Sorry, not exactly a b day party but I figured this was best board to ask opinion...
The planner that I am, baby has not arrived and I am thinking ahead to baptism. Maybe in July or Aug. How many ppl /whom did you invite? family only?
Would you have close family, including aunts and uncles, invited to church svc and then your home? Or would you have more family invited and have a brunch in church basement after service?
For those that have done church events, do you give a large donation to church for event and are you expected to invite church members?
Pros and cons for both locations...church seems like much less work. No need to clean my home, parents can come straight to church w any food they are making. But home may be a better atmosphere?
I am thinking it will be around noon, next question is the menu. Thinking italian roast beef, cheesy potatoes, etc. Any suggestions on easy party food? Thx
Re: Baptism
We hosted a reception for DS's baptism last August. Because we were hosting it at our house we kept the guest list to our immediate families. Our church has a small hospitality committee that serves pastries and coffee after church, but otherwise they don't host receptions and I wanted something more personal and intimate.
The baptism was part of the 10:30 Sunday morning mass, so the reception at our house started around noon. We had pinwheel sandwiches, fruit and veggies, chips and dip, sparkling lemonade and iced tea, and cake. There was some prep work the day before and morning of, but it was a fairly easy gathering to host and very low key yet very special.
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DS's baptism was in late June 2 yrs ago and we invited all our family (it's small, however, less than 15 ppl), close friends of DH and I and some of our parent's closest friends (that were also very present in our lives growing up) The whole group was around 35-40 people
They were all invited to the service and to the reception/lunch afterwards, about half of them came to church and everyone came to the reception. We took everyone to a restaurant were we had a 4 course meal plus dessert organized; it was a little over the top for a baptism IMO, but that's how these things go here in Italy
To answer your questions: we weren't required to give any kind of donation to the church (however we gave a 50 euros donation) and it was the monthly baptism service (there were 4 babies being baptized) so it was open for everyone to attend
If you don't have a lot of people and have enough space I'd do it at your place, usually I find church rooms really cold and impersonal
Italian food is always a good option for gatherings since most people like it
You may want to talk to your pastor/priest. My pastor felt very strongly about doing it during regular Sunday church service. I, however, wanted to invite my extended family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins on both sides) because that's traditionally how my family has done it, and didn't think that everyone could comfortably fit in the church with the whole congregation. I finally talked him into doing it on a Saturday afternoon and donated $100 to the church.
I purposely held it at 2 pm so we could do cake/ice cream/snacks in the church basement rather than having to cook or have a catered meal. We had cake, cake balls, ice cream cups, veggie tray, chex mix, chips, buffalo chicken dip, punch, iced tea and iced coffee punch (brewed coffee, milk, sugar, chocolate ice cream = amazing!) It was definitely a perk that I didn't have to worry about my home being spotless, there was plenty of room for everyone to sit down and eat, and guests did not have to drive to another location after the service, just walk downstairs.
We had our baptism at the 5pm Saturday service so our family from out of town could attend. Following the service we had everyone over to our house for dinner(about 25 people).
We had pulled pork sandwiches, cheesy potatoes, corn casserole, beans, fruit and veggie trays. I also ordered a cake from a local bakery. hosting the party at our house definitely made it more intimate but it was a pain trying to deep clean with a fussy newborn. Unless you have someone to help you get your house ready and prepare the food I would recommend trying to have it elsewhere.