Let the Kids Have Fun While You Party: Wedding Childcare Made Simple with Tinies Devon & Cornwall

Wedding bells are ringing, but are tiny tots causing a wedding planning headache?

This episode of Pasties & Prosecco is your lifesaver! We chat with Becky from Tinies Devon & Cornwall Childcare, the guardian angel for parents seeking worry-free childcare on their wedding day.

In this episode you'll discover:

• How Tinies Devon & Cornwall offers various childcare solutions to fit any wedding, from small-scale babysitting to fully managed creches.
• Tips for handling sensitive children or those with special needs.
• Fun activities that keep little ones entertained throughout the celebration.
• Why professional childcare services are essential for a stress-free wedding day (for both you and your guests!).
• Bonus: Heartwarming stories from Becky's experience creating magical memories for children at weddings.

Whether you're planning a child-free wedding or want to include your little ones, Tinies Devon & Cornwall has you covered.

Plus, get a sneak peek at the upcoming Pasties & Prosecco: Ultimate Guide to Cornwall Wedding Suppliers – featuring Tinies and other top suppliers!

Don't forget to grab the free downloadable copy of the guide 

Transcript

Welcome back to Pasties Prosecco, where we believe every wedding should be a celebration of joy, love, and connection, even for the littlest of guests. Today, we're thrilled to have a guest Becky from Tinies, Devon Cornwall Childcare to discuss the importance of stress free wedding planning, no matter how many tiny tots are on your guest list.

Get ready for a fun and  chat as we dive into the world of wedding childcare and discover how tinies can help you create a memorable day for everyone. But first here's the pasties Ambroseco jingle. 

Hey Cornish cuties, are you getting hitched in this beautiful county and feeling a tad overwhelmed? Well, don't fret. I'm Francesca, and this is  Pasties Prosecco, your one stop shop for all things wedding planning in Cornwall. We'll be bringing you the best local suppliers, stress busting tips, real bride stories, and enough fun to make you forget about those pesky spreadsheets.

So grab a glass of earbuds, and get ready to plan the most unique and unforgettable wedding ever. 

Hello everyone. And welcome today. We have a special guest on the show, Becky from Tynies, Devon Cornwall, a guardian angel for parents seeking worry free childcare on their wedding day. Hello, Becky. It's a pleasure to have you here. Welcome. Welcome.  Thank you for having me. You're a ball of energy this morning.

So Becky, um, first of all, can you share with our audience a bit about yourself and how Tynees Devon and Cornwall came to be the trusted name in wedding child care services in the region?  So, uh, I've worked in child care most of my life. Um, first of all, I went to college and I studied a two year diploma in nursing.

That's it.  Then I was a nanny into my late teens and early 20s. Um, I took a break from childcare for 10 years to have my own two sons. And then my previous job was a mobile crush manager and  I ran mobile crushes across the UK. And then when I saw the opportunities to buy the Tinies Devon and Cornwall franchise, I went for it and I moved 300 miles down to Cornwall to do it.

And what an amazing kind of location to move to. That was a great opportunity. It's fantastic. It's brilliant living down here. So yeah, I bought the franchise back in July 2016. So along with providing childcare services to parents and nurseries,  I also provide childcare to weddings and events. Um, and because my business is a childcare agency, I have to hand a database of available nannies and childcarers. 

Oh, wow. So it's, it's amazing you've got all of that experience. Um, were you ever a nanny abroad or was it always in the UK? I actually did do a bit of overseas nanny, not for long. Um, I did camp America. Wow. But, there was a few specialist jobs you could pick on the camp. Um, so I was the nanny, the camp director, and any of his visiting doctors and nurses.

So I did it in America, not for long, whereas people do okay in America. I did it for about eight weeks and then just went travelling across America afterwards.  Oh, that must have been a fantastic experience. Yeah, it was, it was, I had lots of lovely nanny jobs to sort of start my career off, which is great because then it gives me now much, 20 years on, it gives me more, I'm able more to relate to the nannies that I'm  taking on to the agency now.

Yeah, you must have a wealth of experience, as I said, to kind of, you know, hand on to them and just make sure that they're top notch when they come to work for you.  So what kinds of services can  tinies offer and how do you tailor child care solutions to meet the unique needs of a couple?  So, we can offer childcare from a small scale to large scale, so it could be a babysitter for an evening, or nannies for the day, with or without a nanny package, um, or it could be a fully managed secure creche to look after a large amount of children. 

Um, so most of the creches we do is to care for children whilst the adults enjoy the meal and speeches. Um, and we often get brides with, um  their own children as well who don't want to  give the responsibility to their relatives to look after their own children on the day. They want their own relatives  to enjoy it.

And we often send baby sisters out to  families who perhaps are not allowed to bring their children to the wedding. And so we're sending them sort of off sites. Um, so there's lots of different services. We, we tend to do, um,  a nanny is a set price per hour, but in terms of if we're doing a creche or kind of any other  events, then I can, it is more of a bespoke package to fit around how long they want somebody, how many children are attending, um, and, and the timings that they need.

Oh, so there's a lot of services because, you know, I wasn't aware of that. I just saw just be one person showing up and you're looking after the children for the day. It's interesting that you said about, um, looking after other people's children. I know when I got married, we had some last minute cancellations from people because They couldn't get childcare services and during the school holidays and they couldn't rely on family members to look after their children.

And they had to travel quite far to Cornwall and for the wedding. I wish I knew about that service before, because we could have offered that, um, to our guests where the kids could have come to Cornwall for a holiday, but on the day of the wedding, they could have been looked after by. Yeah, absolutely.

That's what, that's what we do. So, um, you talked about the nanny package. Um, so what does that include?  So if the parents are just booking nannies to come rather than the whole crash package, then an event nanny bag, Um, it's, it's just a few bags, but it's enough to keep the children going for a couple of hours with things like,  um, balloons, and bubbles, and temporary tattoos, and games, and arts and crafts activities.

If the fam, if the parents are booking up creche, then we do. packages and the parents  and the brides can then book the packages depending on what they want and what they feel would suit the children or the needs for the day. Oh okay, so they can pick and choose what type of activities they'd want for their children,  is that possible?

Yeah,  I've set it so that it would suit, you know, if there's going to be loads of babies.  They're not going to want to be doing arts and crafts if they're too little for it. So, we have a baby package. Or if it's set in a venue that's got lots of nice outdoor space or a nice large marquee, they can book the outdoor toy package where I bring like ride on toys and I've got,  or if they want something a bit more  activity based inside, I've got bouncy castle that they can use, a small child's bouncy castle.

Ah, great. Wow, yes, that's a lot of different activities. Is there a favourite amongst the children? Yes.  It sounds so basic, but the one thing I always make sure I include is bubbles. But I used, I've used those, you know, the really big bubble sticks that I make enormous sized bubbles and they work really well with venues.

Who doesn't love bubbles? Absolutely. And they're so pretty and it makes for great photos as well. It's very Instagrammable.  Definitely.  Um, so, um,  We all know weddings are overwhelming for everyone and sometimes they are even more overwhelming for the little ones. So what happens if a child throws his toys out of the pram, quite literally, um, how do you handle particularly sensitive children or, or children with special needs? 

So you're always going to have children who can't be settled and it's always rare to, it would be rare to not have at least One child who was like this. So there's different ways that we would handle this.  Mostly, a lot of the time, children will settle quickly. And sometimes those children are generally upset and just need to be settled.

And sometimes children are very skilled  in responding to their own parents anxieties.  So where the parent is more anxious about leaving them and the child responds in  that way to that they're just makes the situation worse, but most of the time children will be okay. This is safe. And also what's nice.

The child will walk in if it's a crash and it will The room will be set up, so usually they're just distracted enough.  Prior to the weddings, we always send out a registration form, so the parents aren't  trying to deal with that on the day. That's already, I already have the information about the children, I kind of know what they like and dislike, I will perhaps understand if they're not going to be settled, and that will also highlight any special needs that the children may have. 

Um, and if they really won't settle, we will get the parents to come back. We're not going to leave any child distraught. And it might be the case that the parent can stay with them for a while to settle them in. Um, But  as I say, I won't ever leave a child to cry for hours. Yeah. I'm, I'm a big believer in energy transfer.

You know, when you are around people that have got positivity and happiness, you tend to feel great yourself. But when you meet some people that are either, you know, in a, in a dark place, angry, whatever the negative emotion it may be. does bring you down. Maybe that's because I'm an empath and it won't affect everyone.

But, um, I always feel different, you know, types of energy and I can imagine children, uh, probably a little bit more sensitive than adults to that as well.  Yeah. And that can happen. It is also important to mention when it is. weddings, there's always a good chance that those children know each other, usually often they're cousins or they're friends of the family.

And if they didn't know each other, they're always friends by the end of it. It's a nice way for the children to get together and play, play with each other. Yeah, for sure. Um, I, I can imagine it's a, it, it is a joyful experience when they get to see their, their friends and their family and, um, but. At the same time, um, it can all be overwhelming, can't it?

It can, you know, really knock a child off kilter, um, even with all of that excitement. And then you add sugar involved with all of the cake. It's a recipe for disaster.  Hopefully you should get them before The meals have taken place before any jelly ice cream so they're slightly calmer when they come.

Then you hand them back after the puddings.  And then I hand them back with a sugar rush, yep.  I understand that you've got a team of helpers, it's not just you running around like super women providing all these services. Do these minders, are they, are they specially trained to provide a professional and safe service?

Yeah, so as I also run a child care agency, we have set procedures on how to vet nannies and child carers. We are also one of the few child care agencies to be regulated by the Recruitment Employment Confederation. So there are set procedures we have to abide by to rate and sustain our membership. So, such as nannies have to have been vetted face to face, they have to have a recent DBS or better still, one on the update service. 

They have to have acceptable experience, which I will then reference check. But a lot of the nannies do this besides their full time or part time job, and will usually work in the childcare industry  already.  But in addition to all of this, we do have public liability insurance.  and we'll carry out site visits and risk assessments where we need to.

Very sensible, especially when kids are involved. So working with kids, you must have a million heartwarming or funny stories about children at weddings. Um, have you got any that you can share with our listeners today?  So there was one year, a few years ago, I was running a creche at a venue in Cornwall, which was set on a farm, so nice and rural.

That same night we were running the creche, it was predicted a meteor shower, um, and there was due to be a lot of shooting stars in the sky. We had actually been booked also to work in the evening, and the wedding couple had booked my slumber package, so that's  lots of blankets and cushions, um, so they know they can cosy up and watch a movie.

Ah, that's so cute. And so what we did, um, Yeah, so what we did, we got the children to grab a blanket, we carried out the cushions, and we walked to the back of the venue where there was no light pollution but a decking, and the children put all the cushions out and hid the cuddles under blankets, and we looked up the stars, and we all sat there watching the stars, and we saw lots and lots of shooting stars.

Aww, did you get them to make a wish?  I can't remember. I hope so. That is just so lovely. What an experience. And, you know, these are the sort of things that, you know, children remember. I, I, I remember, I think, um, laying in the back garden, um, with my, um, dad looking at shooting stars. It's those sort of simple things in life that, you know, awe inspiring things in life that really, um, you take to your adulthood. 

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it was, it was a nice, it was just such the perfect venue for it because it was rural, because there was no light pollution, because it was just that little bit away from the wedding, but all because the children were awake and excited. It was so much fun, and we were so lucky to, to, to be able to see that.

But also because I had, I've been kind of cushions and blankets as well. Yeah, lovely. Um, it's quite educational as well. Um, do you have any particular educational activities that you do with the children? I think I would say that a lot of the, whenever children are playing, that's always an educational activity.

So because I have a  complete range of activities, there's a lot of make believe play so they can do what they want. I have construction toys and arts and arts and crafts. So yes, if we were to put this into a nursery setting, we could apply them against  the  early years framework. But  also a lot of it is, you know, there's no strict rule.

There's no strict rules about what we do when we're on creche, just as long as they're having fun and it's memorable for them, then that's what's more important. Yeah, so fun, fun is the priority. If it's a bit educational, it's a bonus.  Brilliant, absolutely.  So what sets Tinies, Devon and Cornwall apart from other child care services?

And why should our listeners choose your service for their wedding day?  So,  I would say I've got a lot of experience behind this. I've been providing childcare for events for over 12 years now. Um, I have been able to find solutions to childcare deference that wedding couples haven't often thought about. 

I would always say to a wedding couple, what's the ideal scenario on your wedding day? And then I make suggestions on how I could fit childcare around that to fit by what they need. I would also say that everything I do is at a professional legal standard. All my nannies have been vetted to the same standard.

of a practitioner  that would work in a nursery. In addition, they are all correctly employed rather than have taken on the risk of having self contracted nannies.  Um, and I had full public liability insurance as well as the employer's liability  insurance. And because we, at the standard we work, because it is professional and the correct standards that are needed for the industry, I also supply corporate creches.

So I've supplied to teaching unions and the Royal College of Nurses as well. Oh, yeah, it sounds super professional. And, you know, if I had, uh, human babies, rather than fair babies, I'd want them in your hands for sure.  Um, okay. So for  those listeners, the Won't be able to use your services for any reason. 

Are there any tips you would give them to help prepare their own or their guest children for their wedding day?  I would always say to wedding couples. Do not feel felt guilty if you're not inviting children to your wedding. If you don't want them there, that's fine. It is your day, it is your budget. I speak to so many brides who always feel quite awkward going, well, what we want you for is because we don't want children at the wedding.

And it's fine, that's, and there if you want the children at your wedding, and there when you don't want children at your wedding, and we can provide nannies to have them offsite. I, I totally agree. Um, I hear that there is a lot of guilt, um, with couples that don't want children on their wedding day. It might not, they might not even want their own children at their wedding day for whatever reason, but I completely agree.

Um, it's, it's their day, how they want to spend it. And also children come with a price tag and sometimes that can be quite a hefty price tag too. Absolutely.  It's not even just, you know, even if you're not looking at the child care, you're then going to have to start thinking about the children's food and what entertainment you're going to need so they're not distracted.

A lot of the time I always say, bear in mind what's going on at the speeches. You don't want children interrupting them, perhaps you don't want children listening to them either. We had um, a wedding last week and  during the ceremony within five minutes of it starting, um, one of the guests had to come out because of their children.

not wanting to sit still and, you know, almost heckling the bride and groom. And, um, she had to leave the ceremony and she didn't get to enjoy it because she had to go outside with her child, um, which was a real shame because it was a beautiful ceremony and she didn't get to witness that. I would also say this works in reverse.

So I'm telling your guests.  Don't want you to invite their children. They are looking forward to having that adult only time. That is true. And whether it's the case that they need, and whether it's the case they need to travel down to Cornwall, and as I say, I provide lots of nannies to Airbnbs, so they can still enjoy their day, but still perhaps have a holiday time away with their children.

But on that particular day, It's adults only. Yeah, it's a good excuse, isn't it? It's like, please don't invite children at your wedding because I'd like some  date time with my hubby or my partner or, you know, leave the kids at home or, as you said, have childcare in the hotel that they're staying in.  Yeah, definitely.

Okay. Thank you Becky, for sharing the heartwarming mission of Tin Devon and Cornwall and all those fabulous tips as well. Um, with our listeners today, if our listeners want to learn more about your services, where can they reach you?  ww.tiny.com. That's T-I-N-I-E-S. Perfect. And are you on social media?  I also am on Facebook and I'm also on Instagram.

You'll find me underneath Tinies, Devon and Cornwall. Oh, perfect. So thank you so much for your time today. It's an absolute pleasure to have you on Pasties and Prosecco.  Thank you so much for having me.  And there you have it. Whether you're planning a child free wedding or want to include your little ones in the celebration, Tiny's Devon and Cornwall Childcare have you covered.

Remember to check out our brand new Ultimate Guide to Cornwall Wedding Suppliers. It's launching in January 2025 and this comprehensive resource features the best Best suppliers in the region, including tiny's. So sign up for your free downloadable copy, simply follow the link in our show notes. And if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to leave me a review.

Plus share this episode with other couples planning their wedding day until next time, happy planning and cheers to a stress free wedding.