Event Nannies
Event Nannies in BC
Our caregivers are Puffin employees, background-checked and insured.
Rates
Every rate →$40/hr per nanny
Weddings and events in BC — any day, any hour, one flat rate
- Past 8 hours in a day
- $60/hr per nanny
- 4-hour minimum per day
- One nanny per 4 age points: a baby counts 2, a toddler 1.5, a child 1.
Priced by the same engine that charges your card. Caregivers are WorkSafeBC covered and hold police vulnerable sector checks.
About this care
Dedicated, background-checked nannies for weddings, birthday parties, corporate events, date nights, and holiday gatherings across British Columbia — what many families call a wedding or event babysitter. Event Nannies are booked per nanny at $40/hr with a 4-hour minimum per day, and hours past 8 in a single day bill at the $60/hr overtime rate — so a 5-hour event with one nanny is $200, and a 10-hour day with one nanny is $440. We staff to your group: an infant under 12 months counts as two children toward the ratio, a toddler 12-35 months counts as one and a half, and a child 3 and over counts as one, with one nanny assigned for every four. Tell us the event, the dates, and the children attending, and the booking flow returns a non-binding estimate before anything is confirmed.
What to expect
Insured caregivers with police vulnerable sector checks, experienced with groups of children — the same vetting standard as every other Puffin booking.
Nanny count calculated from the ages of the children attending, not guessed: infants weigh twice a school-age child, and one nanny covers every four children by that weighting.
Calm, age-appropriate activities brought to your venue so children stay happily occupied while the adults enjoy the event.
A pre-event brief covering allergies, nap schedules, pickup rules, and any special instructions you share with us in advance.
Multi-day events are booked day by day, each with its own 4-hour minimum, so a rehearsal dinner and a wedding day are staffed independently.
Your card is held rather than charged when you reserve — the booking is finalised with you before any payment is taken.
What an event actually costs
Event Nannies are $40 an hour, per nanny. That rate is flat — it does not change with the ages of the children, the time of day, or the day of the week, and there is no travel surcharge or zone pricing anywhere in the 16 municipalities we are licensed for.
Two rules shape the total. Every day of an event is booked for at least four hours. And hours past eight in a single day bill at $60 an hour, per nanny — so a long wedding day costs more per hour at the end than at the start, and a two-day event starts fresh each morning rather than accumulating one overtime allowance across the weekend.
The booking form works the total out as you enter it, and returns a non-binding estimate before anything is confirmed. Your card is held, not charged.
A five-hour reception, one nanny
$200Five hours at $40. Under the eight-hour threshold, so no overtime.
An evening reception, 5 PM to 1 AM, two nannies
$640Eight hours that run past midnight. The booking form reads an end time before 6 AM as the same night rather than rejecting it, so this prices as eight hours, not as an error.
A ten-hour wedding day, one nanny
$440Eight hours at $40 and two at $60 — $440, rather than the $400 a flat rate would give.
A four-hour rehearsal dinner and a nine-hour wedding day, two nannies
$1,080Priced day by day. The rehearsal dinner is four hours at the standard rate; the wedding day is eight at $40 and one at $60. Splitting the hours across two days costs less than the same thirteen hours in one.
The overtime threshold is per nanny, per day. A ten-hour day with two nannies is two lots of eight-plus-two, not one shared eight-hour allowance between them.
What is included
- Caregivers who are employed by Puffin Services, not contractors we introduce you to — each with a clear police vulnerable sector check, insured, and covered by WorkSafeBC.
- A pre-event brief before the day, covering allergies, nap schedules, pickup rules, who may collect which child, and anything else you want the team to know.
- Age-appropriate activities brought to your venue — quiet craft and play materials chosen for the room you have set aside, not a fixed entertainment programme.
- A staffing count worked out from the ages of the children attending rather than the headcount: an infant under 12 months counts as two, a toddler from 12 to 35 months as one and a half, a child of three and over as one, and one nanny covers every four of those points.
- A named contact for the day, so your planner or venue coordinator has one person to speak to rather than a group.
What this is not
Two things get confused with event childcare often enough to be worth saying plainly.
- It is not a drop-off crèche. Children stay on your guest list and in your venue, in a room you have arranged, and they remain your guests throughout. We do not run an off-site facility.
- It is not entertainment. Event nannies are caregivers working a shift, not performers — no face painting booth, no magician. If you want a children’s entertainer as well, book one; the two jobs are different and the nannies will work alongside them.
Weddings specifically
Weddings are the most common event booking, and the questions that come up are consistently the same three.
The first is timing. The hours that genuinely need cover are rarely the whole day: it is the ceremony, the photographs afterwards, and the stretch of the reception between the speeches and the end of the night. Families often book from an hour before the ceremony to the end of the reception and find that a nine- or ten-hour day is the honest answer rather than a padded one.
The second is the room. Event childcare works far better with somewhere to put it — a side room, a marquee annexe, a quiet corner with a door. Ask your venue early; the answer changes what the day looks like more than the nanny count does. Children who have somewhere to go at 8 PM stay at the wedding. Children who do not, leave, and take a parent with them.
The third is who talks to whom. Give your venue coordinator and your planner the name of the Puffin contact for the day, and tell us the schedule you have given them. A nanny who knows the speeches start at 7:30 can have the children fed and settled by 7:15 without being asked.
Event Nannies and hourly childcare are different bookings
Both are Puffin caregivers and both are booked by the hour, but the rules differ in every way that affects a quote. If you are weighing one against the other, this is what actually changes.
| Attribute | Event Nannies | Hourly Childcare |
|---|---|---|
| Rate | $40/hr per nanny, flat — no age or time-of-day variation | $32/hr standard, $38/hr if a child under 12 months is present, $36/hr after-school and overnight |
| Overtime | $60/hr past 8 hours in a day, per nanny | No overtime tier |
| Minimum | 4 hours, every day of the event | 3 hours per booking |
| Staffing | Age-weighted — one nanny per 4 points, so 8 school-age children need 2 and 4 infants also need 2 | One caregiver for the household |
| Where | Your venue, in a space you set aside | Your home |
| Multi-day | Priced day by day; the overtime threshold resets each morning | Booked as continuous care |
| Whose children | Your guests’ children, often meeting each other and the nanny for the first time | Your own children, usually with a caregiver they know |
Event nannies by city
Local pages for the cities we are asked about most — what venues there tend to look like, and confirmation that the rate does not change for working there. Rates and staffing are the same everywhere, so they stay on this page.
More on event childcare
Longer reads on the questions that come up before booking — staffing maths, what a shift actually looks like, and the two event types that work differently from a wedding.
Wedding & Event Childcare in BC: What to Know
The full guide — what event nannies do, what it costs, and what to settle with your venue before you book.
How Many Nannies Do I Need for My Event?
The age-weighted staffing formula, worked through with real guest lists.
What to Expect From Event Nanny Staffing
A shift from arrival to handover, start to finish.
Corporate Event Childcare in BC
Staffing a family day, a company party, or an offsite — where the maths differs.
Conference Childcare in BC
What organisers need to arrange, and how multi-day pricing works.
Questions about Event Nannies
Puffin Services charges $40/hr per nanny for events, with a four-hour minimum per day. Hours beyond eight in a single day are billed at $60/hr. Multi-day events are priced day by day, so the overtime threshold resets each morning rather than accumulating across a weekend.
Puffin Services works it out from the ages of the children, not just the headcount. Each infant under 12 months counts as 2, each toddler from 12 to 35 months counts as 1.5, and each child 3 and over counts as 1 — one nanny covers up to 4 of those points. So eight school-age children need two nannies, while four infants also need two. The booking form calculates it as you add each child.
Puffin Services bills $60/hr after eight hours in a day, up from the standard $40/hr, and it applies per nanny. A ten-hour wedding with two nannies is therefore eight hours at $40 plus two at $60 for each of them. The threshold is daily, so a two-day event starts fresh on the second day.
Yes. Puffin Services calculates a recommended number from the ages of the children attending — an infant under 12 months counts 2 points, a toddler 12–35 months counts 1.5, a child 3 and over counts 1, and one nanny covers every 4 points — and you can then select any number from 1 to 10. The price follows the number you choose, not the recommendation.
No. Event Nannies are $40/hr per nanny on any day of the week, with no weekend, evening, or holiday premium. The only rate change is overtime: hours past eight in a single day bill at $60/hr per nanny, and that threshold resets each morning.
Each day is booked and priced separately, with its own four-hour minimum and its own eight-hour overtime threshold. Because the threshold resets each morning, a rehearsal dinner and a wedding day cost less than one very long day containing the same total hours.
A space that is separate from the main event — a side room, a quiet corner, or a suite — and confirmation of how late that space is available. Puffin caregivers bring age-appropriate activities; they do not bring furniture, sleep equipment, or a room. It is worth asking your venue about children in the space at contract stage rather than in the final week.
The online minimum is 24 hours, but that number is not a useful guide for an event. Dates get taken and caregivers are matched to the booking rather than assigned from whoever is free, so book once your child numbers are firm. First-time in-home bookings also need photo ID verification reviewed by an administrator, which is quick but should not be left to the event week.
No — your card is held, not charged. Booking places an authorisation for the estimated amount, which confirms the card and reserves the funds; the booking is finalised with you before any payment is actually taken.
Online, start to finish, at whatever hour suits you. Choose the service, the city, the date and the hours, tell us anything specific about your family, and pay on the site — there is no phone call, no callback and no waiting on a quote before you know the price. Hourly childcare, postpartum support, senior and adult support and event nannies all work this way, and nanny placement will too once it opens. Pediatric support is the exception: SLPA, OTA, behaviour intervention and autism respite are enquiry-only for now, and those pages say so. A phone line is there if you would rather use it — (604) 283-2829 — but nothing requires it.
A wedding nanny is $40 an hour per nanny, with a four-hour minimum on the day, and $60 an hour for any hours past eight. A five-hour reception with one nanny is $200; a ten-hour wedding day with one is $440. The number of nannies is worked out from the ages of the children attending rather than the headcount, and a rehearsal dinner the night before is priced as its own day.
Usually three stretches rather than the whole day: the ceremony, the photographs immediately afterwards, and the reception from the speeches to the end of the night. Most couples book from about an hour before the ceremony through to the end of the reception, which lands at nine or ten hours. The part worth settling first is not the nanny count but the room — a side space children can go to at 8:00 PM is what keeps families at the wedding rather than leaving early.
Cancel 24 hours or more before the start and the card hold is released in full, at no charge. Inside 24 hours, up to 100% of the booked total may be charged, because the caregivers have reserved the date and turned down other work for it. If Puffin Services cannot staff the booking, you owe nothing and the hold is released. On a multi-day event each day is a separate booking, so the window is measured against each day’s own start time.
Yes, and it is booked as a single day rather than two. A reception entered as 5:00 PM to 1:00 AM is one eight-hour booking — $640 for two nannies — with no late-night surcharge and no second four-hour minimum for the hours after twelve. The $40/hr rate is identical at 11:00 PM and 11:00 AM; the only thing that changes it is the eight-hour overtime threshold.
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