A Peter Rabbit christening

I wanted to write a post about my littlest boy's christening which we had two weeks ago now. It really was a totally perfect day, not how I imagined it to be necessarily, but so perfect and something I wish we'd done for Henry and something we'll definitely do for any subsequent children that we may have. It wasn't a big affair at all, in fact I'd felt so guilty about it for the weeks leading up to it because we'd had a big party at home with 30 guests for Henry's christening when he was 9 weeks old. When Archie was 9 weeks old I couldn't even imagine doing something similar and truth be told, I found Henry's christening more stressful than it needed to be and whilst I'm sure everyone else enjoyed themselves, I was stressed, tired and spent the majority of the day feeding my hungry newborn and pacing up and down with him to try and get him to sleep. When everyone went home at the end of the day we still had guests staying that we needed to entertain, and carpets to hoover, cups and glasses to wash and chairs to put away. I just knew that I didn't want to do such a big party this time around and certainly not at home.

When Prince George was christened I remember thinking that it was a lovely idea to just have closest family and godparents invited - his was the first christening where I'd heard about someone doing that and I decided that that was what I wanted to do this time around. Of course there were a few really good friends that I'd have loved to have been there and family too, but we just had to be really strict. It was a case of inviting 12 people or 30; once you start inviting odd friends or family members, there are suddenly others that you 'have' to invite and then you end up with a huge party again. So that's what we did. Invited our very immediate family and Archie's godparents - my cousin and his fiancee and my oldest childhood friend. Three people that I know will be there for my little boy forever. Three people that were so excited about his arrival and adore him so much. He's so lucky to have so many people that love him and care for him and most of those people were there to celebrate with us that day.
At the church there were three babies being christened and one family must have had over 100 guests - quite a contrast to our 13! 

The service was really lovely though and Archie was an angel throughout. Henry enjoyed sitting next to the vicar's feet and being a 'helper' and as far as christening services go, it was really really lovely. We had a few photos afterwards and then headed out for a posh lunch just down the road.

Chinese food isn't your average christening lunch but there's an amazing posh Chinese restaurant by us and that's where we chose to go. Everyone at the table knew one another well, no one felt uncomfortable or awkward and we all had such a lovely meal chatting and laughing. Both boys were so well behaved and it was lovely to be surrounded by our closest family and friends.

After the meal,we came back home for drinks and cake, and again, because everyone was so close, it was really relaxed. 

Most people just helped themselves to drinks, the boys soon disappeared upstairs to watch the Sunderland game and the ladies sat downstairs and chatted for hours.

 It was so so lovely and a pretty perfect way to spend a Sunday. When everyone had left there were literally a few cups to wash up and the house was back to normal once again. So easy compared to last time and we'd all had such a lovely afternoon.

I loved planning the christening this time around and we had some lovely little details that made the day more personal and special. Lovely Peter Rabbit invites, little seed favours for the table and pretty place cards, a playlist of songs chosen especially for Archie and a few decorations in the house. The whole thing didn't cost a huge amount of money, and both sets of parents kindly helped us to pay for it, but it was so perfect. I can't imagine having done anything else now and I'm so glad that our little Archie was able to have his special day surrounded by 12 people that love him so much. He's a lucky lucky boy.