[buzeebee]

My Fiance and I booked our reception hall that only holds 120 people. We have 150 on our list as of right now. I was thinking about having our Cousins' children not attend the event to meet our quota of 120. Is it proper etiquette to have children at the reception and not invite certain children? Please keep in mind, the children that will not attend are under age 5.

This post has been edited by TWQadmin: 21 October 2025 - 07:34 AM

[Wedding Queen and MOG]

If you were a parent and you received an invitation for just you and your husband, and then you arrived at the party and saw that other children were invited, would you feel hurt? That's the question to be considered. So, to be perfectly correct you should invite all children or no children.

When I was married 25 years ago, we invited only children of family members and thought that to be acceptable. For example, I was inviting my office mates because we worked closely together in a small office, but I didn't invite any of their children since I didn't really know their children. They seemed to like the idea of getting out for the evening alone and didn't seem to expect that their children would be invited. So, personally, I still think it makes sense, but our etiquette expert and many other etiquette experts still feel it should be an all or nothing deal.

I'm sure Rebecca has something to say about this, being our etiquette expert.

[Etiquette Now]

Thank you for the nice intro [;)] And actually, a host should be able to invite anyone he/she wishes. But, because we/I (etiquette people) try to consider how others will perceive our actions, it just seems best to invite all children if inviting some. However, many people invite only older children and that seems fine. Not many people find that insulting. We always have those few that do though.