Q & A – No Children Allowed!

QUESTION:

Could you please give me any ideas for the verbiage for no children
to a reception?

-Debbie

ANSWER:

Hi, Debbie~

This is actually something I had to deal with at my own wedding, so I understand the difficulty! It can be very hard to tell your friends and family that their children are not invited. No matter what you do, there will be one or two people that will opt out of your reception if children are not allowed (some on principle; some because they don’t like to leave their children with, or do not have access to, a babysitter).

Old-school etiquette dictates that the only way to deal with this situation is to spread the message via word-of-mouth (like that old “telephone” game). It is technically against etiquette rules to actually put “no children allowed” in writing anywhere. However, these days word-of-mouth often doesn’t spread far enough, so the rules are changing.

If it is absolutely imperative that no children attend the reception, the best thing to do is to include the verbiage “Adult-only Reception” on the lower corner of the reception card. If you are worried that is too blunt, you can be a bit more subtle by including the following verbiage on the reception card:

Please respond on our before (Date)
M_________________
Number of Adults____

The word “adults” in bold above is the key clue with this method.

As I mentioned, there is a chance that some invited guests may be offended that their children are not allowed, but at the end of the day, this is YOUR wedding/reception, and you are allowed to make the rules as you see fit.

I hope you find this information helpful. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance. Congratulations on your wedding, and happy planning!

Best,

Eve-Maridy