A wedding can prove to be a long day for your little guests, so organising someone to keep them entertained at your reception location creates a fun alternative to fidgeting in a ceremony chair, and trying to stay quiet. Alex Watson from top wedding planning agency Collection 26 gives you her top tips when it comes entertaining children.

When looking for the best entertainers, make sure you know the age range of children who will be attending, as something suitable for a 3 year old, may not be as exciting for an 8 year old.

If you do have a wide range of ages, arts and crafts based activities are a good choice, and there are companies who can bring all the materials and run the activities, or you could book a few child-minders for the afternoon and create a games room, with a mixture of soft play toys and giant games for the younger ones, and a TV set up with some Wii games for the older children. This can then double up as a cinema room later in the evening, with DVDs being shown on the TV and the soft play toys used as comfy seating.

For younger groups, character appearances or themed entertainers are always popular, and you can tie these in with the style of your wedding. For example if you are having a rustic country wedding surrounded by beautiful trees and fields, look for ‘enchanted woodland’ entertainers, with elves and pixies telling exciting stories of their adventures through the mystical forest, or for an ultra-contemporary styled day, call upon a team of astronauts to create a space station, taking the children to infinity and beyond!

There are however a few things you may want to steer clear of when choosing the children’s entertainment.

Face painters are always a big hit, however you may not want Spiderman or a bright orange tiger to make an appearance in your wedding photos, and as fun as bouncy castles are (for both children and adults!) they can be an eyesore on your beautifully planned day.

Stick to activities that can be held in one area, be it inside or out – as this will not only make it easier to keep an eye on all the children, but will also prevent the activities from overpowering your day.

Another little idea to keep the children busy throughout the wedding breakfast and the speeches, is to have a little colouring book, and a mini pack of crayons at their place setting as a surprise gift for all the budding little artists – making the perfect ‘quiet’ activity for in between courses.

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