Keeping the Kids Entertained

Keeping the Kids Entertained

July 6th, 2010 @ 9:46 am by Mrs. Cardigan
Share

There was never any doubt in my and Mr. Cardigan’s minds that there would be kids at our wedding. Both of our siblings have kids, and they’re such a huge part of our life – we couldn’t ever imagine our wedding without them.

Keeping the Kids Entertained : wedding austin kids stationery 12 1

My two nieces (AKA: our flower girl and Jr. BM). Sure, they can be loud. And rowdy. But look at how cute they are!

However, while we have always been happy to include kids on our guest list, it’s just a fact of life that kids get bored at weddings.

There really isn’t much for them to do, beyond hopping on the dance floor, and let’s face it: we don’t want kids to overrun the dance floor the whole night! They’re more than welcome to join us in the dancing, but we’d still like for it to feel like a dance floor and not a giant playground. So, I knew early on that I would have to be creative in finding ways to keep the kids at our wedding busy and happy.

I toyed around with the idea of a kids table, but most of the kids who will be there don’t really know each other, and we have some shy ones who probably wouldn’t like the idea of being separated from their parents. So, that idea was nixed. An idea that seemed a lot more realistic for us was the idea of the activity book. I found this post by Heather at We Met in a Bar and I was in love – what an awesome way to give the kids something to do that’s still wedding related! So, I set to work. It took a while for me to find all of the images I wanted and to come up with enough ideas to create a book that I felt was substantial enough, but I finally got it all finished! It took me a couple of nights to put it all together, but it was no big deal with my trusty TV on DVD collection (show of choice for this project? Psych!) and Mr. Cardigan to help me out.

Here are the activity books in all their glory!

Keeping the Kids Entertained : wedding austin kids stationery 22 2

The cover

And a few of the pages:

Keeping the Kids Entertained : wedding austin kids stationery 31 3

(Sources: left, right)

Keeping the Kids Entertained : wedding austin kids stationery 41 4

(Sources: left, right)

Keeping the Kids Entertained : wedding austin kids stationery 51 5

(Sources: left, right)

There are a few more pages – just enough, I think, to keep everyone entertained at least throughout dinner! I got some cute twine from Divine Twine to bind them, and they look so cute all together!

Keeping the Kids Entertained : wedding austin kids stationery 61 6

I think this will be a really great touch that the kinds (and the parents!) will appreciate!

Are you having kids at your wedding? If so, are you providing anything to make sure they don’t get bored?

Tags: austin, kids, stationery |

Share |

Latest Gallery Pics

Hot Pink and White with Zebra 36" Lighted Spandex Ostrich Feather Centerpiece

36 Responses to “Keeping the Kids Entertained”

1 2 Last

Member

simple (message) 38 posts, Newbee

This is so perfect..I am going to have to steal this..lol

7/6/10 @ 10:04 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Knitting (message) 1,072 posts, Bumble bee

These are great! If we were having kids at the wedding I would definitely want to copy this.

7/6/10 @ 10:08 am (reply)

Member

moderndaisy (message) 6,607 posts, Bee Keeper

This is great! The kids at my wedding had coloring books and every time a picture was complete they would run up to DH and I and ‘present’ it to us. It was so cute!

To your comment about the dance floor being overrun, ours definitely was. I honestly was slightly disappointed in the parents for letting the kids on the dance floor during our first dance. Not only were they all in our way, all of our pictures have a million kids in them instead of just me and my husband during such an important moment.

7/6/10 @ 10:11 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Locket (message) 2,837 posts, Sugar bee

how cute!! I love them…I really should include something for our little guests (once I figure out how many we will have)

7/6/10 @ 10:14 am (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Hamster (message) 4,046 posts, Honey bee

These are awesome! I would want one, even though I’m about 25 years too old

7/6/10 @ 10:38 am (reply)

Guest

Katie

Some feedback: Depending on how old the kids at your wedding are going to be, I think sudoku might be a little hard for them to figure out. I’m 28 and it can be confusing to me!

7/6/10 @ 10:44 am (reply)

Member

Minutiae (message) 2,296 posts, Buzzing bee

What cutie pies! They’re sure to have fun with that activity book.

7/6/10 @ 10:52 am (reply)

Member

jgoulart (message) 1,069 posts, Bumble bee

I wish I had done something like this! The kids totally took over the dance floor after each of them drinking about 5 of our personalized Jones sodas. Hahaha

7/6/10 @ 11:00 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Cardigan (message) 8,645 posts, Bee Keeper

@Katie: I definitely agree! I included it partially because we have some older kids who I know could handle it, and partially because we have some kid-like adults that I know will want to grab a book for themselves!

7/6/10 @ 11:01 am (reply)

10.

Member

hisbunny (message) 767 posts, Busy bee

Cute! I had a kids activity table at my wedding, and it was a hit. And your show of choice, my FAV. Can’t wait for season 5 to start this month!

7/6/10 @ 11:09 am (reply)

11.

Member

jduck84 (message) 1,529 posts, Bumble bee

I might print those up still for our wedding, but otherwise I’m having a kids’/activity table at our casual outdoor reception that kids can stop at when they feel like. It will have bubbles and crayons and probably butcher paper they can doodle on, if I don’t print those booklets. We’ll probably also have lawn games and stuff to keep them and other guests occupied since there isn’t an official dance floor. I love how yours turned out!

7/6/10 @ 11:10 am (reply)

12.

Bee

Mrs. Frozen Yogurt (message) 2,685 posts, Sugar bee

Super cute!! I love kid activity books!

7/6/10 @ 11:54 am (reply)

13.

Member

gc762 (message) 121 posts, Blushing bee

These activity books are adorable! We are still deciding whether or not to invite kids…I defintely have mixed feelings. But, if we do end up having kids at the wedding, I’m definitely going to make some of these!

7/6/10 @ 12:49 pm (reply)

14.

Member

trishisadish (message) 433 posts, Helper bee

What a fun idea. I was jsut wondering how to keep kids entertained at a wedding… because we will invite quite a few kiddies.

7/6/10 @ 1:02 pm (reply)

15.

Member

winter (message) 1,333 posts, Bumble bee

those are so cute! what a really fun idea to have and to keep the kids happy

7/6/10 @ 1:10 pm (reply)

16.

Guest

Sarah

This is probably the first thing that got knocked off my DIY list–I bought some from Oriental Trading instead, with matching crayons and gable boxes and activity placemats and…well, you get what you pay for there, don’t you?

The good thing is, I don’t have a project of my own that I’m comparing to yours, because yours would have beat whatever I threw together, hands down. So great!

7/6/10 @ 1:26 pm (reply)

17.

Member

CheeseCrackers (message) 19 posts, Newbee

Yay, Psych! We went thru Season 1 dvds (again) while putting together our invitations.

7/6/10 @ 1:50 pm (reply)

18.

Bee

Mrs. Parfait (message) 1,755 posts, Buzzing bee

I wanted to do this but totally ran out of time. Love yours, though!

7/6/10 @ 3:44 pm (reply)

19.

Member

Evenstar (message) 12 posts, Newbee

We are also inviting a bunch of kids. I did an activity book for them but then we decided to go the step further and do a kids/craft table. We had so much fun shopping in Michael’s dollar bins and got a ton of great stuff. I don’t want to be hearing the words, “I’m bored” at my wedding!

7/6/10 @ 4:08 pm (reply)

20.

Bee

Miss Earrings (message) 2,477 posts, Buzzing bee

We’re having at least 8-10 kids at our wedding so we want to do something for them as well. Love your activity books…you are so organised you are making me feel behind!

7/6/10 @ 5:19 pm (reply)

1 2 Last