Help...Need child care for wedding

rmyers9983

I don't want to have children at my wedding reception, but I do want to try to provide something for my guests.  I tried calling most of the hotels in the area, but none of them offer child care.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Please no comments on how I should just have children at the reception.  I have thought long and hard about it and I don't want it.  I am having my son at the ceremony, but I am even trying to have someone watch him.  There are way too many kids in my family to have them all come, and to me it is a all or nothing thing.  Please if anyone knows any sitters for saturdays or any suggestions of this sort I would really appreciate it!

angel33284

I've heard of people providing a day care service at the wedding. They can stay in your bridal suite at the hall or an office. You'll just need somebody to watch them. Perhaps you have a teen cousin or something that would rather make a few bucks instead of dancing. You set them up with some games and coloring books and you're good to go.

colmckenn

I was just at an EXPO in NYC yesterday. One of the vendors in a child care service for weddings. I will look through the 500 lbs. of information that I got. They do NY, NJ, PA, Conn.

rmyers9983

Wow if you could let me know, I would really appreciate it!  Thank you so much!

Rangergirl

I am so glad to see I was not the only person who felt strongly on this. We were VERY adament about not having children at the wedding. The only kids there were the ring bearer and flower girl and the ring bearer (a baby) cried through the entire ceremony and had to be taken from the room. In a way I was glad because it totally justified one of the big reasons I didn't want a room full of kids there and the parents of the baby (who I FOUGHT with my MIL about letting them bring their baby in the first place) couldn't have ANY fun because they had to watch their kid the whole night - another reason I said no kids. So stick with your gut on this one! It's totally right! Did you ask your hall if they could recommend anyone in the area? I would also check with local preschools, a lot of them have teachers who do that kind of stuff on the side for things like this.

2010Bride2be

Our reception is in the ballroom of a hotel. We reserved 2 large adjoining suites. We have several family members/friends who have older children (ages 15-17). We hired a few of them to watch the younger children in the suites while the reception is taking place.

In the suites we're providing pizza, snacks, and drinks. There will be board games, coloring, dvd's, and a Wii game system to keep them occupied. Parents can go check on their children upstairs if they wish to.

This works out for us because the reception and the suite are in the same building. If you have a large family, there are more than likely some teenagers in there somewhere who are looking to make some extra money, so you can look into hiring them. However, if your reception and the babysitting location is not in the same place, some parents may not be comfortable leaving their children with a sitter that they dont know, professional or not.

On the other hand, it is your wedding. If you want an adult only reception, that is your choice. People can be responsible for finding their own sitters, its not your responsibility to do so.

smilygrl17

Try posting an ad on sittercity.com and have a room for the kids to be in.

littlebearmel

This is just my personal opinion.  I think its nice that you are going through the trouble of trying to find sitter for children of invited guests.  However it is not your responsibilty to do so.  It is your guests responsibility to find a siiter for thier children, to be able to attend your wedding.  There are many people that feel the same way as you do as far as the "no children" at a reception thing. Anyway's good luck! Hope everything works out for you.
 

nancyr

Try contacting some local nursery schools, some of the teachers there might be interested.  Most of them are young and trying to save for weddings, houses etc. so always looking for some extra cash.  Plus you'd know they were already checked out w/the state, at least they are in PA.