Child-free weddings are quite popular among newlywed couples who want to celebrate their marriage in a more grown-up way, and ultimately, the decision of who can and can't attend a wedding is down to the bride and groom themselves.
But one bride and her new husband have been branded "unfair" by members of their own family after they chose to ban kids from attending their wedding - because they still allowed their two daughters to be involved in the ceremony.
The woman explained she and her spouse decided when they got engaged two years ago that they wouldn't be inviting any children to their wedding other than their own, and made that clear on the invitations they sent out.
However, on the day of the wedding, she was criticised by some guests for being hypocritical, because while other kids were banned, her eldest daughter was a bridesmaid, and her youngest was the flower girl.
The bride insisted her daughters were only involved in the 40-minute ceremony and were not at the reception, but family members were still fuming that they'd had to pay for babysitters instead of being allowed to bring their kids.
In a post on Reddit, she said: "My partner of 12 years and I finally got married recently. We have two daughters together who are 10 and two. They were the only kids at the wedding. They were only there for the ceremony, not the reception. My eldest was one of the bridesmaids and my youngest was the flower girl.
"It was made explicitly clear that our children were going to be involved in our wedding even when we were planning it and when we sent out invitations. We said on the invites 'our family of four wants you to join us on our special day'. It was also explicitly clear that only our kids would be the only children there and that it was a child-free wedding.
"We emphasised the point that the day was as much about our kids as it was about us since we've been together a long time. To put it selfishly, my husband and I didn't want other people's kids but our own there.
"We didn't get much criticism until the actual wedding day. Some people were quite vocal about how unfair it was that we had our kids at the ceremony and that they were involved heavily in it. The ceremony was literally about 40 minutes followed by getting pictures taken, and then my uncle took the girls back to his house as he volunteered to forgo the ceremony to look after them.
"Some people complained that they had to fork out money for babysitters and stuff. And some people were kinda p***ed off that they had kids similar to my oldest one's age or slightly older who would have been fine to come to a ceremony for a few hours.
"My husband and I feel we gave everybody enough notice (almost two years) and that it was our wedding day. Others feel differently and we are still receiving passive-aggressive comments."
Commenters on the post were firmly on the couple's side though, with many pointing out that they can invite and ban whoever they want from their own wedding.
One person said: "Your wedding, your prerogative. Your children should have definitely been there to see their parents get married."
While another added: "The key is that it was YOUR wedding with YOUR children. Anyone outside of your immediate family of four who complained about not having their kids included is beyond me. I'm sorry you had to deal with that nonsense on your special day. Congratulations on your marriage and children."
And a third wrote: "Your wedding, your rules. They had the choice to accept, or stay home."
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