Child-free weddings

General
1

If a wedding invite states it is a “child-free” wedding, should you be able to bring a newborn? @Rebecca_Davis asked DM staff this question, prompting quite the debate.

  • Yes
  • No
0 voters
2

I think this is really personal though, and whatever the bride and groom decide should be respected. When I got married, we had no kids and the parents really enjoyed the night out (there were a lot of new parents though so we did offer nanny services, but no one used it). But kids are different than newborns and my personal take is that newborns are always welcome because kids get hyper and rilled up by events whereas newborns mostly just sleep. No matter how well behaved your kid is generally, they’re gonna be underfoot and all over the place at such an event. Not everyone is comfortable partying with kids all over them. And kids amongst a lot of drinking grownups is also not cool. In my opinion.

2 Likes
3

This is so personal, and it can only really be solved by communication with the bridal couple. We had “rules” for our wedding, but if people approached us with their circumstances, we’d happily make a plan. You’re presumably inviting your friends to the wedding, so there’s a relationship and history there.

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4

I think it depends on the couple and the relationship of the parents of the newborn with the couple. I had a no kids wedding but my cousin brought her newborn, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to attend. I barely new the baby was there. He slept through the whole wedding.

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5

Shoot me if you want, but children should be present at weddings in great numbers. The primary purpose of which should be an admonition to the newlyweds to take great pains considering additions to the planetary population of humans.
(I know that text does not convey jest/partial jest very well, hence this addendum)

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6

This is the first time I hear about a child-free wedding. It sounds pretty dumb to me.

What is meant by “child” in this context? I am battling to find the rationale of this. Do the guests intend to grossly misbehave? :rofl:

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7

It’s more about the cost, a wedding venue will charge per seat so a child will be charged the same price as an adult and with the costs of weddings at the moment that’s a problem.

2 Likes