This weekend we had a Baby Welcoming Ceremony for Jordan. We did this in lieu of a baptism which just wasn’t our bag. We wanted to have our families come together in honor of his birth, but be something small, warm and casual. I did a lot of searching online for ‘alternatives to baptisms’ and sadly did not see many options until I found this site: http://celebrantinstitute.org/?p=children. The Celebrant Foundation and Institute had some great ideas for ceremonies and put me in touch with a local celebrant named Mimi, who was very cool and totally willing to do whatever we wanted.
The ceremony was held in the cozy wine room of a local restaurant in Old Town after brunch and lasted about 20 minutes. In the invitation we included a small card for everyone to write a wish they had for Jordan which they read out loud. It was wonderful to hear what our guests had to say and I defiantly shed a tear. We had Jordan’s Great Grandma and both sets of Grandparents read blessings. And we asked our siblings be Jordan’s ‘Guideparents’ instead of Godparents who are traditionally “responsible for the child’s religious activity”.
The celebration turned out great and was just the right tone. If you are interested in doing your own ‘alternative baptism’ I posted a PDF of the ceremony text, just go to: http://www.designbyg.com/Welcoming/ and click anywhere on the invite to get to the file.
I wish Jordan had been born before Pia - this is so fantastic, I want to copy it and adapt it for . . . for what . . . an 18 month old? hhmmm, the wheels are spinning.
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