Lily's Naming Ceremony

I was christened when I was a baby and I have always had god parents and I have always loved having them, and although im not religious and neither is my partner I really wanted Lily to have god parents to. So I decided that I was going to give Lily a naming ceremony.

A naming ceremony is a little like a christening but with out all the religious talk, instead you say nice vows about love and support and welcome Lily into the family, and you have guide parents instead of god parents.

Lily's ceremony was on the 18th of April 2015 and she was 5 months old and I decided to have it up north at the lovely venue that is Burnley registration office.

I got my friend from uni Adam,  AC French Photography , to come and take photographs. His mum and sister EBella also make cakes and so they made me a beautiful cake with Lily's name on it. I also had a beautiful bunch of Lilies and a guest book.

Lily wore the same gown that I had wore for my christening so this was very special having her in this dress. Here is me when I wore it. 

It was a beautiful sunny day and loads of family came to see Lily welcomed into the family. The ceremony starts with us saying some vows, and then we had my good friend Gordon talk about Lily. We then moved onto the guide parents standing up and saying there vows. We chose Niki and Andrew which is Chris sister and parents to our niece and nephew, and Sharon and Steven who have been a very close friend of my family for a while. They both got presented with a candle to keep with Lily's photograph on.

The last part of the ceremony I had organised something special. I had bought all the pieces of a charm bracelet to make for Lily for when she is older. Each charm had a word on it which is what family provide for her throughout her life. We had love, fun, care, protect, support, teach and advise. Each member of the family held a charm and placed it on the bracelet saying out loud what it was. 

We then signed a certificate and posed for photographs. After the ceremony we all celebrated at a venue with drinks and a buffet. It was a really lovely day and I would recommend having one to anyone.