Planning a Christening

laurawaite

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had any tips/advice or knew of any good websites regarding planning a Christening? We are planning on having ours at our local Church then to a local hall of some kind for a buffet and entertainment - maybe a disco, bouncy castle or kiddies entertainer. There will be about 50 adults and 20 kids (big family!)
We will be doing the buffet ourselves and need to keep the cost down as much as poss so any ideas of types of food we could serve would be great, as well as cheap suppliers for invitations, decorations, cake etc.
I would also love to hear what everyone else has done - what entertainment you had, what venue you used, how long it went on for etc (I am thinking of having the 'reception' for about 3 hours - is that about right??
Thanks, any help appreciated

Fen1

First and foremost, talk to your priest. You will all need to sit down together and discuss availables services and dates.

shopaholicsan

Costco do really nice cakes that are bigger then usual size and very reasonable. Food-wise, chicken drumsticks always make a buffet look substantial and bought in bulk, maybe from a local market or even supermarkets when on BOGOF don't work out that expensive. My daughter had a bouncy castle at her son's christening. The kids loved it of course but bear in mind you need constant adult supervision. I think 3 hours is plenty long enough with the number of children you have coming.
Hope it goes well.

NBirdy

After my daughter's christening we had afternoon tea in the church hall. By calling it that it meant we could just do tea/coffee/lemonade, and sandwiches and cakes. My family and the in-laws volunteered to make some sponges, and we had some little iced cup cakes too, then a variety of sandwiches (can be posh if you like, cut the crusts off etc) and a big bowl of strawberries. Another variation would be to do a cream tea with scones, jam and cream.

It was very simple and cost-effective to do, and a little bit different to a standard buffet. Luckily the service was at 3pm on the Sunday so most people had eaten a big lunch before coming!

laurawaite

thanks for the replies, we have been getting prices for hiring a bouncy castle so will probably go along that route for the 'entertainment' but the christenings at our church are done as part of the sunday service so it will be lunchtime when we get to the hall so unfortunately i think people will be hungry! so will be doing sandwiches, chicken drumsticks, sausage rolls etc for buffet. have been looking on the weddings boards for advice on buffets and amount etc!

kristi

Hiya! We had my daughters christening in August and it was such a good day! We had the church at half 12 (that lasted half an hour) then we went on the our local pub function room which cot us £30 for 4 hours. My partners parents made the cake and buffet as a gift. We took our own stereo and plugged the ipod into it, just put it on the stage and it was loud enough. I did party bags for all the kids (about 15) I put loads of sweets in, for the girls I put girly things in,we got packets of bobbles and flashing pens and put them in a girly party bag. For the boys we got pencil cases (19p from home bargains) and put sweets in and a pencil, rubber and sharpener in. We also put balloons in each one. Then the best thing was we got each of them a giant inflatable hammer (19p from asda) which kept them all (not quiet!) happy for the whole time.

We also took our own cup drinks for the kids ( 99P for 12 asda).

For decorations I bought my own banners and christening balloons (all half price from Card Warehouse) then I got a proffesional to do the table balloons which weren't too bad, we had a bundle of 3 with small balloons inside and a weight on every other table then we had a big Disney Princess balloon by the cake with Ella written on it and all that was just under £50.

Afterwards a few of us took the remaining food back to ours and partied on into the night (yeah right I was in bed by 9!)

Everyone commented on what a good day it was.

NBirdy

If you want an alternative to the traditional buffet, how about some cooked joints of meat (roast beef, chicken, maybe a ham) with associated sauces/mustard etc, sliced and served with bread rolls? You could have a large pasta salad, regular salad etc too though that means forks. I went to a wedding reception where they did this for the food and it was lovely! Sort of a carvery buffet.

laurawaite

thanks again for all the suggestions, my individual thanks buttons won't work, just flips me back to the top of the screen but i am noting down all your ideas. kristi your little girls christening sounds like it was a lovely day, i like the party bag idea as once we have paid for the christening we probably won't be able to afford a birthday party too so will just take her out for the day on her bday so this will be kind of a joint christening/bday celebration. the joints of meat is also a good idea as we are catering for quite a lot of people and it is filling so will look into prices for that.

madoldbat

Hi.we caterd both DD & DS christning days.
Tables coverd in white sheets trimmed with pink/blue ribbon & tiny flowers.
Napkins paper pink/blue.
I made the cakes OH decorated them.DS was decorated with tiny pale,mid deeper blue flowers and a small crib made from sugar blue ribbon around.DD same but pink ribbon and small crystal orniments bootee,dummy,teddy and pram.
On both occasions did same buffet (there was a 3 year gap).
We had about 20-25
Salmon mouse,tiny pitta pockets with chicken and salad filling,cream cheese ,watercress & smoked ham ribbon sandwichs.Cheese board,Fresh bread for cheese and mouse.Fresh fruit flan and cream,Lime & chocolate merangue pie.Nice white wine,soft drinks for children and enough fizz for one glass each.
Didnt need to do special food for children ,little tikes were like vultures:rolleyes:
Also we kept it to one and half hours service had taken half an hour so 2 hours in total.
To be honest I dont see why the children should have gift bags to take home but to get a picture of themselves with child whos day it is would be a nice idea.
Each year we celibrate DS & DD special day with small gifts.They like this as they were both 6 months old when welcomed into the church so they get a birthday and a celibration day.Theres no way are we allowed to miss one and their 12 & 15 now:rolleyes:

FiFi_Mad_Mum

For my DS2 christening on Easter day I made up thankyou bags with easter cellophane bags purchased from Lakeland and I filled them with chocolate easter eggs, bunnies and chicks and printed off a little thankyou card from my son, which I attached with a little plastic nappy pin, available from craft shops. For the children we gave them all a chocolate egg as they were leaving and we took giant jenga and and a mat to protect the hall but instead of playing jenga all the kids made a model of my older son using the travel rug as his kilt and a bar tray as his head.:rotfl:
Definetely recomend Costco cake and you can add a little baby ornament or something if you wish.
FiFi:)