Planning a child-free wedding? Deciding who makes the guest list is one thing, working out how to tell your guests that children aren’t invited can feel like a whole other challenge.
Whether you’re having a completely adults-only wedding, making exceptions for babies, inviting children from your immediate family or simply limited by your venue capacity, the key is to make your wedding invitation wording clear, polite and difficult to misinterpret. And no, you don’t need to write an essay explaining your decision.
We’ve put together some of our favourite child-free wedding invitation wording examples for different situations, so you can find one that feels right for your day.
If you’re having a completely child-free wedding
If no children will be attending at all, keeping your wording simple is usually best. You can be warm while still making it clear that your wedding is an adults-only celebration:
Whilst we adore your little ones, we have chosen to have an adults-only celebration. We hope you can still join us to celebrate.
This works particularly well on an information card or wedding website, where you have a little more room to explain the details of your day.
If babies are welcome
Having an adults-only wedding doesn’t necessarily mean babies can’t attend. If you’re happy for guests with very young babies to bring them, it’s worth stating this explicitly rather than leaving them wondering whether they’re included:
Our wedding will be adults-only, with the exception of babes in arms.
Using “babes in arms” makes the exception clear without having to specify an exact age.
If you’re only inviting children in your immediate family or wedding party
This is where child-free wording can get a little trickier. You might want an adults-only celebration while still having nieces, nephews, your own children or younger members of the wedding party there. Making the exception clear can help avoid awkward questions when guests arrive and see that some children have been invited:
Our wedding will be adults-only, with the exception of children in our immediate family and the wedding party. We hope you understand.
There’s no need to justify the decision beyond that. You’re simply letting guests know what to expect.
If some children are invited but others aren’t
Perhaps you’re inviting children you’re particularly close to, but your guest list or venue doesn’t allow you to extend the invitation to everyone’s children. In this situation, we’d recommend making it very clear that only the people named on the wedding invitation are invited:
As much as we’d love to invite all of our friends’ children, we’re only able to accommodate those who are named on the invitation. We hope you understand and can still celebrate with us.
You can reinforce this through your RSVP wording too by listing the names of the invited guests rather than leaving the response open-ended.
If your venue capacity is the reason
Sometimes an adults-only wedding isn’t simply a preference. Your wedding venue may have a strict capacity and inviting every guest’s children could mean leaving other friends and family members off the guest list. If that’s the case, you can say exactly that:
Due to limited space at our venue, we’re unfortunately unable to accommodate children. Thank you for understanding.
It’s straightforward, polite and gives guests all the information they need.
Where should you include your adults-only wedding wording?
You don’t necessarily need to put “no children” prominently on your main wedding invitation. Your invite can stay focused on the important details of your wedding, while information about children can sit naturally within your details card or wedding website.
In cases where children aren't invited, we’d also recommend addressing your wedding invitations specifically to the people who are invited rather than using wording such as “The Smith Family”. The clearer you are from the beginning, the less room there is for confusion later.
Keep it kind, but keep it clear
When you’re trying not to offend anyone, it’s tempting to make your wording so soft that guests aren’t entirely sure what you’re saying. But clear doesn’t have to mean rude.
Your guests need to know whether their children are included in their invitation so they can make childcare and travel arrangements accordingly. Choose wording that suits your situation, communicate it consistently and try not to over-explain.
Ultimately, your wedding guest list is yours to decide. A thoughtful line on your wedding stationery can make the expectations clear while still feeling warm and welcoming.
And then you can get back to the much more exciting decisions, like choosing the stationery itself.