Anniversary Numero Uno: Children's sermon and treats

We're days away from our first wedding anniversary. In celebration, I'm sharing a few of our favorite details from the day.

Today, it's all about the children.

My hometown pastor performed our ceremony. In our community, he is known for his children's sermons. Each week, before the sermon, he invites the kids to come up to the front for a short lesson--usually less than 5 minutes. At the end, there's always a little treat for them. Sometimes it's a simple piece of candy. Other times, a Bible verse card. Occasionally there are big treats like boxes of cracker jacks, or miniature toys. The kids love it. His messages are  simple and direct, and usually the gifts relate to the message in some way. This way the gift acts as a reminder of the scripture's teaching. It's a wonderful addition to our weekly service.

For our wedding, I wanted to include a children's sermon. It would be the perfect time to give any young guests a treat bag, and would make a boring service more bearable for wiggly kids wanting to get up and move around.

Here's what we put into the bag:

All of our items came from Oriental Trading. They are great for small, inexpensive bulk treats. Most of the items I chose were also on sale (for example, the pinwheels were Valentine themed and greatly reduced when I found them after the holiday.)

The goal was to have it be fun for all ages. My oldest nephew was 12 at the time, and my youngest niece was less than a year. I wanted both of them to find something to do in the bags. So, we got some 3-D puzzles for the older kids, rubber duckies for the little ones, and coloring books and pinwheels--something everyone would hopefully love.

We had a vintage thing going on with our wedding, so we chose classic candies like Mary Jane's, taffies, chocolate coins, wax lips--cherry flavored!--and hard candy sticks. They were all really yummy; I can personally attest to this. (I might have indulged more than once when putting the bags together. Just maybe.)

And because we didn't want a young child ripping into the bag without parents there to decide if the treats were appropriate for them, we made up a little label to put on each.

It read:

"To keep little hands and mouths happy. Parents please supervise children under 3 years."

No one choked, so I guess the tag worked. :)