Baptism question

[thatdarncat]

DD gets baptised next Sunday after lunchtime mass. DH is not Catholic and his family are asking if they need up come to the mass beforehand or if they can just turn up before the baptism? Although I'm a practising Catholic I haven't been to many baptisms and don't know the etiquette for this (besides I would have been at the mass anyway!). Advice welcome.

When I have gone to Catholic baptisms I haven't gone to the mass before, just the baptism. Seems to be ok, most of the non Catholic family did the same.

I've never seen a baptism directly after Mass, it's either been in Mass or completely separate. So you're not alone in being a lifelong Catholic with no experience of this!

Bearing in mind it's Easter Sunday, the church will probably be packed. I doubt the priest would notice if they turned up at the end of Mass and came in. If they're not Catholic, there's no real reason for them to come to Mass. Even if he does notice, it doesn't seem unreasonable behaviour.

BTW, I had DD baptised on Easter Sunday 4 years ago. It was beautiful. And we got to take a big bottle of the Easter water home with us, which lasted for ages.

The baptisms take place after mass in our parish. I've never been to one that takes place during a mass

Our priest encourages people to just come for the baptism, not the mass before it. Doing both can make it a very long time in the chapel especially if there's other young siblings. Most people ourselves including just turn up at the chapel 5 mins before the ceremony.