Thankfully I still have several months to figure this all out, but I guess because I'm kind of on a planning break, (just booked venues) I've been spending probably waaaay too much time on here.
Anyway, a majority of my local guests do not have children, or they have infants, so if I included kids on their invitations it would be no big deal, and I am planning on a flower girl and ring bearer. I personally enjoy having kids at weddings, they can add extra charm and they are usually the first ones to tear it up on the dance floor.
Here's the dilemma, all of my Oot guests are extended family, and by extended family I mean Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins with their spouses - All of them are married. Both sets of my grandparents have passed away. Because all of my cousins are married, they all have at least 1 child but I have no idea how many and this could make numbers really high causing me to not invite people I would prefer there to some relatives. I'm also not nearly as close with them as my church family and friends. If I invited all of them and all of their kids, that would mean that I'd have to bump off some people who are very important to me. We are already cutting costs in other areas so we can accomodate more people than initially planned.
After discussing with my mother, we both agreed it would be appropriate to invite all of my Aunts and Uncles, and only a few cousins I actually have a relationship with outside of my parents and FB, but is it possible to invite children on a case by case basis? As in address invitations to parents, and if they RSVP, or have concerns about their kids, I was thinking of calling them to tell them they are welcome to bring their children? Especially if them not being ablt to bring their kids is a dealbreaker. I'm a huge fan of verbally communication with my guests.