This may get a bit personal. The first thing my FI and I agreed upon when first starting to plan is no kids, the youngest would be a sibling who would be 15 at the time and all others are 16 and above. Unfortunately though, both his and my siblings are older, out of town by at least 6 hours or more, and have multiple kids each ( all under 7), none of which are invited. My parents are supportive of my decision to not invite kids, and I've already spread the word to my side who this rule would affect, all of which are completely fine with it. But when we mentioned it to his mother she got upset. She said that we couldn't possibly expect his oldest brother (who just had twins in addition to their 4 year old) to leave their children for a weekend, and that it was unreasonable to think that his brothers would both come if told their kids cant go.
Maybe its just me, but they have well over a year to find a sitter or trusted friend to watch their kids and I took a lot of offense to this. She started drilling me and FI about why we made this decision. I hate feeling like I have to explain myself to anyone but I tried to tell her, its personal. I'm personally not a huge fan of kids at an evening wedding. On top of that, my own daughter passed away and I feel like seeing other peoples children will honestly bring down my spirit on my day as my kid wouldn't even be there.
She is still trying to talk me out of this, and they are contributing about 70% of the budget. My FI is still holding ground with me. All of his family is traveling about 6 or more hours, as is mine. And its a holiday weekend. Should I consider changing this?