To a child’s mind, weddings seem like a lot of fun – a day of parties in a beautiful dress, spending time with your favorite uncle, lots of sweets, treats and general pranks. In fact, wedding ceremonies can often seem long and boring to them, and dinner parties very boring. If you decide to have kids at your wedding, it’s not just a matter of making a guest list of the little ones you know and love, you also need to think about how you’re going to manage and entertain them.

We’ve been thinking about this for a long time and have come up with some of the best ways to get the kids involved in the wedding, make them feel special and of course some ideas on how to entertain them at the reception so everyone has the best of it.

One note: it is up to you whether to invite children to your wedding and which children you invite! You may only want your own children, all your nieces and nephews, or perhaps the children of all your guests – there is no right or wrong answer, just try not to feel pressured either way!