the kids’ own clothing! If this kind of thing floats your boat, you can even get matching wedding outfits for you and your kid. Cute, right?
Choosing the rings
The wedding rings are obviously a very important part of a wedding, and possibly also one of the most contentious. Gen Zers tend to be very preoccupied with sustainability, for obvious reasons, and your kids won’t be happy with a traditionally produced diamond ring if they are old enough to know about the soil erosion caused by diamond mining (remember “Blood Diamond”?). Thankfully, there are sustainable alternatives out there: these diamond wedding bands for women use lab-grown diamonds, which have the bonus of being cheaper than mined ones. Ask your kids to help you and your future spouse choose your rings, and if your kids are the right age, they might like to be ring bearers, too!
Choosing the menu
If your kids are picky eaters, you might be dreading choosing the wedding reception menu. You want to make sure that you, your future spouse, and your guests have a nice meal, but you also want your kids to have enough to eat, especially on such an intense and exciting day! One way around this issue might be to have your kids pick one of the menu items, so you’ll know for sure that there will be at least one thing they like on offer (or as sure as you can be with small children, anyway!). Another option would be to go for a few catering stations rather than a traditional sit-down meal: your kids will have fun building their own pasta bowls or picking their favorite carvery bits, and your guests will have a chance to mingle with more people than just those sitting at their table. If you include a sweet station, such as an ice cream sundae bar or a chocolate fountain, you won’t have your kids pestering you while they wait for the wedding cake to be cut!
