Christenings

[Pearls18]

If you've gotten your LO christened and had a do afterwards can I ask some nosey questions please? DS1 was christened during our wedding so this is a first for me.

1) how many people did you have
2) how long did you book the venue for if you had one
3)how much did you pay for the day
4) what did baby wear
5) did you have a photographer?

Check list of what I need, so far I have:

1) padre
2) venue (food)
3) outfits
4) cake
5) invites

Am I missing something? Any cute little touches I'm not thinking of?

I know I'm over thinking it and could just have him christened end of a church service with a spread at home, but we would like to do it this way.

 

[MissyMojo]

For maddoxs christening. ..

invited family and only very close friends (my family is on the bigger side)
Booked a room in working mens club for 12-2pm then close family came bk to my grandmas house with the leftover food. Cost 50for the room. That included 1 staff for the bar

maddox wore a white suit from a baby shop paid about 40 for it

Didnt have a photographer


nathans christening I got his outfit frm ebay

didnt book a room for aftee. Just did a spread at my grandmas

my brother has set himsekf up as photographer with a friend so I had his friend take pics

made invites myself by using a free prints on sign up offer and making an image on pc with info

 

[lozzy21]

1) how many people did you have. About 85
2) how long did you book the venue for if you had one. 12-6
3)how much did you pay for the day £70 for the room, £150 for food
4) what did baby wear, my christening gown
5) did you have a photographer? No

 

[Abigailly]

Do you have parties after Christenings?

Maybe it's different here because it's Ireland but we had about 12. My parents and sister, DH's parents and sister's family. and a couple of incredibly close friends.

Then we went back to my mum and dad's for a BBQ as it was the hottest day of the year.

We didn't have it during Mass as there were a few communions the next day and it would of turned into a 3 hour Mass.

Her outfit was the gown we've all been Baptised in, it was made from my great grandmother's wedding dress. Then I put a pretty dress on her.

Can I ask why you're having a party? I've never heard of that before. Here it's just immediate family and the God parents. Between myself and DH we have 4 God children, and never once have I seen an after party more than a dinner somewhere.

 

[KayBea]

LO was 18 months (ish) when she was christened.

the venue after was booked for 4 hrs, i have no idea on money as my mum paid for it.

we had invited 36 people but none of her dads side turned up (including her dad!!!) so only about 19 people were there.

it was family & very close friends.

she wore a dress & shoes & my dad was the photographer
- along with everyone using cameras & phones. we got about 30 very very nice shots & a load of action shots too.. like her trying to lick the vickers face xx

 

[Bevziibubble]

When Holly was christened it was in church as part of the Sunday service. We had around 30 people attend. No photographer as we just took our own photos. We booked the party venue afterwards all day but that was only because the price covered all day. In reality we just needed a few hours.


She wore a white dress from Mothercare. It was mainly just family

 

[Pearls18]

Do you have parties after Christenings?

Maybe it's different here because it's Ireland but we had about 12. My parents and sister, DH's parents and sister's family. and a couple of incredibly close friends.

Then we went back to my mum and dad's for a BBQ as it was the hottest day of the year.

We didn't have it during Mass as there were a few communions the next day and it would of turned into a 3 hour Mass.

Her outfit was the gown we've all been Baptised in, it was made from my great grandmother's wedding dress. Then I put a pretty dress on her.

Can I ask why you're having a party? I've never heard of that before. Here it's just immediate family and the God parents. Between myself and DH we have 4 God children, and never once have I seen an after party more than a dinner somewhere.

It's not so much a party but a gathering. I am only inviting immediate family and close family friends which is 45 people (although I think only 30ish will turn up, we have divorced parents so big family) we can't do it at the end of a service because an RAF padre is taking the service and they don't do Sunday services on camp so it'll be a specific service. I can't fit that many people in my house so I am hiring a venue on camp and will either get them to cater or I will put on a spread.

Here christenings tend to be Sundays at church and then a spread afterwards, a lot of the time people do it in their homes but I think it depends on how many you invite and the size of your house! We live 150 miles yeah from family so it's nice to get everyone together.

Thanks everyone, this is roughly what I am doing, wasn't sure if it was "normal" or not as it's been years since I've been to one! It's nice having something to look forward to

 

[Stacey_Ann]

We had ours at the naval church, it was done as the Sunday service (not just tagged on the end but other people were the as usual too).

Our immediate family (both large), godparents and very close friends ended up with 50 of us.

We booked the Senior rates mess for afterwards and did half the food ourselves (thank you iceland!) and half we paid for the chef to do.

We also hired a toddlers bouncy castle and some soft play (£85) as there were at least 10 0-5 yr olds and I wanted the day to be child friendly. The children loved it and so did the parents as everyone was very relaxed. I think we booked the room for 4hrs but most people left after 2-2.5.
Jacob's outfit was a 3 piece (trousers, shrug and waistcoat) from mamas and papas as the family gown is tiny.

No hired photographer but my next door neighbour wants to go pro when he leaves the navy so he took pics for us and put them on a disk so we have some lovely pics of the day.
It was a lovely day and I'd definitely do something similar again.

Xx

 

[Stacey_Ann]

And who cares what's "normal"?!

It was a lovely way of getting everyone together (I went out for a meal with my family the night before) as they'd come from north wales, Lincoln, Devon, Birmingham, Scotland (godparent) to celebrate Jacob and his baptism into the church xx

 

[supertabby]

We had DD christened during normal Sunday Service, and laid on some nice cakes to go with the usual coffee after the service. We made a donation to the church - about £100 if I remember rightly, that was our choice not a set fee.

We had about 40/50 guests for the whole day - mostly family and some close friends - plus the usual congregation at the service.

After the service we went back to mil and fil house, as they have more space than us including a big garden. It was summer and we (well mil and fil really) did a BBQ. I made the cake.

Isobel wore a christening gown from some leftover fabric from my wedding dress (my mum made both dresses).

We didn't hire a photographer, we took our own pictures.

 

[lozzy21]

We had a party because most people had travled 2-3 hours to come had to book into a hotel the night before. It's not often his family get together as they are so spread out so to just have coffee and cake after would have been too quick.

 

[mummymunch]

1. About 40- family and close friends
2. We had it till people went home, which was about 4pm as the christening was quite early, we just had the reception room in a little pub
3. We only paid for food and decs, probably about £100 but local hall hire for a reception room is between 60-120
4. A next dress i bought from ebay and a handmade matching headband
5. Didnt have a photographer

As a thank you to her godparents i made cards with Emily's footprint on which they all loved

 

[Abigailly]

Do you have parties after Christenings?

Maybe it's different here because it's Ireland but we had about 12. My parents and sister, DH's parents and sister's family. and a couple of incredibly close friends.

Then we went back to my mum and dad's for a BBQ as it was the hottest day of the year.

We didn't have it during Mass as there were a few communions the next day and it would of turned into a 3 hour Mass.

Her outfit was the gown we've all been Baptised in, it was made from my great grandmother's wedding dress. Then I put a pretty dress on her.

Can I ask why you're having a party? I've never heard of that before. Here it's just immediate family and the God parents. Between myself and DH we have 4 God children, and never once have I seen an after party more than a dinner somewhere.

It's not so much a party but a gathering. I am only inviting immediate family and close family friends which is 45 people (although I think only 30ish will turn up, we have divorced parents so big family) we can't do it at the end of a service because an RAF padre is taking the service and they don't do Sunday services on camp so it'll be a specific service. I can't fit that many people in my house so I am hiring a venue on camp and will either get them to cater or I will put on a spread.

Here christenings tend to be Sundays at church and then a spread afterwards, a lot of the time people do it in their homes but I think it depends on how many you invite and the size of your house! We live 150 miles yeah from family so it's nice to get everyone together.

Thanks everyone, this is roughly what I am doing, wasn't sure if it was "normal" or not as it's been years since I've been to one! It's nice having something to look forward to

Oh I wasn't judging at all, just curious, as I've never heard of a huge Christening like that.

 

[Pearls18]

We had ours at the naval church, it was done as the Sunday service (not just tagged on the end but other people were the as usual too).

Our immediate family (both large), godparents and very close friends ended up with 50 of us.

We booked the Senior rates mess for afterwards and did half the food ourselves (thank you iceland!) and half we paid for the chef to do.

We also hired a toddlers bouncy castle and some soft play (£85) as there were at least 10 0-5 yr olds and I wanted the day to be child friendly. The children loved it and so did the parents as everyone was very relaxed. I think we booked the room for 4hrs but most people left after 2-2.5.
Jacob's outfit was a 3 piece (trousers, shrug and waistcoat) from mamas and papas as the family gown is tiny.

No hired photographer but my next door neighbour wants to go pro when he leaves the navy so he took pics for us and put them on a disk so we have some lovely pics of the day.
It was a lovely day and I'd definitely do something similar again.

Xx

Thanks Stacey, congrats on your pregnancy!!

Love the idea of the bouncy castle I know we could get one for the place but there will only be about 3 children including ds1.

Did your hubby wear his uniform? I'm not sure if it's that kind of thing or not, his godfather is military too.

 

[Pearls18]

Do you have parties after Christenings?

Maybe it's different here because it's Ireland but we had about 12. My parents and sister, DH's parents and sister's family. and a couple of incredibly close friends.

Then we went back to my mum and dad's for a BBQ as it was the hottest day of the year.

We didn't have it during Mass as there were a few communions the next day and it would of turned into a 3 hour Mass.

Her outfit was the gown we've all been Baptised in, it was made from my great grandmother's wedding dress. Then I put a pretty dress on her.

Can I ask why you're having a party? I've never heard of that before. Here it's just immediate family and the God parents. Between myself and DH we have 4 God children, and never once have I seen an after party more than a dinner somewhere.

It's not so much a party but a gathering. I am only inviting immediate family and close family friends which is 45 people (although I think only 30ish will turn up, we have divorced parents so big family) we can't do it at the end of a service because an RAF padre is taking the service and they don't do Sunday services on camp so it'll be a specific service. I can't fit that many people in my house so I am hiring a venue on camp and will either get them to cater or I will put on a spread.

Here christenings tend to be Sundays at church and then a spread afterwards, a lot of the time people do it in their homes but I think it depends on how many you invite and the size of your house! We live 150 miles yeah from family so it's nice to get everyone together.

Thanks everyone, this is roughly what I am doing, wasn't sure if it was "normal" or not as it's been years since I've been to one! It's nice having something to look forward to

Oh I wasn't judging at all, just curious, as I've never heard of a huge Christening like that.

Oh I didn't think you were, sorry if I came off defensive I have a habit of doing that lol