Oscar Worthy Entertainment For The Kids...

This blog post has been inspired by the fact that a lot of my week seems to have been spent planning/organising/crafting/shopping/cooking for my son’s ‘Movie Night’ birthday party this Saturday. And also due to the fact I’ve spent too long gazed at gorgeous Oscar gowns when I should have been organising this party...

A ‘Movie Night’ is great, not just for birthday parties, but for weddings – it’s great to throw them their own bash in the evening of the wedding. They get a little downtime after a busy day but they’re still with their friends, they’re still near their parents and, they’re still being treated to something fab.

First things first – speak to your venue to find out if there’s a room they can set aside for the ‘Movie Night’ (if it’s reasonably close to the main reception rooms, so much the better so parents can nip back and forth at necessary!). This room needs a TV, a DVD player and lots of room for kids to crash out. Then, choose a couple of films and you’re away!

You’ll need to work out what to do about child care – a small number of older kids might be ok on their own if the room is close to the adults but for younger kids, you might need to rope in a few adult ‘usherettes’ or consider hiring a couple of nannies for the evening. You know your guests best so that’s a decision for you.

Now to make the evening special for your young film critics and you can start building the anticipation early on – how about sending them their own Movie Night invitation along with the main wedding invitations?

Then you need to make the room comfortable – speak to your venue to see if they can loan blankets and cushions or consider asking kids to bring along their own sleeping bags.

Popcorn is a must at movie nights so get some traditional popcorn bags and fill them up (in our house, we pop our own corn and roll half of the batch in melted chocolate for extra yum factor).

Set these out for guests along with some drinks and who doesn’t love pick and mix? So perhaps a little candy bar for the kids? Or personalised drink cups? All easy wedding DIY.

One of the benefits of organising your own movie night is that you can control is you can have an interval – perhaps after one film. This will allow parents to take younger kids home or for you to serve warm food (hot dogs or pizza maybe). The second film of the night could be aimed more for older children but again, you know your guests!

I’ve planned weddings where the kids have been treated to movie nights and they’ve been brilliant – all the kids loved having their own party away from the adults. And the adults enjoyed hitting the dancefloor without their kids to tell them how embarrassing they are…