Wow! What a special day we had! It was a bit tight timing wise as I'd only given myself 2 weeks between Teddy's party and the Christening! But we did it! 

It was as big an event as the birthday parties I've thrown for Ted but it was beautiful and special. 

My biggest challenge was getting the food sorted! I wanted to do a grazing table, I'd done a mini one for her 1st birthday, but this was a lot more people. More importantly, I was at the church and so couldnt set up before people arrived. I also couldn't leave it out to go warm! I did not want our party favour to be food poisoning! I'm not one for cooking and making up the food myself. I can but I dont enjoy it. There's so many services now where you can buy party platters and I much prefer to do that and take the pressure off! obviously the easiest thing would be to hier caterers, but I'm working with a budget and that was one step too far!

We used marks and spencers party food. They do a selection of different sandwiches and wraps, which taste and look great. They're a little on the fancy side for kids, but I found sainsburys do a similar service and had the option for some plainer sandwiches. I also added some sausage rolls, and veggie versions. A big cheese and charceuterie board too. Presentation is where i like to thrive and put my energy in, so I had different levels and textures for the platters. We also had some dips, veggies, olives etc and crackers and crisps scattered. I love using the actual table itself, it just looks so asthetically pleasing, food everywhere! 

The cake again was from the lovely Lisa at The cake box Cheshire. I had found the design on Pinterest and she recreated it fantastically! Lots of comments as usual. This was the centre focus on the grazing table so everyone could admire it! I alwasy feel guilty cutting into such a creation, so it's important everyone gets to see and appreciate it for as long as possible before its demolished!

My mother in law was also very kind and made some hors d'oeuvre type bits. She is a very good host and loves entertaining and cooking! 

To get past the panic of leaving the food out and/or putting it all out while people were there, I organised the food onto the platters I was using the night before. I organised it on the table so I knew where everything was going and I covered them and put them back in the fridge. I had bought some reusable large ice packs and in the morning, took the larger platters out of the fridge and placed them on the table, still covered with an ice pack on top to keep them fresh! These could then just be uncovered once we arrived home. It was a bit of a rush but luckily we got home first and were able to uncover and get the rest out of the fridge and me add the final touches just as people were arriving and Matt (my hubby) was handing out drinks! 

 

The ceremony was beautiful and Elsie was a little star! we shared the christening with a little boy called Hudson who had us in tucks of laughter. Everytime the priest was addressing him and his parents his literally through his dummy out and at the alter! the timing was so comical! Elsie snacked her way through the ceremony (shes rarely seen without a snack!) and looked like a little princess! 

 

It was so lovely to finally relax once home! Well once I'd made a small toast. My parents have a very big birthday this month (60!) and I wanted to honour them on the day, so i had a birthday cake and we all toasted to them! They are my rocks (as well as my amazing husband) but that story is for another day! 

 

We didn't have favours for this party but I did organise a guest book! Again I saw an idea while searching online (probably Pinterest, I live on this site!) but my god! It was over £100! and me being me thought 'I can do that! and cheaper!'. So I did!! I bought 2 box frames to hang it once completed. I went on canva (another site I live on!) and designed a background with details of the day. The idea i had seen was 3D butterflies on a card for people to write their notes on, framed in a box frame. Luckily I found some beautiful laser cut, pastel butterflies and had glue dots left over from Teddy's party (to be honest, I've always got glue dots about!). Again presentation is so important to be! I used my side board, which is in the middle of my room (we're open plan, you can nosey on beggingforarenovation insta) and framed 2 photos. One was from our professional newborn shoot with elsie and the other was one I had taken and edited (another passion I have it photography, love to take photos and capture a moment!). Also on the table I had a christening blanket draped which I had ordered from Etsy. It was a lovely blanket but wasnt exactly what I had wanted for the ceremony, so we didnt use it during but it made for a beautiful display piece! The final touch was the christening candel we had made from our local candle shop in Frodsham (I'll link below), again, I had found a photos of what I wanted on Pinterest and rather than ordering online I asked Helen at Candle plus if she was able to recreate it. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and how quickly she was able to produce this for us.  Of course we also needed some pink pens for people to write their messages.

 

Decorations wise I didnt go mad. I had bought the balloon and box decor (linked below) and done this with Elsie's name. This stood next to the guest book table. I attempted some helium balloons, however they had different ideas and looked pretty sad by the afternoon. The rest of the balloons i scattered on the floor for the kids to kick about! We were in a small area and the decor or the house plus the guest book table and food framed the room!!

We do have samsung Frame Tvs in the living room and snug part of the room. On these I had uploaded another 2 of the professional photos we had and had these displayed throughout the day as another addition to the decor. It's great because you can play your music through the TV while its displaying the photo/art work of your choice. I'm really happy with them and always utilise them when we have company.

 

I've linked as much as I can below for how to recreate the guest book and the decor of the party. As always if you'd like me to put something together for you please don't hesitate to ask!

 

Products to recreate the look, click on the photo to take you to the product:

Guest book:

Decorations: