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christening, what do i need to arrange?

Hi guys, Can anyone give me any tips on what i need to organise, arrange and think about for my little girls christening this summer. I used to be so organised and love things like this but my brain seems to be total mush lately! Thanks, Sarah

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  • hi sarah i have just arranged my sons christening its in 2 weeks time. we wnated a methodist service so i contacted my nearest church and the minister camr to my house to talk about it and booked the date there and then. i found a cheap venue and away we go!!! good luck hun xxx ps they do lovely invites on ebay xx
  • Hi Sarah,
    I booked Gracie's last week for May (well we booked the venue first, told everyone when it was then decided we'd better actually ask if the church was available!). I rang the church office and they booked me in, and to hubby's surprise, are emailing me a booking form! Some churches do the service after the normal church service, so we're having ours at 1pm as my boys' christenings were also after the service as there were lots of guests. They are free but they'll prob put a collection plate or two out.
    The vicar will prob want to meet you and discuss stuff. We were asked if we wanted to write something to read out, and my hubby wrote a gorgeous piece about our son - made me cry! You may also get to chose hymns etc.
    We're not church-goers but we were both brought up going to church and wanted our chn to be baptised.
    Happy sorting!
  • Hi Sarah,
    We had Maxwell christened last month & my sis in law is organising her daughter's at the moment. We live outside the parish of the church we went to, but I wanted to go there as it was where I was christened, so had to get permission from our rev. to go there, which wasn't a problem. We have become regular members of that church (oh less so!), to show our commitment but that is fine by me. Our church only does christening's every few months, so we couldn't really pick a date, but as we had about 60+ guests, we managed to get it after the normal service. We hired a private room upstairs in a pub, which was v.reasonable and they let us bring in all our own food, so that also kept costs down. We ordered a cake to be specially made too. I did our invites and emailed the majority of them, personalised them with a pic of lo. We got lo's outfit from a shop on ebay, good value for an outfit he's only going to wear once.
    Good luck with organising it and hope you all have a wonderful day x
  • Thanks guys. We also live outside of the parish of the church that we want to get holly christened in (we got married there) so will contact the vicar for permission and then book date.
    I was thinking that as it will be summer we will have people back here for a bbq, buffet ect.
    Who did you guys invite? Just family or lots of friends too? At our wedding we had 120 people, and that was keeping it down, so i was thinking just immediat ish family and best friends? Help! x
  • Hi
    Just wanted to share my experience as i had a little more trouble than the rest of you it seems.
    We went to church to speak to the vicar about having out little girl christened just after christmas this year. We were given a leaflet telling us that we had to go away & think about whether a baptism was really for us or if we would prefer a Thanksgiving service for our baby, even though we were adament we want our baby baptised. We then had to follow the instructions on the leaflet which was to contact the person who organises christenings for our church. (we are church of england). We did this & then we were told that before we could even consider dates we would have to attend a baptism preperation class (which they only hold once a month sometimes once every 2 months).
    We went along to this (it lasted about 2hrs) and even then were not allowed to book a date & again was told we had to go home & think about if we really want our baby to be baptised............... WELL WE DO!!!!
    Anyway, the day after i went round there with my application form for the date we want & was told it could be up to a week before we hear if we can have that date. AAArrrrggghhhh. Its been soo frustrating, as we cant book a venue for afterwards until we get our date confirmed.
    So sorry for completely taking over & having a huge rant here but just thought i'd let you know that it might be better to contact your church first to see what their process for booking christenings is.
  • Hi Sarah, I am in the middle of organising my los christening. Have a very large family on my mums side but dont really see it as a family get together, its about my lo and his day so only inviting close family and friends. Im bound to upset people but it will just cost ridiculous amounts and we did all that with our wedding!
    Anyway I am having a finger buffet, contacted the caterers in the town i am having the reception afterwards (a nice clubhouse where my dad works). the church is where i used to live and its really nice, luckily we got married there so i got away with being able to have lo christened there too. only i have to confirm with the priest in my town that its ok to do this, although i havent done yet and probably will forget to anyway (i dont see how they can check if you have or havent anyway).
    I got the invites on ebay after spending a whole evening wasting my time trying to find decent ones on the internet. they all looked crap and eventually found some nice ones on ebay quite cheap aswell!
    As for the cake, my mil is sorting that out for me and i am not sure what to put my lo in...he will be 6 months and not sure whether he will look right in a christening dress! Anyway, hope you have a really good day. Oh by the way, I also found a really nice christening keepsake book on ebay, you get the guests to write a message, put photos in etc, its really nice, might be worth trying to find one.
  • Hiya

    I had my little boy christened on Sunday and we hired an Italian restaurant that is normally closed on a Sunday so they gave us a good deal, though we did have 90 people so they would have made a fortune off the bar!!

    Everyone told me how different it was to the usual sausage rolls and sandwiches! they did us soup to start then the usual pizza's pasta's and chilli and dessert too and it cost the same as what the local social club wanted to charge!

    I bought a christening guestbook from 'Birthdays' and it was only ??4.99

    Hx
  • Mouse - that sounds horrendous! I'd have thought they'd want to encourage people to bring more into the church, not be so off-putting!
    Helen - sounds a lovely do!

    Sarah+1 - we had lots of people to our boys' christenings - my family's big with all my cousins and their kids! We also invited some friends from work who we socialise with too, as both me n hubby are teachers so inviting the whole staff x2 would be huge! Ds1's was held exactly a year after our wedding in the same church so that was very special.
    Top tip if you want to keep numbers (lol) is to choose a date during a bank holiday! We unintentionally booked Gracie's for 25th May and quite a few people can't come as they're away (including a chosen godparent!) so saved already!!!
    We had a bbq for ds1 at my mum n dad's, but for ds2 they paid for a do at the golf club (not a posh one, but hubby n parents are members) and we're doing that again for Gracie's. Mil is a whizz at cakes and we decorated the place ourselves with helium balloons etc. Both were fab days and I can't wait for dd's!
    Enjoy planning x
  • Hi 

    I need help in how to plan a christening I have no Idea where to start don't know how u plan one or how to start I am a first time mum I have no idea how to can i anyone help me please????? 

    Thanks in advance 

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