[nhunt]

My fiance and I decided we are going to surprise everyone. We are sending out invitation for a "surprise b'day party for me" instead the surprise will be on them. We plan on getting married instead of celebrating a birthday.
We plan on sending out invitations, of course, but the problem is, we want children there for the ceremony but we would like them to leave a few hours after (we want the evening to be more special and romantic with adults).
How can we word this in invitations?

[Etiquette Now]

Dear This One is Odd,

I love your idea! It will be a surprise that is for sure.

If you were sending out traditional wedding invitations this would be simple because only those invited to the ceremony are mentioned on the envelope. But, this is not an option. It is also not an option to write: No children.

However, this is suppose to be a surprise birthday party. So, you could either write that because of alcohol at the party, it may be best not to bring the little ones, which is still crossing the line 'a bit'. Or, just tell those close to you what you want--no children. And, ask them to spread the word. There would no way that I know of to invite the children for a part of the evening and not the rest of it.

Best wishes,

[the_admin]

I agree with Rebecca; you should either invite them all to the entire event or exclude the children completely. Since I'm sure your guests comfort is important to you, consider that they would have to arrange to have the children picked up from the ceremony and brought home to a babysitter. There may be some who would feel uncomfortable about doing that or may have trouble getting someone to do that for them. I know that when my kids were young I prefered to have the babysitter come directly to my home, preferably after the children were asleep.

Why not hire a couple of babysitters (a few older teens from the neighborhood) to entertain the children in another room or area of the venue and this way the children can be at the ceremony, then go off for their own fun time with the teens.