hiring college students

felkels

I have a college down the street from our church, and the reception is right behind the college at a city park.  I am thinking of hiring two students to help out for the day.  Both will help decorate the reception before the wedding and sit at the park where the reception is to make sure no on comes and messes things up at a site we have reserved for the day.  Then once the reception starts, one will be on play ground duty, just making sure kids are safe on the playground maybe 200 feet away from where the party is, and the the other one will be helping our hostess (a friend who volunteered to be in charge of serving food) with refilling trays, drink dispensers, probably helping hand out cake etc...At first I was thinking $50 each, but then realized it would probably be from like 11 am til probably 4:30 or so when  the party starts wrapping up after a 1:30 ceremony...so I have no idea how much to pay them.  Does $10/hour sound like to little for 5.5 hours?  Should I try to increas to $100?  DoI need to re-think this whole thing?  Thanks for the feedback. 
Oh and is it fair to pay the person helping our hostess and not our hostess when she volunteered for an invite  to our wedding?  That was a trade, she would help for an invitation.  Her help is possibly her gift to us but I am not sure of that.  If I am paying her helper, it feels strange not to pay her also. 

microkelly

I agree with pp. I think if the hostess volunteered you should tip her at the end or at least give her some type of gift. I would do maybe $50 for the helpers and then anticipate giving them each a $20 at the end. Also, make sure you look for some one with experience w/ kids for the playground duty. Great idea!

megk8oz

I'm going to ditto Stage on paying your hostess somehow ... the reason why it seems weird to pay somebody that's assisting her and not pay her, is because that's actually really weird to do. Even if she "volunteered" in exchange to go to the wedding, she's still doing a job, and therefore, she should get some kind of payment.

Everything else aside, I'm not even a mother yet, but if I found out you were entrusting my child's safety with some random college student, I'd have a very hard time enjoying your wedding. I'd either want to keep my kid with me the entire time or I'd wind up spending your reception at said playground ... and I'd probably wind up leaving early. I really can't imagine that there's too many other people out there that would feel much differently on the subject.

felkels

Thanks Ladies,
If I do the playground duty person, it will of course be someone with experience with kids.  This college has an education program, and my first preference would be to hire someone in that program who has lots of experience around kids already.  My Fiance' went there and does still know lots of students so it would not just be some random person. 
Also I like the tip idea for the students, and I agree I should do something for the hostess.  Thanks for the suggestions. 

hagen.colleen

More than experience with kids, you should consider getting a licensed childcare professional. This is for liability reasons. Not doing so could make both you and the babysitter legally liable for anything that happens to the kids. Something to consider.