Christening party-who to invite

digzy

Who should be invited to these things? I've been to ones that are akin to a wedding except in peoples houses! Personally, I couldn't be arsed with getting caterers in and the job of listening to my aunts/uncles till all hours, and all the cleaning up after-i'm some miserable fcuker, I know:rolleyes:. i'd much prefer a hotel job but that'll turn into a right lot of money I dont have. neither of us are able to cook for parties.
i've a huge extended family. It's not like I want any gifts off them either.Is it ok to just invite our immediate families? What did the rest of ye do?

January

I swear I need to start reading properly...

Invite who you feel comfortable inviting. I invited immediate family to my last christening. A few more turned up but they were all paying for their own meal anyway.

pwurple

We invited godparents and our immediate families.

Suucee

We had a party in local gaa clubhouse. Done sandwiches and cocktail sausages, and laid out cakes, buns apple tart etc. My mil and sil decided to surprise us by doin a chicken curry n rice. I ended up tryin sort alot myself and cleanin up. I had gone to the clubhouse the evenin before to decorate and that morning set everything out and we were happy with that were planning on relaxing but then they appeared in with huge pits that needed reheating. I ended up havib spend alot of time in the kitchen sorting it and serving and helping clean up. I spent hardly anytime with family . I had hardly anytime with my daughter as every1 wanted to see her. My sil actually drove me demented on numerous times she took my daughter off my family members includin my mother so she could show her to her family. I ended up having to have words with my OH over her.
Then to top it all off my sister and brother who dont get on very wel decided to have an argument in front of every1.
Luckily it didnt cost me too much.
Dont think ill ever have anything like that again.
Already dreading her first birthday party.

implausible

I'm in your camp OP. Some people seem to go all out. We just wanted a small do, so invited parents, siblings and godparents. There's no need to turn it into an expensive, stressful circus.

barbiegirl

Back to the house, have sambos, cup cakes and biscuits set out to look all afternoon teaish. Do tea and coffee, minerals for any kids. It's the afternoon, most people are driving, so just say you're invited for a cup of tea at the house. Only invite immediate family, close friends. If others come it's only a cup of tea.
No need to go over board at all. In fact in our family everyone asks what they can bring and bring whatever they are good at.
If you want you could have a sparkling wine toast ut like I said keep it simple, low stress and easy.

doubletrouble?

a few weeks before the twins were christened i was stressed about the whole idea then someone told me "it's not a wedding" and i went huh :eek::eek: but we're only inviting ...... then she goes precisely. in the end it was just family who in turn helped out with organizing tea and sandwiches. worst case scenario nip down to your local supermarket and see if they can do a deal on finger food like cocktail sausages , sandwiches etc.

WaltKowalski

Immediate family, god parents, priest, next door neighbours and close friends only for me, which still adds up to more than enough.

Shops are full of decent frozen party food now, fancier than sausage rolls!, probably on special offer already, so if I was you, I'd stock up!

Lisha

Just had immediate family ( grandparents his and mine siblings and partners and kids)
Which was still 28adults and 6 kids

Would have loved friends but with those numbers no way

Had a sit down meal in hotel home by 6pm no mess to clean then met a few close friends for a drink in pub

Op do what ever makes you happy congrats on baby

deelite

The church where the child is being baptised may provide a room (at a small fee) and supply tea and sandwiches and cake.

myparenting101

You can also invite close friends & colleagues. Prepare some sandwiches, cakes & tea for them or cocktail.

bulmersgal

I hired out function room in pub, food for 30. 50+ people showed up and we still had food remaining. Was €200 but saved us hassle of scrubbing house, cooking food. I thoroughly enjoy been able to sit back and not worry about anything

hoodwinked

Suucee wrote: »

Dont think ill ever have anything like that again.
Already dreading her first birthday party.

Don't worry at our daughters christening my FIL kicked up a huge fuss, including insulting my family, insulting a relative and his cake who made the christening cake as a gift to us, and threatned to walk out because we weren't letting them hold the baby (she was in the room all of 10 minutes and i wanted to change her out of the silk and slippery dress into something easier to hold her in)

at her first birthday we like you were dreading it, but everyone was so polite it freaked us out slightly! we were just happy they were all well behaved so don't worry about it!


other than the fiasco above for the christening, we rented our local rugby club hall they did baskets with finger food (chicken, sausages, chips, onion rings) at €5 a head we ordered for 25 people but had 50+ there and had loads of food left over, someone in my family gifted us the whole room decorated with balloons, the club did tablecloths on the tables..etc and my mum's cousin did her cake for us (as he is a pro at them),

we invited close friends, godparents, immediate family and the relatives who did the cake.


and overall we enjoyed our day!

digzy

cheers lads, thanks for the replies
I'm a little easier now, knowing what the rest of ye have done. I've one sister, my wife has 2 sisters and 1 bro. we're the only ones married so it'll be a small crowd including our folks:D Reckon i'll go with a local hotel with such small numbers.
Was just dreading another wedding type thing-twas expensive enough feeding the extended family the once;)

holmeste

Also just had immediate family!