Santi’s DIY Sailor Christening Party

Genesis 30:22-23

Then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her womb. So she conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.”

Santi’s baptism was a big thing for my family because we have waited for a very long time for his arrival in our lives. It was only necessary to celebrate his entry to the Christian world with our friends and family.

It took a while for us to finalize Santi’s baptism because we were waiting out for Tatay (my FIL) to feel a little better from his condition. Santi was already on his fourth month when we had the rites.

Our first choice was St. Alphonsus Mary Liguori Parish or more popularly known as Magallanes Church. Five years ago, Eggy and I considered this church as well for our wedding ceremony. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get our desired schedule so we had to look for another venue.

I love the facade of this church. They have a cozy and beautiful baptistry located at the garden and it was perfect for our intimate celebration.

These were the requirements for a baptism at St. Alphonsus: (1) birth certificate; (2) marriage certificate (if married); and (3) attendance of parents to the Catechism conducted by the church. However, since we were not Magallanes residents, we had an extra thing to do and that was to get a permit from our parish to allow us to hold Santi’s baptism at St. Alphonsus.

Our parish in Paranaque was initially very strict and we had a hard time securing a permit but since we really wanted a private ceremony, I literally begged them to allow us to do it at St. Alphonsus. After much prodding, we finally got clearance. There was no formal permit given. The staff from our parish just got in touch with the staff of St. Alphonsus.

After finalizing our schedule from the Church, I checked out Racks, which was the nearest restaurant near St. Alphonsus. To my delight, Racks was available so I booked right away.

I don’t know how it came about but it was always top of mind to do a DIY sailor or nautical theme for Santi’s Christening.

Hmm, maybe it was because we got a baptismal sailor costume from one of our baby showers (thanks, Ms. Kate!)

Since I was still on my maternity leave, I planned to DIY most of the preparations, with the help of my architect/artist sister, Ela.

Here are some of our preps —

I initially purchased clip-arts for P270. I got them as high-resolution files so we used them for practically everything (tabletop centerpieces, event tarpaulin, invite, thank you cards, placeholders, etcetera). The deck consisted of four designs of paper, anchors, sailor bears and monkeys, waves, lighthouses and a loooot more. It was really super sulit!
I also ordered paper mache items and Ela did all the painting.
I purchased bear bottles and filled them up with gummi bears. This was my giveaway. I just decorated it with a leather string and an anchor charm.

This was the ceremony at St. Alphonsus. Santi is officially a Christian!

This was our dressed-up venue in Racks. The whole second level can accommodate 80 to 100 guests. It was a little crowded though to push it to its maximum capacity. I decorated the whole place with the DIY tabletop centerpieces and got floating balloons (which were all gone when the party was finished, haha! The kids looooved ’em!)

The venue with the awesome floating helium balloons.

The candy bar that I got was love. The decorations were so in sync with the whole theme and I couldn’t have asked for a better supplier (who I just chanced on while browsing Instagram, haha). The cake and cupcakes from my local neighborhood cafe were also awesome! <3 I love, love, love my suppliers.