Christening on £60 budget?!

chirpychick

Our little boy is 6.5 weeks old and we very much want him to be Christened.
We don't have much money left over each month and I have worked out that we will have a budget of £60.

I haven't ever been to a Christening before (except my own when I was 17 which wasn't exactly traditional). So I don't really know what I need to do or anything.

We have a meeting with the Vicar on Saturday.

I think I need
Outfit: A friend crochet'd an outfit which I need to check fits him
Cake: A different friend offered to make one
Food
Drink
Decorations
Invitations
Stamps
Church
Godparent presents
Outfit for Hubby & Myself (Hubby may just need a tie but I have nothing as I sold a lot of my nice clothes to make money for the new baby) watching something on eBay.

Does this sound like I have everything covered?
How can I keep to my budget? Any suggestions?

Rebel_Hedgehog

Well considering the church will be £200, your going to need at least £400 IMO. £60 is simply not possible I'm afraid.

sunshine_shell

I don't think you need god parent gifts. I've never had a gift from any of my god children. Also could you wait so you could maybe save money over two/three months so you aren't stretching yourselves?

Saver88

Actually a church is free for a christening. You could print your own invitations, decorations can easily be brought off eBay cheaply and in bulk. For my sons christening I went to Iceland and got £20 worth of food then made LOTS of sandwiches and it fed 40ish people. After ours we went in the local social club, already a bar so they paid for their own drinks, alternatively you could have it in your garden, BBQ?? I also agree about no god parent gifts, unnecessary expense. Hope that helps

stormbreaker

I would not give presents to god parents. If you are only inviting close friends and family, do you need invitations or stamps? Decorations? Nope,they get used and binned, so I wouldn't! Outfit.... A young friend had numerous weddings over a short time and asked friends on FB if anyone had something she could borrow, she got lots of offers! (Just an idea?).

chirpychick

The church is free, they do the Christening in a normal Sunday service.

I will forget about Godparent gifts thank you - I wasn't sure if this was something that was necessary.
We will have 17 adults and 5 children back to our house.
Oh and this is leaving it a couple of months and saving up.
We are on a very tight budget.

I have asked on freecycle to see if anyone has an outfit I could have/borrow.

Thank you for the help so far.

mum2one

I never gave presents to god parents when I had DD christened, and she had 6.

Invitiations, - either design yourself on computer - or go onto Vistaprint - they do postcards in 10s, and they have christening designs, (if you get the free emails - you can get the postcards free ) need more than 10 - do a 2nd order.

Food - you don't mention how many your having? do a buffet at home, finger food, you can get a good selection of foos from Iceland

Drink - put on some punch and selection of soft drinks,

Outfit - have a look around charity shops, ask a friend.xx

snowleopard61

For my younger daughter's christening as a baby (she's grown up now) I just made lots and lots of scones and served them with jam and cream. We had wine to serve with them, with juice as an alternative for drivers/children, and it all went down well. Cheap fizzy wine would be fun; tea to drink instead would be really cheap, if you don't mind the faff or have helpers.

ETA: I made the scones over a period of time and froze them - they freeze very well, and are extremely cheap to make.

It sounds as if you've got the baby's outfit sorted, but for interest's sake, my children's christening gown was made from my wedding dress (not by me, unfortunately, but for someone handier with a needle it might well be possible). I thought it was worth doing because fashions in wedding dresses change so much that it was unlikely to be worn again for a wedding, but would be well worth handing on as a christening dress.

You definitely should be able to find a decent outfit for yourself in a charity shop, if you can't borrow one. I've done this for several occasions.

newbutold

Rebel_Hedgehog wrote: »

Well considering the church will be £200, your going to need at least £400 IMO. £60 is simply not possible I'm afraid.

For starters, the church is not £200. All my children's christening a were done on a donations basis.

Can you not borrow an outfit.

Have the Christening party at home, sandwiches, cake & tea. As a friend is making the cake, then you just need to cover the cost of the sandwiches & tea

Invites you can make yourself or cheap ones available here;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20x-A5-Christening-Invitations-Invites-Pads-Packs-Letters-Sheets-Boys-Girls-/280928835842 (first link on google, so worth having a look around.)

Never heard of Godparent gifts before. Therefore I didn't give any & I didn't receive one when I became a Godparent a few years ago.

I would say it is do-able. Good luck & God bless

linzi_h

I would do the following:

Outfit: Looks as if you may be sorted but if not, ebay or see if someone can make one. You might find something cheap in the shops.

Cake: Already done by a friend

Food: Do all your guests know you are doing this on a budget? If so, ask them all to bring a buffet item with them so there is a mixture of things. This can be done instead of them buying christening gifts and you having 20 different frames for pictures! You can also put £20 into iceland for a load of finger food.

Drink: Everyone can buy their own, they usually do for a house party. No one ever expects this to be paid for. If you were having the party in a club, they would be paying for drinks at the bar anyways.

Decorations: Don't bother. If you want to put a few banners around the house then get 1 pack of them for a quid or so but don't worry about balloons etc.

Invitations: You say there are only 17 adults coming. I would call them up and invite them to the christening. People usually misplace these and they will be binned after the event. You could get a personalised thank you card done from ebay after the event to thank them for helping with the buffet and attending.

Stamps: Don't bother - just do a drive by drop off of the thank you cards or have these done before the day and give them out when they are leaving.

Church: You're sorted

Godparent presents: You don't need these, it's a pleasure to be chosen to do this and they will be grateful of this.

Outfit for Hubby & Myself: Shirt and pants for hubby - does he have these? Pop a tie on and thats done. Yourself, see if you have any friends that would borrow you something?

Good luck hun! x

cabriolean

Invitations: For something frugal and a little different, I like to make pennants with the time/date/place on and stick them in cupcakes https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cupcake+with+pennant+how+to+make&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.41524429,d.d2k&biw=1366&bih=643&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&authuser=0&ei=FP8HUaT9FISZ0QWVt4EQ#imgrc=25ca0qVxqODN1M%3A%3BSCQgm5nz2ooqxM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.contentedits.com%252Fclientimages%252F1870%252Fwed.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.sascupcakes.com%252Fcontent.asp%253Fid%253D313640%3B250%3B377 they also look very nice with just a little bit of icing sugar on top.
Clothing: freecycle, freegle, ebay collection only, borrow or buy from a very cheap site like everything5pounds.com
Food: you can make some easy layered jelly that looks fairly expensive http://www.foodlibrarian.com/p/jello.html it should only cost about a pound for 3 packs, sandwiches are also nice and cheap. You might be able to borrow a chocolate fountain from a friend, puff pastry is incredibly versatile and also cheap and easy to use, most supermarkets do a budget range pizza for about 60p, I like to jazz these up with different cheeses, musdhroom, veg etc.