A Naming Day and First Birthday Celebration

Neither Chris or I are religious I mean we got married in a castle not a church because we felt it would be hypocritical, so when it came to doing something for George we decided not to go down the traditional christening route.  So I sat down and googled the other options instead of a christening and out of the many choices out there we decided on a naming day which seemed to fit in with our lifestyle and we loved the idea that we could do it ourselves which would cut down costs!  We combined it with G's first birthday as my parents would be visiting from Malaysia and meant we only needed to get everyone together once.  I found a brilliant book in our local library

It covered everything you could possibly want to know about organising a naming day including theme ideas and poetry ideas.  It was like a one stop shop and I basically used the book to write our complete service.

Next on the list was to find a venue we decided to check out our (very) local non league football club and because we wanted it for a sat afternoon we managed to get the room for the bargain price of £10/hr and we didn't even have to use their catering, I'd got in my head I wanted to do a simple afternoon tea so thought I'd do it myself (in hindsight not my best idea as made the actual day more stressful than needed) I managed to pick up some disposable cake stands really cheap in sainsburys sale to display the food with enough to put them out on every table.

The day before G helped me make some scones

I got some cake toppers from a lady on eBay and used the last of our layers of wedding cake and re-iced it myself 

This was my first attempt using roll out icing and have to say I was pleasantly surprised with how well it came out!  We bought G a lovely little outfit from mamas and papas he looked so cute unfortunately this is the best photo we could get of the little rascal!

The service started with a little about what a naming day is and that we wanted to welcome G officially into the family and reassured the religious in the room that it wouldn't inhibit him seeking religious knowledge in the future we just wanted to give him the chance to make his own choices in the future.  Chris then explained a little about how we came up with G's name.

Chris and I made promises to G to be the best parents we can, to love him, look after and care for him as long as he needs us.  We chose a poem called 'I shall' by Paul Weston which I felt echoed our promises.  We chose guardians for G these were my brother and wife and Chris' sister and husband and they also made promises to G.

Then we broke the exciting news that G was going to be a big brother before reading another poem 'my first birthday' by unknown author then singing happy birthday.

After the ceremony we had a game of pass the parcel for the children whilst afternoon tea was served.

I can't begin to thank people enough for their help and for everyone being part of G's special day also the generosity of gifts and money he received overwhelmed me.

Here's his naming day cards such a lovely selection I thought he wouldn't really get any or all the same card but there are so many lovely ones on the market now.