Your child’s christening is an important time and a beautiful ceremony that you will want to remember forever. Luckily, planning a baptism that is special and memorable is not difficult, you just have to take the time to do some careful planning. Your first order of business will be to talk with your church. Some churches only do baptisms on certain days. Other churches provide more freedom and let you choose any day. Once you know how your church handles baptisms, you can set about the task of choosing the date and confirming that date with your church.
The next step is to contact the church for information on baptisms. Some churches only do group baptisms, others will do individual ones. Your church also may have special requirements or classes that should be taken. It’s important that you have all this information from your church before you set any dates or plan any parties. The next step will be to choose the Godparents. This is a very serious decision and an amazing honor for the people you ask. Your child’s Godparents will help you raise your child spiritually, and many people ask the Godparents to also be legal guardian if something should happen to them. Because this is such an amazing honor and special role, and because you want someone who will always be in touch with your child, many people choose a family member or very close friend.
Some faiths require that the parents take special baptism classes before their child can be baptized. It is important that you speak to your church to clarify what all the requirements will be ahead of time. Once you have confirmed that all requirements can be met, you are ready to prepare invitations. Store bought invitations will work nicely, or you can choose to have the invitations custom made.
Once the invitation list is complete, the date is set, the Godparents have agreed and all baptism requirements are met; you are ready to start making decisions regarding having a reception and what might be served. Smaller groups can be handled at home, while larger groups could be hosted at a reception hall. If you will be having the invent catered, it is important to meet with the caterer and make those arrangements as soon as possible.
At some point during this process you will need to choose your baby’s christening gown. Some family’s have special, heirloom christening gowns that are actually worn by most of the baby’s. If your family has such a tradition, you can follow it or you can choose to buy an outfit just for your baby. Christening gowns are a little like wedding dresses in that they can be anything from extremely basic and simple to very elaborate and detailed. If you are buying your baby’s christening outfit new, take the time to shop around for the perfect outfit for this special occasion.
The final decision to make is what you will buy your child to commemorate this glorious event. You will want to choose something that they can always keep with them. A special cross or crucifix is a nice idea, although it can be hard to keep track of through the years. Another idea is a new bible or prayer book. You can then make notes in this book including the names of the Godparents and the date and place of the baptism. If your family is close to the minister or priest you can also document that information in the book. This bible can then become something your child will always keep not only as a reminder of their baptism, but as a source to help guide them on their journey.
Read On : Christening Gowns
