children & weddings

So we have just been invited to our first wedding since Ella has been born (with another 2 more invites on their way). Just trying to figure out if we should bring Ella with us- they are having the cermony in a garden at 2, followed by the reception at 6. Am thinking that we may bring her to just the cermony and then get my parents to babysit in the evening.......but would quite like to bring her to the reception as well, as she is a quite a social little thing and would love to see all the people; just worried that she will get really tired (even if we leave early). I obviously need to double check with my friend first to make sure it's ok.

What do you do with your baby/toddler/child when you are invited to a wedding? do you bring them with you or leave them at home with a babysitter?

We went to a wedding a couple of months back. We just left Daniel with mum. It was just such a great opportunity to have adult time without baby/toddler and not worry about what if he gets tired, what if he starts shrieking or something like that lol

We have taken our kids to all weddings so far because they have either been out of town or family It's really hard taking children to receptions, they want to talk and run and play and they can't. If a babysitting option lives nearby, you could always take her for as long as possible and then whiz her to the babysitter. Otherwise I'd go and have a night out for fun.

My matron of honour came to my wedding from Auckland and brought her 12 month old daughter and her big sister who is 7, as she was with me, dad spent a lot time taking care of Maia which was also a break for my friend.
I also had my 6 year old niece there and between her and the big sister she wasn't short of baby sitters, we had a very relaxed wedding, ceremony in the garden and reception at an old house which we had free use of, and we finished early at 10.30pm, it was great having children at my wedding. There were only 4 and that was a nice number, they were all incredibly well behaved too.

That's what I was going to ask Jen, is Ella's name on the invite? If it wasn't then I wouldn't take her at all. For our wedding if I wanted children to come to the wedding I put their names on the invite, if I didn't then I left their names off.

If her name was on the invite you could take her but then you might spend the whole ceremony and reception outside so that her chatter and playing don't interupt the nuptuals or speeches. Otherwise maybe your Mum could come to the ceremony with you (obviously check with your friend) so that if Ella does need to be taken outside your Mum could do it. Although as others have said, a day/night out would be good