Weddings with kids!

[leatherlover]

I'm not a frequent poster here but I really would welcome some advice from people on this subject. My dp and I are 37 with 3 small children and have lots of friends with small children mostly married whose weddings we attended without kids at the time. My husband is a total girl when it comes to weddings and wants the whole shebang with bells on which is lovely but I feel impractical because of the sheer numbers of children we all have. I want all of our friends to have the option of bringing their kids if they want to as ours will of course be there. His vision is a castle and posh banquet type affair, mine a marquee and hog roast type affair with a big bouncy castle for all the kids and a great knees up for the adults. Anyone done this? I reckon if I can do a cost comparison I can get him to see reason!!! What do you think?

sorry meant my dp is a total girl not my husband!

We hired a youth hostel for a weekend (with marriage licence). Loads for children to do, there would have been space for a bouncy castle if reqd, they could go to bed when they wanted & we had some babysitters patrolling the rooms and making sure all kids happy/asleep etc.
It was not formal - eg the building did not accommodate a formal meal with head table (which my DM found a challenge to get her head around) - but brilliant venue for a range of ages. Can't do links as on phone, but if you look for Hartington on the YHA website you'll see it.
The staff there were outstanding - I could not have hoped for more delightful, helpful people; cost of food and alcohol v reasonable; whole wedding was really chilled and brilliant fun and really was the best weekend of my whole life.

PS it wasn't super-cheap but wd didn't go for the cheapest options and did provide all the alcohol etc. We asked people to make a contribution to the cost of the accommodation, but we covered part of that cost ourselves - all this stuff makes a difference to the overall cost!

Rooble Hartington has got some excellent reviews hasn't it? Great idea thank you...Be interesting to see if there's an equivalent a bit further south...

Pps they also recommended a really fab band - the kind of music all ages were happy to dance to.

I went to a wedding at a castle this weekend, loads of children, and it was totally brilliant. It was Warwick castle, and during drinks in the conservatory the jester did circus skills with the children outside, plus there was loads of space for the children to run around. Then during the meal he did balloon modeling between courses, plus there was at table magic. Totally brilliant !

Worth checking out. There is one near Ludlow(ish) that my BIL got married at (they wanted a similar wedding), beautiful setting and does have a big dining room plus loads of outdoor space - but v v remote!!

I have to say if you know you are going to have lots of smallish dcs there, then trying to make it into too formal a do is just going to make it a nightmare for all concerned, trying to keep their dc from disrupting things. Surely if you have 3dc yourselves, then he must be aware of that ?

CMOT sounds great! Bet that was high cost if it was in a castle but I have loads of circus contacts being a trapeze teacher myself!! Another fabulous idea thank you!!

bfg -absolutely my point I don't want a formal do but I think once DH sees a cost comparison he'll come to his senses...

Bride says it wasn't nearly as expensive as you might think - they had the meal in the undercroft , so its not like hiring out a castle, or doing a very formal meal.