Inviting kids

kliberti

I was talking with a friend who is having a hard time cutting her wedding list.  She has 35 kids potentially invited.  We were wondering if it would be okay to only invite the children who are family members and not invite children of non-family guests? 

Any thoughts?  If this is okay- how should we let people know without offending anyone?

Thanks for your input,
Kate & Lori

laurenclaire1386

Your friend can invite whomever she chooses to her wedding. Allowing family only kids is acceptable, although it might turn some people off. I'm an across the board type of girl on this matter, you invite all or none, but that's just my opinion. Either way, what your friend needs to do is only address invites to the people she wants at the wedding. ie Mr. and Mrs. X. And not the X Family. Some people will probably RSVP with kids on the card, and she'll need to call them and explain that she's only able to accomodate children of the family. Some people might decline because of this, but that's their perogative.

nda_roxybabe

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_inviting-kids-1?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:d2756a66-7bdb-4de7-bafb-6ce4afe4712dPost:c65135e6-a8c5-43c7-b3df-ddbde4c22d03">Inviting kids</a>:
[QUOTE]I was talking with a friend who is having a hard time cutting her wedding list.  She has 35 kids potentially invited.  We were wondering if it would be okay to only invite the children who are family members and not invite children of non-family guests?  Any thoughts?  If this is okay- how should we let people know without offending anyone? Thanks for your input, Kate & Lori
Posted by kliberti[/QUOTE]

I would not do that. I would suggest an age cut off instead. Like noone under the age of 18 (with the exception of breastfed babies)

MyNameIsNot

The etiquette is that it is perfectly fine to invite some kids but not others.

Practically, I'm not a fan.  People are touchy about their kids not being invited, and will probably not catch on that the kids invited are related to either the bride or the groom.  They just see that their kids weren't invited, but those kids are.  I wouldn't recommend it.  

MCarmine

I am a believer in the "all kids or no kids" rule.
I think some people might feel slighted if their kids don't get an invite but other people's kids do.

mwhitson14

Like Lauren, I really feel like kids are an all or none situation. I think that guests that weren't allowed to bring their kids will likely be offended when they get there and there are other kids there.

The bride would know that it was family, but the other guests wouldn't, more than likely.

emilyinchile

I think it's fine. If you have 20 family kids, I'd probably wonder why you chose to draw any kind of line, but if there are only a few family kids then go for it. I also think that people might generally have an idea of who family is if there are traditional clues like they're all sitting at tables close to the B&G with people who look sort of like the couple.

I also feel like the kind of person who's going to get horribly offended that Jr. wasn't invited is probably going to RSVP for him first, so when your friend calls to clear things up she can say "I'm sorry, the only children we're able to invite are our relatives." If people want to be offended that you're inviting your 10 year old first cousin and not their children, they are welcome to decline the invitation.