To ask how much is reasonable to spend on a christening?

[iluvgin]

Just in the process of arranging my son's christening and it's proving to be more costly than I realised!
My husband and I both have fairly large families who would love to come and our best friends all have quite a few children so the guest list is around 120.
We're looking at hiring a function room in a sports club which itself is reasonable at around £100 for the afternoon, however the food price is adding up. The buffet is £10 per head which sounds reasonable until you multiply it by 120 and that's before a church donation etc!
Think the whole day will cost around £1500. It feels like a lot of money but we can't really compromise on the guest list and we want a day to remember so will pay it.

A christening to me is about a child joining the religion so parents, grandparents and god parents only. Cost of the church, outfit and keepsake.

Large events are essentially a party.

Does the church have a hall you can hire and do food yourselves such as an afternoon tea

You don't need to make the food yourselves. Get the,ready made platters from sainsbury or waitrose. that's how I catered my dds first birthday which was a big event with over 100 people. Champagne afternoon tea.

A tip for the buffet. If you provide for 120 people, half of it will go in the bin, seriously. I'd cater for 60...... 80 absolute maximum.