Money-saving Christening...any tips?

sloth

Hello! I am actually wife of Sloth and have never posted anything before so please bear with me............

We have had a beautiful baby boy :j and have decided to have him christened. Having a baby brings it's expenses (:eek: !!!) so I was just wondering if anyone had any money saving tips to help reduce the costs of the christening? In particular I was wondering if anyone could recommend where I could get a reasonable but really nice christening outfit from and also if anyone could recommend a good and reliable online supplier of paper plates, banners, balloons etc?

Also does anyone know if there is any christening etiquette or traditions that we should be following?

I'm not a natural organiser so your help will be much appreciated! Thx in advance. xoxo

sloth

Just to be clear..I did mean a christening outfit for the baby and not for me!!!:D

Outnumberedbysmallpeople

Congrats on your new baby boy!

When we baptised our eldest (dh is from a large catholic family- i was very young and very pressured into doing it, by the time we had the following 3 i decided to say no so only eldest was baptised) I bought her outfit from ELC- the larger branches carried clothes and it cost £12 (this was 10 years back) tescos larger branches and mothercare both carry christening outfits, BHS do baby-sized linen suits/formal wear in their wedding collection too i do believe. What i did want to point out though is when i had her baptised we were told afterwards it wasn't her entire outfit that needed to be white- she could have worn anything and just had a white shawl as it just needs to be something white to symbolise purity (i think... going back a few years here!)

the money saver in me would say check with family- there is bound to be an aunt or granny somewhere itching to get their family heirloom worn (our family one was wool and i wasn't torturing DD1 with it and DH's mother is one of 9 so their family gown was a tad worse for wear after 9 of mil's generation and around 25 of dh's generation)

Foodwise what we did was asked people to bring drink, provided soft drink ourselves and did jacket potatoes with alot of different fillings on offer, it was september so people appreciated it more than a cold sandwich. Only downside was we ran out of glasses so the following christmas everyone bought us glasses and we had over 100 glasses for christmas (not kidding!!!) 10 years later though we've never been short of a glass even with 4 children smashing them.

Good luck- I spent the entirity of DD1s christening trying to prevent my mother launching herself at DHs step-father and my nan tutting at my sisters partner for daring to sit down when there were "adults" in the room (he was 27 and my nan was obsessed with him being a youngster with no respect :rotfl: )

Good luck chosing godparents too- we chose our 2 best friends and my sister, my sister went on to become someone who constantly looks down on me, my bestmate married someone who hates children so now has no contact with DD1 (his loss) and dh's bestmate has been a complete star- still turns up to every event, babysits if needed.

sloth

LOL:rotfl:

Thanks for thr shopping tips - I had NO idea where to even start looking......I have shawls that I was given when DS was born - one was used by DH's Mum to bring him home from hospital so was planning on using that one.

Our godparents should be ok. One is my brother (too cool for school but would come up trumps if needed) and DH's sister (reliable and thoughtful)....have no idea what the reception will hold for us as have no idea who is even coming as yet....we are catering ourselves and everything I put in an oven or on a hob ends up burnt and shrivelled......did think about making the cake myslef but don't want anyone to break their teeth.........;)

Outnumberedbysmallpeople

cake is another one of those "ask the aunts" things- ours was made by my moms friend, photographs done by my uncle- both for free.

Another thing i'd say is tell people to put into a bank account for him rather than gifts unless they are someone really close as a bunnykins 2 handled drinking cup doesn't help a great deal in life but savings will at 18 or 21

(and my potatoes survived due to one brother in law being jehovahs witness who wouldn't attend the service but did stay at my house turning potatoes and grating cheese LOL)

Sallys_Savings

I've had parties in the past (not christening though) where we've had jacket spuds.
I have used slow cookers that I've begged and borrowed for the day (oh and one came off freecycle). I made up a chilli con carne, veg curry, chicken curry and sweet and sour sauce in another. I chopped up all the vegetables, made up the coleslaw and grated a cheese the night before. Made up the dishes in the morning and turned all the slow cookers on and then threw in a tin of baked beans (our local coop does a huge catering size tin of heinz) in a saucepan as soon as we got home.
It made it all so simple and everyone helped themselves.

mistythyme

I agree with asking around family for Christening gown - it is quite nice as well as it gives a history

We catered our first daughters christening - mainly cold buffet/sandwiches and some family members helped by bringing a tray of sandwiches or a plate of something

For the cake - if you have a tesco they do nice iced fruit cakes (in the Special range I think) which we used at our wedding - you could do same for christening - just add some decoration - or ask around local bakers to see what they do. Or if you have any bakers in the family that can help make it maybe? And you can find some decorations for it reasonably.

Paper plates etc try cash & carrys, poundland, tesco, asda etc same for decorations

Hope it all goes well - and the most important thing at the end of the day is the fact that you are all their together celebrating

Lillibet_2

For our sons baptism we wanted something traditional but not a gown as such, he was 9 months old and would have looked just silly in a traditional long dress! In the end we chose a white cotton all in one shorts/shirt set, kind of colonial (according to a very elderly freind who lived in the colonies when they really were colonies!) but pratical as all in one so couldn't get bunched up or come adrift etc. It cost us £24 from Bentalls and I have since embroidered his initals & the date on the back in white so that there is a discreet record should it ever be used again. John Lewis also had a big range of beautiful outfits but these all tended to start at twice the price!

We held the reception in the church hall as we hadn't got room at home, for food we bought a 7 bird roast from our local butcher, roasted it overnight at home then transported it to the hall in a insulated bag & let it "rest" during the service, served it carved into pitta bread with a bit of salad & relish & followed up with my mums HM christening cake for pudding. We did supply wine & soft drinks & tea & coffee with pudding. In total the food & drink cost us less than £150 to serve 60 prople, not bad at under £3 a head! The hall hire was £30 and we made a £50 donation to the church for the service (baptizms/christenings are free unless you book the organis/choir too, but it is polite to make a donation). it is customary to invite the minister back to the reception afterwards. We also gave ours a bottle of wine but he is a friend too.

Don't be afraid to delegate jobs : on the day we had one set of godparents giving out orders of service & in charge of preventing guests piling into the hall to see us/Spud before the service, the other pair of godparents ushering guests to seats & we left Spud in the care of very good friends whilst we set up, they brought him to the service about 10 minutes before it started which kept him calm & quiet. We were also very mean & wouldn't let everyone hold him & pass him around until; after he had been fed after the service, it meant that he was calm & contened the whole of the day rather than shirty & grumpy.

Rather than employ a photographer we asked 2 people to be in charge of
taking photos, plus we left 2 disposable cameras laying around for guests to use.

HTH;)

sloth

Our son will be 9 months too when christened and he's very long and tall so I think he will look better in a little outfit as oppose to a gown.

Thanks for the advice re: inviting the minister back - I wasn't sure if this was the case. We were planning on making a donation to the church but had no idea how much to give.

I like the idea of the disposable cameras too.

Everyone has been v. helpful so far - really appreciate all your cmments. Thx. xoxo

morganb

For DS2 Christening we held the reception at home (for DS1 it had been in a pub and then everyone went down with gastro-entiritis so I felt safer having it at home!!)
We just did a platter of cold ham and turkey, which the butcher cooked and sliced for us and did a very good deal, a big bowl of prawn salad, a big bowl of potato salad and a big bowl of greek salad; lots of nice baguettes / ciabatta (all part-baked so it was cheaper and came out of the oven all lovely and warm) and then strawberries and ice-cream for pudding.

Can't remember how much it cost but it was less than £2.70 a head, and people just helped themselves ... was a lot quicker and easier than faffing around making sandwiches or putting sausages on sticks, etc.

sloth

The idea of big bowls sounds great - nice and simple, I won't be able to burn /ruin anything like that and it won't overtax my (somewhat useless) cooking skills!!:o