Weddingbee Blog

When I think of all the cute kids that are going to be in our wedding, my heart swells. I seriously love all those little munchkins and wish I could be a guest at our own wedding just to see them walk down the aisle.

I’ve tried to be mindful about letting the members of our bridal party be who they are and not insisting that they conform to a strict look or standard. After all, we’ve asked them to have a special position at our wedding because we love who they are. That extends to the ring bearers and flower girl, who I’ll call the Mini Minks. I have a feeling that the Mini Minks will enjoy sharing the spotlight during our ceremony, but I’m not sure they’ll love the entire reception. When I think of children at wedding receptions, I often thing of a scene that looks like bit like this:

This might be one of my favorite wedding photos ever! Do you see the shoes? / Photo by Caroline & Ben Photography

Realizing that the Mini Minks might not make it through a multiple course dinner, I decided to make them activity bags. My hope is that these will provide a little entertainment before the dancing starts at our reception.

This DIY project was so easy. It only took a couple hours to make a stack of bags. If you only have one or two to make, you could have this done in an hour.

Supply list

• Canvas tote bags
• Iron transfer paper
• Scissors
• Iron

I’ve become a huge fan of iron transfer paper due to all of my wedding DIY projects. It’s probably most commonly used with t-shirts, but it has allowed me to get our wedding monogram on a range of materials. I’ve learned that there is a difference in quality out there and spending a few extra dollars on the more expensive iron transfer paper is worth it.

First off, I ironed each canvas bag, which had been packaged folded up. It’s probably best to use steam at this point, but when ironing the designs onto the bags, you aren’t supposed to use steam, so empty the water from the iron when you’re done.

Photo by Miss Mink

I printed the design out on the iron transfer paper, but flipped text. Just like when I made flags for my ring bearers, I used my teeniest pair of scissors to cut out the floral design. It only took a couple episodes of Downton Abbey on Netflicks to get them all done.

Photos by Miss Mink

I put the different parts of the design in place and ironed over them for about a minute. With the more expensive transfer paper, was I able to peel the backing off right away. With the less expensive paper, I had to wait until the bag was completely cool before peeling. They both suggest you wait for the best results.

Photo by Miss Mink

Voilà! I loved personalized things when I was a child (perhaps because my name isn’t common) and I hope the Mini Minks like seeing their names on their tote bags.

Of course, we have to put some fun things inside the tote bags to keep all of the Minis entertained! We had some fun shopping for the contents. We wound up buying some wedding coloring books, packs of stickers, mini maracas, harmonicas, Matchbox cars for the boys, and little LED lights that can be worn as rings. We’ll be replacing the crayons that came with the coloring books with washable ones and we’ll add packs of glow stick bracelets a little closer to our wedding date. We were thinking of putting some healthy snacks in the bags as well, but we’ll probably consult a few of the parents before we do that.

I have to admit that we played with the LED rings…and might buy more / Photo by Miss Mink

Did you have children at your wedding? What parts of the wedding entertained them? Did they make it through the whole reception?