Elliott’s naming day

A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of conducting the Naming ceremony for a lovely little girl. Elliott’s Mum and Dad decided that her first birthday would be a good day to do her naming ceremony as well. I conducted Mum and Dad’s (Candice and Ashley’s) wedding a couple of years ago, so it was a pleasure and an honour to be able conduct Elliott’s naming day.

Elliott was given two wonderful sets of godparents and it was lovely to be able to speak about all the reasons that both sets of godparents were chosen along with the special relationship that both couples shared with Candice and Ashley.
It was important to Candice and Ashley to choose people who have each other’s back and who accept friends just for being the people that they are. To show Elliot that it is important to have, and to be, a friend that is on their side through all that life brings. In times of great joy, Elliot will see them celebrate together and in times of sorrow see the support only true friendship can bring.  It was a beautiful and emotional little ceremony that was held at Elliott’s grandparents home. It was the perfect way to appoint her godparents and then everyone got to celebrate Elliot turning One year old.

How lucky am I to share wonderful events in peoples lives? It really is a wonderful thing to be able to conduct ceremonies like this for people that I have been friends with for so many years like Candice and Ashley, and for people that I just meet through the process of a naming day or a wedding. No matter who the ceremony is for, I always feel honoured to be a part of it.

Thoughts on baby naming

One thing that has been on my mind of late after having my baby, is baby naming ceremonies. Should I have a naming ceremony? Should I have a christening? There are so many questions and so many things that need to be considered.

Being a Celebrant I love the idea of a Naming ceremony. You can include as many people as you want and have whatever you want incorporated into the service. It can be conducted anywhere you choose. So many positive things can be incorporated and you are not being restricted to having it in a church where you may be restricted on numbers or who can be a godparent, or mentor or whatever you choose to call them. Check out my previous blog about naming ceremonies here.

There are positives to having a baptism too, for me they are not so much about the ‘church’ part, but for schooling possibilities. Some schools require that the child is a baptised catholic to be accepted, though I don’t know if I agree that it this should be the only reason for going down that route. Sometimes you are told that you cannot have more than 2 godparents and most of the time at least one of them must also be a baptised catholic. I know that with our godson’s baptism they let him have 4 godparents but it was required that someone was a baptised catholic. (Lucky my husband went to catholic school!)

What I think is important and what most people don’t think about, is if you do have Godparents or mentors, and they are the people that you want to raise your children if something happens to you, you really need to think about putting these wishes into your will. Godparents aren’t just about looking after your children if something happens to you. But if your choice of Godparents are not the people that you want looking after your children, you really need to think about putting who you do into your will so that your wishes are known. It may seem like a morbid topic, but these are things that you never think about until you have children.

What do you think are pros and cons for a Naming Day compared with a Baptism?

Baby Naming of Emily

I have been friends with Emily’s parents Tom and Scarlett, since before they were a couple; It was wonderful when they got together. I remember when they fell pregnant with Emily and I watched Scarlett’s tummy grow as the months passed before Emily was born. Scarlett and Tom  have been there throughout my pregnancy too and were there to answer questions and give helpful new parenting advice. So when it came time for Emily to have her naming ceremony it was only fitting that I quickly agreed when they asked me to do perform the ceremony. Even though it was going to be about two and a half weeks after my own baby was due to be born, however my own baby had other ideas and decided to be born about 5 weeks before Emily’s naming day.  This made things a little easier as far as having a fresh new baby when the naming ceremony was happening.

Emily had her naming day on her first birthday; a Teddy bears picnic themed party at Presidents Park, in Wyndham Vale. It was quite a cold August day but the sun did decide to come out for a while. There were so many of their Emily’s family and friends there and having it at the park was great as there was plenty of play equipment to entertain the kids. They had a BBQ lunch and loads of wonderful cakes and finger food, even teddy bear shaped lamingtons!

Many of the guests had travelled from a great distance to be there,  from Wagga Wagga and as far away as Perth. It was really lovely to see that so many people knew how much it meant for Scarlett and Tom to be able to announce the Godparents that they had chosen for Emily and for the Godparents, and Tom and Scarlett themselves, to make some special promises to Emily.

I had a truly lovely day, and it was so nice to see friends of mine, surrounded by all of their closest friends and relatives.