If you cast your mind back to November of last year you may remember that I was panicking about hosting a party for my son’s naming ceremony. In case you’re wondering, a naming ceremony is basically a non-religious alternative to a Christening or Baptism. It allows you to welcome the child in question into it’s family and the wider community. It also gives you an opportunity to select friends or family members to support you in bringing up the child (like Godparents) and they make promises to this effect during the ceremony.

As it’s a civil ceremony we were given lots of freedom over what was included in the ceremony, selecting our own music and asking our friends to choose their own readings. I was really impressed by how much thought they put into the words they each said. Some chose poems, one read some beautiful song lyrics and we also had a Celtic blessing in there too! My daughter also dedicated and sang two of her favourite nursery rhymes to her baby brother. I thought she was very brave to stand up in front of nearly 40 grown-ups! Ultimately, it felt like a really special and personal way to welcome Jesse to the world. The gathering back at our house afterwards was also a great success and I was quite proud of myself for managing to cater and host for so many people.

Unfortunately, I had a bit of a camera mishap on the day so I’ve had to wait very patiently to get hold of photos taken by some of our guests.

Of course there isn’t a single full-length shot of me (isn’t that always the way?) but you can sort of get an idea of my outfit and make-up from the shots I’ve included here. My dress (which was from Warehouse) has a fitted pencil skirt and cute puff-sleeves which I adore. I teamed it with a pair of black patent heels from Faith which have a very classic, vintage look about them. I’ve worn them loads recently so I really should take some photos of them! I also had a deep claret coloured clutch bag from Accessorize which I’m itching to use again as it’s so pretty!

My make-up was actually quite a rushed affair as we had so much to organise at the house before we left for the registry office. I paired simple matte eye-shadows (Revlon and some from the Sleek Storm palette) with my favourite classic black winged liner.

I knew I wanted a strong lip colour and my sister and I ummed and ahhed over my collection of red lippy before settling on this shade. It’s by Chanel, Rouge Allure I think, and it’s called Fatale. I love it! I also wore Chanel nail polish in Gondola which was a LE shade released earlier in the year as part of the Venice collection.

It’s slightly mad how much Jesse has changed since these photos were taken! This afternoon he managed to do a little bottom slide backwards across the playroom floor. He looked so pleased with himself when he realised he’d managed to change his position unaided. Of course, in a room stuffed full of toys he was drawn to the lone power socket in the far corner. As i fear he may be fully mobile by the end of the week, it looks like I’ll be spending the next few days baby-proofing the house!

Loveaudrey xxx