Last week was Imogen’s naming ceremony and we’ve all been so busy since that I haven’t had chance to blog about it until now.
The day started with a ‘lie in’, which basically means that Imogen woke us up at 7.30 instead of 6.30 (this is a luxury!) and when she saw the balloons in the morning she was very excited and not sure what to make of the place being completely rearranged. Our friends Nicky and Ben had arrived late the night before and we had some fun playing with Imogen and getting ready. Then it was off to Maison Mayci in King’s Heath for some fresh croissants, a quick walk around Highbury Park in the beautiful autumn light and then back home where preparations for the day were well under way.
After a quick last minute shop the guests started arriving. We’d kept it pretty small and low key - family and a small handful of friends, but the place very quickly filled up with the forty or fifty people who were coming.
Emily had been baking and making for a day or so, and we had stacks of lovely homemade cakes and such to lay out.
Then, in amongst saying ‘hi’ to everyone, handing out drinks and trying to get everything organised, our celebrant Victoria arrived. The night before we’d decided on the layout of the room but plans went a little awry (as always) so there was some last minute moving around.
Meanwhile I was in the bedroom with Emily’s guitar panicking about having put myself in the situation where I was singing a song and playing the guitar for the first time.
But there was no time for that - with a few sage words from John on how not to hit bum notes and keeping it simple, it was time for the ceremony.
It was a Humanist naming ceremony, and having never been to one before I wasn’t prepared for such an honest and beautiful event!
We invited four friends Martin Buttle, Nicky Wenham, Betty McBean and John Twells to represent all of the friends and family in being ’special friends’ on the day and each of them read a poem to Imogen. Meanwhile she was crawling around and being the centre of attention. At one point she crawled up to a boy sitting at the front and started clapping hands and trying to steal one of his toys. She was perfectly well behaved - all smiles, yelps and claps, crawling all around the room.
Since she was born I’ve often walked around with her singing to her, so I thought it would be appropriate to do the same thing on the day. Philip, Emily’s dad managed to capture this nice shot of us while I was playing the guitar badly! In fact, Imogen joined in at the beginning and had a good bash on the guitar! All very cute.
The readings came to an end and John proposed a toast. After that, we broke out the food and more drinks and wandered and chatted with everyone. Most people took the opportunity to add some soil to Imogen’s tree that we planted on the day - a Japanese Acer, or to write in her book.
It was great to have so many people around on the day. There were a fair few people who couldn’t be there, and we kept it small so we could have it at home, which I think was the right decision…
All in all - it was a wonderful day and one I’ll never forget. A really personal, honest event and a good time had by all!
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