SPR: Christening time in between church and party

I am in the process of booking DS christening and our church only holds them on Sundays at 3pm, the place I want to have the party won't be available until 6pm for the party. I figured the church ceremony will prob run until about 4pm and then we'll take pics, etc with the family bringing us to 4:30 -- what do I do with our guests for the next hour? The reception isn't too far from the church so it would take about 20 minutes to get there.

Am I expected to invite them over to our house for the hour in between to hang out? I'm not too happy about having to do this since our families are big and having 50 people in my house would be chaos...Would it be rude to be like ok so we'll see you at the party in a little bit?

WWYD?

Re: SPR: Christening time in between church and party

I think it wopuld be rude to expect people to find something to do for an hour and a half ...Can you have the party someplace else?

Re: SPR: Christening time in between church and party

Re: SPR: Christening time in between church and party

well, if a lot of your family lives near, chances are they will go home for a little while maybe?...I'm guessing some of them may not even go to the church and just the party...that is why we are doing an immediate reception so it's pretty much guarenteed that everyone will go to the church...that being said, if you have that gap, you are going to have to invite them over!! or if your Mom's house is close, go there!

Re: SPR: Christening time in between church and party

IMO, it's not ideal... but it happens a LOT.

One hour is not a big deal: I've had to kill 2 hrs a few times.

See if your church will allow you to host a coffee hour . It may help fill the gap. With the ceremony starting 15 minutes late at 3:15, with it ending 3:45-4:00, pics til 4:30, you could go down for coffee until 5:15ish, and then let your guests have 30 minutes to go to reception & show up a bit early.

Re: SPR: Christening time in between church and party

Our church is at 1 and the party starts at 2 a couple of blocks away.

Did you put the church time on the invitation? We are only having immediate family at the church then everyone else is just coming to the party. When people called to RSVP I did tell them what time the church was, so it's up to them if they want to come or not. Maybe do the same? If you put the church and party on the invitation, I do think it's rude to have such a time gap in between.

Re: SPR: Christening time in between church and party

We changed venues bc of this. Our church is at 1:30 and the place I wanted wasn't available until 4. There is a bar there, but a lot of people don't drink who will be attending and I felt it was too much time in between to kill. The new place is more $$$ but starts at 3pm.

Re: SPR: Christening time in between church and party

We invited people back to our house. Our house is small, but we managed. It was in December so people could not be outside, maybe you can set up some area outside to help alleviate the congestion.

Re: SPR: Christening time in between church and party

We have the same problem! Our church is at 1:30 and the party is at 4. Actually 4:30 but it was supposed to start at 4. That's a whole other story But We are going to have to invite people back to the house i guess. We don't want to have the party anywhere else and the only time it was available was 4:00. We figured whoever really wants to come, will be there. If they don't, no big deal to us. I'll just set up a few tables in the back yard and keep people outside since it's in June. Hopefully it doesn't rain.

Re: SPR: Christening time in between church and party