Christening-need food and decoration ideas!

sammiebmouse

Hi,
We are getting our daughter christened soon and are planning to have a small party afterwards.
We are hiring our local village hall for a small fee -and need to provide food ourselves for 30-40 guests and also decorate it.

We would like to decorate it with some pink balloons, banners etc, as cheaply as possible. I've had a look on ebay and £30.00 for 30 helium balloons and the disposable cylinder, does anyone know if normal balloons would last the day (we would prob need to decorate the evening before), and dont want to spend money on cheap ones if they will wilt within a few hours.

Also, we are thinking of making sausage rolls, sandwiches,cheese, pickles maybe some salad. Are there any other types of food we could make that wouldnt need to be heated but are still tasty?
Where is the best place to buy frozen food like sausage rolls etc?

Apologies for all the questions but I'm on my own doing this as all my family live abroad but are flying over for the ceremony on the day, and know preparation is key!

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!x

sandiep

Trifle for pudding! Great big impressive looking pudding, in a big glass bowl, doesn't cost a lot of money and everyone goes "ooh, trifle, i've not had that for ages!"

almond

try morrisons for they big salad bowls , i would buy quiches etc since it will be cheaper

jetcat

my DD2 was christened recently, and we had trifle (yes, everyone said they hadnt had it in ages!) and we bought the quiches. We also cooked a loin of pork, sliced it up and served it with apple sauce. A def winner!

The pasta salad wasnt touched, but i did get some of the Chinese/Indian frozen party pieces from Iceland - 3 boxes for a fiver. They went really quickly!

As for decorations, we hit our local market. Got balloons - helium and normal, christening banners, streamers etc very cheaply!

Hope that helps a little, and have a lovely day!

sorry, just re-read post and the need for food that doesnt need heating. We cooked all ours the day before, and it was still lovely on the day!

sandiep

We splashed out on a clown, and it was the best thing we spent money on. It meant that the adults could all sit, have a drink, some food, a bit of a natter, whilst the kids were all happily occupied in a corner of the room with the clown.

Main reason we did so was because the hall was on a main road, it was a summer day, and we didn't want the kids running in and out of the hall, and the parents all stressed.

Would thoroughly recommend. Partic if there are lots of toddler-primary school kids, who just don't really enjoy sitting quietly in their posh frocks.

catwoman

I know this may not be within your budget but we hired a bouncey castle (which fit inside the hall) and the kids loved it.

I also made party lunch boxs for the kids with a sandwich, raisins, babybel etc and adults had buffet meal.

riggerz

We borrowed loads of kids cds from friends and took our cd player and had that playing fr the little ones - Lazy town etc... We also set up a kids table on the dance floor with little sandwiches, cakes, biscuits, drinks etc Also got peolpe to bring toys for the little ones!

For decorations we scanned pictures of our little boy onto the laptop, enlarged them and printed them then stuck then all over the walls of the hall and just blew up balloons and put those in between the pics.

We got most of the adults food from iceland, mainly stuff that could be cooked the night before and eaten cold the next day.

HTH

Gangstabird

sammiebmouse wrote: »

Hi,
We are getting our daughter christened soon and are planning to have a small party afterwards.
We are hiring our local village hall for a small fee -and need to provide food ourselves for 30-40 guests and also decorate it.

We would like to decorate it with some pink balloons, banners etc, as cheaply as possible. I've had a look on ebay and £30.00 for 30 helium balloons and the disposable cylinder, does anyone know if normal balloons would last the day (we would prob need to decorate the evening before), and dont want to spend money on cheap ones if they will wilt within a few hours.

Also, we are thinking of making sausage rolls, sandwiches,cheese, pickles maybe some salad. Are there any other types of food we could make that wouldnt need to be heated but are still tasty?
Where is the best place to buy frozen food like sausage rolls etc?

Apologies for all the questions but I'm on my own doing this as all my family live abroad but are flying over for the ceremony on the day, and know preparation is key!

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!x

You can buy the helium gas in Makro for 23.00 including vat. However, if you use helium balloons, remember they will only stay up for around 8 hours (the latex ones, not the foil ones), so if you decorate the night before you will come in to balloons on the floor.

ktflosspot

CLICKY use this to coat your helium balloons if you are planing to do them the night before.
You may be able to getit cheaper if you search around but it makes the balloons last 7-10 days rather than 8hrs
HTH
KT xx

sammiebmouse

Hi,
I've just logged back in and am chuffed so many of you replied!

Thanks

I will start to buy some frozen bits as I do my shopping and keep them until the day before-that way it wont hit my pocket as hard.

There arent many kids coming-about 5, but I hadnt even thought of them! I'll try prepare a little table as suggested to keep them entertained, maybe some colouring books and pens, and make little nibbles for them-am sure the parents will be delighted to have some peace for a little while:rolleyes:

Def going to go with the trifle, so thanks for this suggestion-I'll rope my mum into helping if she gets over here at a decent hour coz she makes yummy trifle!:rotfl:

Its quite expensive to host isnt it,I hadnt realised we'd need to send as much!:eek: Thanks again for all your suggestions :beer:

lunar

for my sons christening we got baloons from clintons they did baloon trees and charged £1 per baloon, this includes the ribbon and weight. i had 5 baloons per tree and they look brilliant. they are not foil but are made for helium. i collected them saturday am and they are all still inflated now.