How to Host a Kid-Friendly Destination Wedding in Cabo San Lucas

Destination weddings are often planned with only the adult in mind, but the reality is that many couples choose to invite a handful of children, especially when they have little nieces and nephews or when close friends in their wedding party have their own kids. In this situation, it can be challenging for the parents to have a good time at the wedding because they’re watching their kids the entire time and usually in a somewhat foreign location they don’t live in, such as Cabo San Lucas. 

So anything a couple can do to make the experience more family-friendly will go a long way to ensuring all guests have a good time, both young and old. Here are a handful of great ideas that destination couples can consider to make their Cabo San Lucas destination wedding more accommodating to kids and parents.

Kids Art Station

Kids love being creative and artistic. So an easy way to keep them preoccupied during the more low key parts of the event, such as the cocktail hour and dinner, is to give them a fun art station to keep their hands busy so mom and dad can enjoy some social time and eat their dinner while it’s still hot. 

This station can focus on simple crafts and decorating activities. Here are a few ideas for your kids art station:

• Decorate the wedding day scrapbook! Help the newlyweds create a DIY scrapbook filled with photo memories. Each page in the scrapbook will already have placeholders to put printed photos later on after the wedding. Any blank space around the photo frames is fair game for placing stickers, glitter glue and hand drawn art. Just make sure all the important family portraits are already done before you give kids access to glitter, glue and other messy craft products because it might get on their face or outfit.
• Create your own photo props! From silly sunglasses to masquerade masks to mustaches, kids can decorate pre-cut cardboard hand props and then use them in selfies and photos with the other guests at the wedding.
• Decorate the thank you cards. The newly married couple can provide a full stack of pre-cut, blank thank you cards that can be decorated on the outside with stickers, markers, glitter and other elements. The inside of the card remains blank and untouched so the couple can handwrite a message.

Giant Lawn Games

Kids have endless energy, so they get antsy fast. Sitting them down at a table during speeches and first dances is sure to have parents chasing after them sooner or later. So give them a safe, preferably gated, to play fun lawn games just outside the dining area or reception space. The lawn game area should be within clear view of parents so they can watch while they relax and should be a safe area where kids can’t go wondering elsewhere and parents can easily reach them. Lawn games can include giant Jenga, corn hole, giant checkers and more.

Choose a Kid-Friendly Venue

In Cabo, some venues are adults only, so these should immediately be taken off the list if kids will be present at the wedding. Instead, try to find venues that cater more toward families and are happy to provide a little extra accommodation to them. A few ideas of venues that welcome both kids and adults are Chileno Bay Resort, Hilton Los Cabos, Sheraton Grand and Solaz Los Cabos.

Plan an All-Inclusive Event

Traveling with kids is expensive as this doubles, triples or even quadruples the budget for a family. Between the cost of flights, accommodations, food, excursions and daily spending – not to mention the direct wedding costs of dressing up a whole family – traveling for a wedding is a big financial commitment for parents.

One of the ways couples can make this easier on the budget for their parental guests is by planning an all-inclusive wedding in which all basic expenses are included as part of the resort fee, including food and lodging. In Cabo, a Hotel Grand Fiesta Americana would be a good choice because children are allowed to stay at the resort. Here you can check more about eloping with kids.

Lively Music

Kids love music, especially dancing music. Upbeat music can fix a meltdown and cure the boredom blues in seconds. A great choice for spirited music as a destination wedding in Los Cabos would be a live mariachi band, live cover band or really experienced DJ who knows all the hits that keep the dance floor packed. This will keep the children on the dance floor all night so their parents can get a little break and have some fun too.

Kids Food Station

Sure, every wedding is going to have a lot of food. But not all food served is the kind kids gravitate toward; especially in Cabo where resorts feature distinguished world class chefs that create unique cuisine. That’s why it can be a nice gesture to create a small kids food station, just for the kiddos. The station should be available all evening, right to the end, so that the little ones can nibble whenever they want. After all, with all the running around they do, they get famished faster. 

A few ideas of healthy, but delicious snacks to keep at the table could be water, lemonade, Shirley temples, fresh fruit, raw veggies with dip, cheeses, pretzels, deli meats and bread. While there might be a place for cookies and sweets, it’s best to keep these items to a minimum so the parents aren’t dealing with a sugar rush all night. 

Napping Station

This one might seem a bit off the wall because parents will likely have a very comfy suite at the destination resort, there’s a very valid reason why this is on the list. Smaller kids will fall asleep much earlier than their parents at a wedding between all the dancing and stimulation.  It’s not fair for the parents to have to retire from the wedding early simply because their kids crashed out. 

So instead of forcing parents to leave the celebration prematurely, simply create a cozy napping station in a little corner within the reception space that’s tucked away in a little nook where parents can keep a watchful eye without obstruction, yet where the kids are out of the way of foot traffic. The nook can be loaded up with soft blankets and pillows for kids to stay comfy while they rest. This allows the parents to mingle and socialize a little longer rather than one of them having to retreat back to the hotel room early.

There you have it – plenty of simple tips to create a Cabo destination wedding experience that’s so family friendly any parental guest can easily attend and have a good time too.