After seven months of umm-ing and ahh-ing, Lewis and I have recently decided we would really like to get Freya christened. I was christened as a baby, and although I am not a church goer as an adult, I love the thought of Freya being welcomed into Christianity. I love the thought of her always having somewhere to go in times of need and I would love for her to go to Sunday School when she is older. I am a firm believer in the saying 'It takes a village to raise a child' and knowing that our child will be accepted into a village of faith is very comforting for my mummy heart.
The only problem we have, though, is that neither me or Lewis have ever planned an event or family gathering. Ever. We only moved out of our parents' houses two years ago and there just hasn't been anything to plan in that time. Neither of us have had birthday parties and we didn't have an engagement party back when Lewis proposed, either. And I panicked. In all honesty, the planning has been a huge factor in why it's taken us so long to get round to having her christened. I suffer from anxiety and my brain just could not cope with the pressure or the responsibility. But I really want this for my little girl. As well as the reasons I've mentioned above, I want her to be celebrated. She is such an amazing little girl and she deserves the absolute world.
So. With panic very quickly taking over, I did some research on christenings and have broken our planning down into 5 easy (hopefully, I'll let you know) steps.
1) The Service
Booking the service is the part I am most anxious about. Lewis, Freya and I will be going to our local Sunday Service this weekend to meet the vicar and discuss our baby's christening. We are hoping to find out whether there are any church rules or guidelines on Godparents and whether Freya's christening will be part of the usual Sunday Service or not. We only have a select few dates that are available for us as a family so we're hoping the church has them free too!
2) Choosing Godparents
Oh my goodness. Family politics have never been such an issue! We're pretty sure we know who we would like to be Freya's Godparents but man are we nervous about asking them. Not because we are worried about whether they will say yes or not, but because we are anxious about upsetting other people and having to justify our choices to people. I know deep down that it's no on else's business on who we choose to be Freya's Godparents but it's still a daunting task. Traditionally a baby will have two Godparents of the same sex and one Godparent of the opposite sex and we have actually stuck with this. Hopefully there aren't any church rules on Godparents such as having to have been christened themselves otherwise we may have to rethink our choices.
3) The Outfit
When I was christened I wore a traditional christening gown. You know the type. Full length, lace, frills. The whole shebang. I'm pretty sure I don't want this for Freya, but I do want to dress her in a gorgeous white dress with little frilly socks and make she she is still church appropriate. So far I have only found one dress that I like from Next, but there's a matching headband available so what could be better, really?
4) After The Service
Usually after a christening there is a family get together at your home or a venue you have pre-booked. We live in a tiny three up, two down (is that a thing? it is now) and we can really only fit 3-4 people comfortably in our living room, so we will definitely be booking a venue for after the service. Obviously we can't do this until we have booked the service with the vicar but it will be at the top of our to-do list once the service is booked. I'm pretty sure we'll also be providing some sort of refreshments for our guests as a lot of them will be travelling from hundreds of miles away. I'm also hoping to order a special cake or some cupcakes for Freya's christening but that will definitely depend on our finances at the time.
5) Entertainment
Now I know this step probably isn't the norm for most christenings, but with family traveling from all over the country and a lot of children coming (hopefully, anyway) we are looking into hiring some soft play equipment for the day. It won't be anything extravagant, and the older children will probably be just as bored with it as they would without it, but I would like to have something there for the smaller children to entertain themselves with so their mummies and daddies can have some sort of a break before traveling home again.
I plan on writing a blog post about Freya's christening if all goes to plan, so keep your eye out for that if it's something you're interested in!
Thanks for reading,
Grace x
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