How Do You Plan a Christening?

When you have a new baby planning anything can seem quite daunting, and then you are asked when you are going to have the baby christened. Just how does one plan a christening? Well thankfully it doesn’t have to be complicated and here’s a few helpful hints to get you started.

The Godparents

It’s traditional to have godparents, and it was their role from a Christian background to assist when raising the child in the faith and to look after them should anything happen to the parents. This is still a role that is used, even if there is no religious attachment in the families. Traditionally there are three godparents, two who are the same gender as the child and one of the opposite gender. But really, whatever you want to do is fine. Once you have chosen these you can start planning the day.

Where Will You Have the Christening?

It’s normal to have the christening at a local church, potentially the same venue that you were married in or even where you were christened as a child. You need to speak with whoever is the current vicar and ask them for permission to have your child christened there. Some churches insist that you attend for a minimum of five Sundays before the service. You need to provide the information about the godparents, and some will require all parties to have been baptised into the faith of that church. Often the christening forms part of a traditional Sunday service, other times it is held just for you. Once this information has all been sorted you will be able to book the date and begin to invite people.

Will There Be a Reception?

After the church service you may want to hold a reception, which tends to be maybe lunch or afternoon tea. It is entirely up to you what format the food takes but bear in mind how far your guests have travelled and how long it’s going to take them to get home. Local community centres, halls or pubs are often good bets for these types of receptions, they are not expensive to hire. It is then up to you whether you are going to book caterers or whether you are going to cater the event yourself. This needs to be booked in and sorted well in advance.

Send Your Invitations

At this point you can begin to send your baby christening announcements, and you want to suggest politely that everyone is there at least 10 minutes before the time the service starts. Obviously if your child’s christening is forming part of a standard Sunday service, the guests will need to be at the church for the whole service and not just a part that involves you. If you are catering an event afterwards it is important to ask guests to RSVP so you can have a better idea of numbers. If you’re using our christening invitations for WhatsApp then you can take advantage of our digital RSVP service to help get in replies from guests.

You’re pretty much ready to go other than that, you can decide whether you want a professional photographer or whether you’re going to have family and friends take the pictures. And you may want to organise a christening cake and a special gown for your baby to wear, but this is of course up to you. The final element is to send out you ‘thank you for coming to our christening’ card. We have a range of cards designed to hold photos from the big day.