Party bags for children guests

[NeverTwerkNaked]

We have about 20-25 children coming to our wedding (and about 50 adults). We aren’t doing favours for the children but would like to do some kind of “party bag” for the children. There will be plenty of entertainment for the children during the wedding as it is very much planned with children in mind. So I am thinking of things they could take home. But they are aged 2-14 ish, and I don’t like to give “straight to landfill” gifts, and I am all out of ideas! would welcome any suggestions. Budget max £5 a bag I think.

Sweets,quality street,bubbles?

At our wedding I bought pre made party bags for the kids. There was bubbles, small colouring book and crayons, a sweet and a toy or game. I bought age appropriate ones

I had

Mini notebooks
Mini colouring pencils
Sweet and savoury snacks
Flavoured water bottle

My maid of Honour made the children at our wedding party bags for on the table. it kept them entertained throughout the sit down meal and speeches. I think there was colouring books crayons stickers puzzles bubbles and a sweet cone if I remember rightly

Such a nice thing to do. I’d think bubbles, a sweetie, a notebook and pencil could keep most kids happy and busy.

Yes to bubbles. Also a balloon each? Both things that are instant games and pretty timeless in appeal. And maybe some sort of age-appropriate stationary because who doesn’t love stationary? (Ps did I spell stationary right?!)

I’ve started getting bits for the kids at our wedding. Have got wooden superhero masks from hobbycraft to colour in for £1. Just need to get small packs of pens

(Ps did I spell stationary right?!)

Sorry, no. Easiest way to remember is using car and pen.

A car is stationary and a pen is stationery.

OP, what about those little ball bearing mazes if they still make them. I know it's plastic tat, but they used to keep us busy for ages.

fortuna thank you! I may stand a chance of remembering now

Maybe not for the younger ones but we bought disposable cameras for the kids at our wedding. Them gave them a list of things to take photos off. Photo of bride and groom, best dressed, picture of cake etc. We actually got some really good photos.

Could you give mugs....maybe pre-write your wedding e.g. Bob and Jane's wedding. Then have a table with ceramic pens where they can go and draw on the mugs. They should be touch dry in a couple of hours ready to take home.

We’re only having 4 little children (age 1-4) so ours will be more personalised, I’ve bought them white cardboard “lunch boxes” and will fill with things like the following (final decision not yet made):

• crisps
• biscuit
• chocolate coin or buttons
• crayons and colouring book
• raisins
• small squidgy toy
• heart shaped balloon
• stickers

Then one personalised age appropriate toy:

• stacking cups
• wooden pearl necklace kit
• small toy car

We also have a bouncy castle hired for the day, a teepee tent with books/Lego duplo at reception and may put out some stickers and blank cards for a “make a card for the bride and groom” activity.

2 of the children are ours

I like the disposable camera idea! At a recent wedding my dc got little bags with sweets, pencils, pad and an age appropriate book, the bride had been very thoughtful to get a book each child would enjoy (and keep quiet during the speeches)!

We went to a wedding where kids were given wooden spoon puppet bride and grooms to make, sticky eyes, hair, clothes etc. That kept my 4 yr old happy for about an hour

Scratch art or magic colouring (with water pens) are good and means you don't have to worry about permanent ink all over the linen tablecloths/best clothes!
Maybe activity or sticker books?
Be careful not to offend the older ones though - they may be put out at being classed with the kids target than adults 😁 Cameras as suggested by PP may be the way to go here.

We had:
Mini colouring books
Small pick of crayons/colouring pencils
Bracelets for the girls
Beanboozled jelly beans for the older kids
Small pack of haribo

We had 3 6 month olds so we got them teething toys to play with and chew on

We also had a table set up with more colouring pages and pencils, stickers, jenga, connect 4, masks to decorate & aeroplanes to build and fly

Get multipack of books from book people

We had an outdoors-y wedding in a marquee in a field. On arrival after the ceremony all the (30+) kids were directed to an honorary auntie & uncle (who were very child friendly young grandparents themselves) and collected an age appropriate clue for a colour co-ordinated by age group treasure hunt around the grounds - the youngest got a sheet with 4 silhouettes of animals and they had to find the right animal to fit the silhouette the oldest got cryptic clues and lots of hard to find animals with no silhouette so they didn't know what they were looking for without solving the clue eg the zebra was hidden on the silver birch tree, the lion was in a bed of yellow nasturtiums. Luckily even the 13/14/15/16 year old cousins played ball and got very competitive.
This covered the time of people arriving back from the wedding venue, photos, and getting drinks/getting seated before tucking into the food.
Once they'd collected their items, the kids went back to claim their 'prize' - an age appropriate goodie bag with colouring pencils & colouring book(I got long pencils, sawed them in 3 and sharpened them to keep cost down) , a book (Book People is your friend here, buy packs/sets for less than £1/book) , Christmas Cracker style wedding jokes - typed out and cut up , and Christmas Cracker style tat (we asked friends at Christmas to save them , so we had mini packs of cards, those metal puzzles, the puzzles with the ball in the hole, and puzzles where you shove the letters about one at a time with the one space to get the letters in order, get the ball-on-a-string in a cone etc)
We also had disposable cameras on the tables
After the food the bouncy castle was set up (didn't want sick children during food). We had garden toys (see if there is a toy library you can hire from) and also had tractor and trailer rides.