The first Sunday in July saw the christening of our little girl. Originally we thought we would have got around to having her baptism when she was much younger, but last summer went too fast and we decided that we wanted a garden party after the service - so we waited.
I love having an event to plan, so started looking at Pinterest early to get some inspiration, opting for white styling with gold accents. The first item I hunted for was an outfit for Sophie - always the most fun job first! Now she is walking about, Monsoon have the most gorgeous dresses for special occasions and when I discovered the Baby Estella Dress (£40) in antique gold, (it is sold out online in this colour, but I've since seen it in loads of their shops and it is also available online at House of Fraser) I was sold. I was a bit stumped about what shoes to team the dress with, as obviously didn’t want to put her in her trainers - but these were professionally fitted and know these are the best for her feet. However, as she was going to be held for the service and have a big nap during the party I thought that going for a cute pair of soft soled gold sandals that I found in the Gap sale (now £6.99) wasn’t going to life-long damage.
Although I was keen for my dress to ‘fit’ with my theme I didn’t want to look at all ‘bridal’ but thankfully I found a creamy-gold lightly sequinned dress that I loved that didn’t look like I wanted a veil…. This is Dress Four (£170 reduced from £250) from the Phase Eight Limited collection - where the times have extra details to make them even more special. I’d popped along to my fave local beauty rooms (The Little Palour) for a spray tan as the christening was pre-holiday and I was worried about blending into the dress!
I had visions of oodles of white bunting hanging round our garden and luckily one of my favourite mum pals was happy to lend me what she'd purchased for her wedding a few years ago which was just perfect (£7/3m white fabric bunting Talking Tables) and I also added some card Heart cut-out-bunting (£8.25/3m Talking Tables). So at the crack of I was hoping round the garden (with the help of my bro-in-law) pinning bunting ribbon to anything that stood still. To add some gold highlights we tied gold diamond glitter garlands (£7 Talking Tables) round the food gazebo and hung gold and white stars (£12 pack of 3 Talking Tables) to give a chandelier effect - which I replicated under our garden umbrella too. White and gold balloons (5 printed confetti balloons €5.90 My Little Day) and pom-poms (£6.50 White and £9 Gold) filled the corners of the garden and added to the general sense of occasion.
As we had over 50 guests (it always gets out of hand doesn’t it?!), I was super keen to make the catering as easy as possible using disposable plates, napkins, straws and cutlery. My sister and Mum and father-in-law were even sent, all making oodles of sandwiches which we added to with some other party food.
The real showstopper was saved for a sweet treat in Sophie’s Christening Cake. I started conversations with Love Rosie Cakes and Cupcakes MONTHS ago planning the perfect cake, and boy, did they deliver! The 8" Madagascan Vanilla cake (£55) looked just perfect, especially with the speckles of gold leaf on the buttercream icing king it sparkle in the sunshine. Whilst cutting the cake my husband told me I MUST have on of the chocolate dipped cherries thank goodness I did - they were life-changingly-incredible! These teamed with the edible rose petals and buttercream kisses made it look stunning. We had so many guests we added mini cupcakes (£1.10 each) which made the ‘cake table’ look even more special. To set the cakes off I popped the big cake on a beautifully simple Bosley Cake Stand (£25) from Neptune Weybridge and the cupcakes on a matching Bosley Platter (£14). I loved that they didn’t detract at all from the beautiful cakes but looked elegant and in keeping with the party.
My mum and dad generously bought all of the bubbles for the occasion from our local wine store: 1853 Wine Club, opting for Hardys Crest Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot (£9.99) which was perfect to sip on this beautiful summer occasion and we hired the glasses (for free - such an amazing service!) from Waitrose. Like all these big occasions, the day goes too quickly, I didn’t get to talk to anybody long enough take enough photographs and all too soon we were talking down the decorations. Oh to the next party to plan!
No comments
Post a Comment