Category Wedding Ideas

Kid Fun-packs! January 25, 2013 Wedding Ideas

A major concern for my wife and I at our wedding were the number of kids that would attend. There are a lot of youngsters in my wife's family (some from really big families) and we were worried that they would overrun the reception and interrupt the ceremony. We didn't want to tell our guests to leave their kids at home, but we were also worried that nobody would be able to enjoy the event with bored children running all over the place.

Our compromise was this: don't encourage guests to bring the while litter, but provide entertainment for the little ones they did bring along - thus the idea of the Kid Fun-pack was born. These little plastic water containers were the highlight of our wedding for those families that brought kids along, and they were so inexpensive and fun to create that they became one of our favorite memories as well.

The idea was simple: pack a colorful container with as much cheap fun as we could imaging...for under $200 bucks. We started with bright green and blue water containers that we found on sale at the local dollar store. From there we headed to our local party supplier to buy cheap, bulk toys, games, and candies that we could stuff into the containers for the kids. We had so much fun grabbing fun little items that we actually ended up scouring local dollar stores and discount retailers for more variety. In the end, we were amazed at how much stuff we were able to get into one of those little water bottles and at how little it ended up costing us.

Here's a rough list of what each kid pack contained:

crayons
coloring books
drawing pads
parachuting army men
glow-stick necklaces
flashlights
magnifying glasses
jumping frogs
kaleidoscopes
assorted candies
rainbow slinkies
mood rings
puzzles
magnetic hair toys (hard to explain - you had to see it)
Uno and other card games
etc...

We bought 25 pack in all and spent a Saturday afternoon putting all the goodies inside. According to the parents who came to our reception, they were a Godsend. If you go through our wedding album you'll see numerous pictures of little kids with glowing necklaces and a precious green water bottle slung over their shoulders, or hunkered down at a table going through their treasure. It was adorable!

Bored kids probably wouldn't have been so much fun on our special day, but happy kids with plenty to do honestly made the event special. If you're trying to decide whether to encourage or discourage kids at your wedding, consider setting aside a few dollars to buy some funpacks to keep those little fingers happy. I promise you'll be glad you did.