Christening - what do I need to do?

We have just had the date of G's Christening confirmed and it is in just over one month. We plan to keep it fairly small and are only inviting both sets of parents, 2 godparents and their partners, SIL and her 2 children and grandma. We were planning on having a buffet at our house afterwards.

What do I need in terms of food/ cake, etc? Any recommendations for the type of food to serve?

Do any of you know if costco membership would be worth considering? Do they have good buffet food?

Do I need to bother with invites, etc?

The church ask for a donation - how much do I donate?

Any recommendations for outfits for me (I am still BF)?

Do we need to think about flowers, etc?

G will be just under 6 months. When would be the best time to get her dress and shoes - I don't know if 3-6 months or 6-9 months would be a better fit for her by then (she is 75th centile for length and 25th for weight)?

Sorry for all the questions!

Thanks for your help.

El11

I don't think I would worry about invites as you are keeping it fairly small.

What time is your christening ours was 5pm on a Sunday as part of the normal service - so we had a buffet of crisps, sausage rolls, sandwiches and chicken strips plus a cake from m and s. ( we went to a pub after though as there was about 30 people). Or we went for a birthday lunch today and had pizza, pasta, garlic bread and salad - which would be fairly easy if you were doing it yourself.

Didn't do flowers - didn't even think about that tbh.

Think we donated about £40 as this is what we could afford at the time - our vicar had never even mentioned it though - could you ask the vicar what sort of donation is expected?

I got Holly's dress and cardigan from next - she was 13mths and it was a 9-12mths size as I think their clothes do come up bigger.

Thanks Angel delight.

I was just looking at the M&S cake! Glad flowers/ invites don't seem essential.

We were also looking at a dress from next so it sounds like the 3-6 month size should still be OK.

I can ask re donations - £40 sounds reasonable so if it is left up to us, we could offer that.

Olivia's was on valentines day - we did invites but probably didn't need to - had the do at our house after (about 30 people) just did a buffet - pizza's, salad, bread, sandwicch fillings - we got the desserts from asda - £1 each and my sister made the cake.  Our baptism was part of the church service, dress from next, cardie from bhs (next one was out of stock)

Baby on top perfect as Olivia always has her hand in her mouth!

We did invites (& thank you cards) from M&S:

Cake, from M&S (it was lovely)

http://www.marksandspencer.com/Pink-Christening-Cake-25-Portions/dp/B002DVTIR0?ie=UTF8&qid=1268331070&categoryNodeID=&ref=sr_1_4&page=&node=42966030&sr=1-4&mnSBrand=core&rh=

And her dress from M&S, the long lenght traditional style pure silk:

http://www.marksandspencer.com/Autograph-Pure-Silk-Christening-Gown/dp/B001XWSRYK?ie=UTF8&qid=1268331070&categoryNodeID=&ref=sr_1_5&page=&node=42966030&sr=1-5&mnSBrand=core&rh=

For size I would order both 3-6 & 6-9 then return one. 

Cant say about food, we had do in local pub which did a good buffet very reasoably, but we had 80 guests.

Hi,

I dont think a costco membership would be worth it as their stuff is for a lot of people

we did a buffet for william's christening and got most of the stuff from waitrose ( you can have a look online and M&S do as well catering service) we also got our cake from waitrose

I didnt have flowers, but this is up to you how you want to decorate your table

as for the chrsitening outfit, ask the shop about the size as some will size small and some big

what i did for decoration on the main table ( we had a sit down buffet) is place cards with blue ribbons and also wrapped blue ribon around the napkins and had little favours ( almonds) french tradition for christening

Moz

Thanks all.

Tigersslady - will check out the desserts at Asda. Olivia looks lovely.

ColetteG- the M&S dress is also lovely. Good idea about ordering both sizes.

Mozarella - thanks for the advice on costco. We have a local waitrose and simply food M&S so will have a look on their website as it would be easy to collect from there. Your buffet looks yummy. I had forgotten about table decorations, etc- will need to get a nice table cover... With the flowers - I had been wondering if these would be needed for the Church? (Christening is part of the service though so perhaps not).

Emmas dedication is just over a week away and we've sent invites but we've got a lot of guests coming. If you're only having small amount of family then I wouldn't bother. We're doing a buffet in the church hall afterwards so we're planning to do jackets with a selection of cold meats, pasta, cold pizza, sausage rolls etc. Dessert will be cake.  No idea about outfits as I'm in the same situation as you. Best I've found so far is a blue floral top from George for a tenner and I'm going to get black trousers too unless I can find something better in the meantime. We're doing flowers in the church but as everythings is in the same place and it's the church I normally go to, I don't mind plus we've got lots of people coming. I'd go with the buy both dresses and return one idea- we're using my old gown so I don't have that problem although I do need to get shoes for her still.

i didnt need to bring anything for the church, the decoration was for home, I think on the waitrose website you need to look at entertainemnet, theit food is really good, fresh and well packed in boxes easy for you to take home they dont need much notice ( 1 week i think) but for the cake they need 3 weeks ( if i remember well)

here is a pic of our table

Thsnks Louise - it is nice that you are able to use your old gown.

Mozarella - your table and decorations look lovely.