A baby Christening is a memorable part of a child’s life. Planning for a Christening is not the easiest. Parents know how it is trying to get anything planned with a baby, much less something that is typically formal, or at least appears to be formal. Snuggin has some tips on how to plan the perfect Christening for your little one!
Three To Twelve Months Before
- Church and/or clergy members
- Ask if they would be willing to do the ceremony
- Determine the paperwork that needs to be done beforehand.
- Set a date!
- Who is Coming?
- Who are the guests coming to the ceremony? You can range from immediate family to great aunts and uncles you may have only met once when you were 3 months old. It depends on the size of the church and how many people you want to feed!
- The Godparents will be named at the ceremony so make sure you have those picked out! These should be two people you trust with your child if something were to happen to you and your spouse. Pick carefully!
- Post-Ceremony
- Where do you want to have your “reception” after the ceremony? Depending on how formal or casual you would like it to be, you could have it at the church, a park, restaurant, or you could take everyone back to your house for a home-cooked meal!
- Wherever you decide, be sure to have food and photography! You definitely want to have some sort of photography. Whether that is through a professional or your aunt, you want to have excellent quality photographs. If you do choose to hire a professional, book them as soon as you know the date! While you’re thinking about photographs, look us some photo poses you would like to have of your little one then write them down and put it in a safe place!
One To Three Months Before
- Invitations
- Order or make your own invitations, get all of your addresses, and mail them out! A helpful tip: if you don’t know the address of someone, contact him or her directly. They will be able to tell you better than a relative that has had their address book for 30 years!
- If you didn’t want to spend the time or money on invitations, you could call people and invite them. The only problem with that is they don’t have a physical invitation to hang up to remind them.
- Shop ‘Til You Drop!
- Shopping for clothes for your little one’s big day is going to be so much fun! You’ll find tons of cute clothes, but remember to get a Christening gown and Christening outfit.
- This is a good time to plan what the family is going to wear as well (parents and siblings).
- While you are out, you might as well get some of the decorations for how you want the ceremony site to look, as well as the reception site.
- Photographs
- This is a good time to get photos of your little one in his Christening outfit and gown. These are taken beforehand so you know you have some photos of him in them. You can book your photographer for another day or take a few shots yourself with a “nicer” camera. This prevents you from forgetting to get some photos at the ceremony. Now is the time to get out those poses you wrote down before!
Two Weeks Before
- Be in contact with venue (church), photographer (if necessary), and caterer (if necessary). Double check to be sure you are both on the same page.
Day Before
- Pack up EVERYTHING! And by everything, we mean every little thing. This is going to be a long day for your little one. Make sure you have tons of diapers, wipes, and milk. As well as the Christening gown and outfit, the bottles, the towels, etc.
Day Of Christening
- Relax and enjoy the ceremony of your child being Christened!
At the end of the day, if your outfit doesn’t match perfectly, the balloons don’t stay up, or the food isn’t as good as planned it doesn’t matter. The day is about your child being baptized. There is nothing that can take away from that!
Love,
