Parenthood is not without its ups and downs, but mums and dads often complain that the experience of bringing up youngsters is over all too soon. Babies quickly turn into toddlers, toddlers into children, children into teens and then, within what seems like the blink of an eye, they’re all grown up and making their own way in the world.
With this in mind, it’s important to celebrate the landmark occasions in those early years in style. Of course, the birth itself is the most important event and this is closely followed by any christenings or baptisms that take place. To help make these celebrations even more special, you can send out cute christening invites.
Memories
Handing out cards and keeping a record of these ceremonies by investing in photo books and other items can help ensure you’re able to relive the memories of the event clearly for many years to come.
Meanwhile, research carried out by Citroen recently revealed that the experience of travelling home from hospital with a newborn is one of the most memorable driving experiences for parents. The firm polled more than 1,000 parents aged between 25 and 75 years and found that the cautious trip from the maternity ward to the house was the single most memorable car journey for 26.9 per cent of all mums and dads.
More stats
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the trip to the hospital for the birth was also high up there on the list. It came in second position, with 18 per cent of parents identifying it as their most memorable car journey.
Meanwhile, the first family holiday was the most treasured car trip for 14.6 per cent of respondents. Other journeys that featured included dropping kids off on their first day of school and driving the family to collect their first pet.
Thankfully, it’s now easy to collate snaps of these events in special photo albums for future reference.
Common ground
Responding to the findings, communications director at Citroen UK Marc Raven said: “The family car is an important touch point to some of our most treasured life experiences.
“Families come in all shapes and sizes, and go through so many individual experiences, but the results of this survey show just how much in common parents have with each other and the significant role the family vehicle plays in our lives.”
How we can help
If you want to celebrate the christening or baptism of your little one in style, you can come to us to source superb
christening invitations and other items of stationery.
By taking a look around our website, you should quickly find products that tick all of your boxes. We also sell photo albums, cards, personalised plaques and disposable christening cameras.
To see all our items, including our christening cards, just take a look around the relevant section of our online catalogue. You might well be surprised by how easy it is to order products in this way and by how inexpensive the products we sell are.
Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden are showing off their gorgeous Little Princess Estelle in the press this week. The totally adorable seven-month-old baby girl is showered in affection by her parents, in a series of adorable snaps for celebrity magazines.
Estelle is the future queen of Sweden, and is a perfect combination of her parents: with daddy's green eyes and her mummy's open smile. The photos were being taken to celebrate a new exhibition, 'Princess Estelle - Birth and Baptism', which opened last week in the royal palace. It details the little princess's baptism, and how the royal court prepared for the big day. Royal watchers can also view the beautiful christening gown the royal baby wore on her special day.
Estelle had her 
Justin Timberlake has had to write an open letter to apologise for a video that was planned to be shown at his wedding.
The video, which was filmed by Justin's friends, featured homeless people from the streets of Los Angeles sending well wishes to the singer and his gorgeous new bride, Jessica Biel. Other people on the video included various street musicians and random transsexuals, who recorded personal messages to the couple.
The video - meant as a jokey element to the wedding day - was obviously done in bad taste, and was more of a Stag Do stunt that a wedding feature we feel! The video begins with the message "Greetings from your Hollywood friends who just couldn't make it". Also in the video, a man with missing teeth says: "Jessica and Justin I haven't seen you for a long time, my gift is in the mail". One of the homeless people involved in the recording has revealed that he was paid £25 to take part in the video.
The singer took to his website to apologise but denied knowing anything about it. He also says it was not shown at the actual wedding. He said in a statement: "I don't live my life making fun of people especially those who are less fortunate or those in need. I am deeply sorry to anyone who was offended by the video. I do understand the reaction and, by association, I am holding myself accountable. My friends are good people. This was clearly a lapse in judgment which I'm sure no one who is reading this is exempt from".
What's that saying...be nice to the people you meet on the way up, because you may bump into them again on the way down...
As we move closer to Halloween, that must mean that Christmas is right around the corner and, therefore, the end of 2012...where did the year go? We thought we'd take a look back at some of the year's celebrity 
A wedding planner at one of the UK's top luxury hotels has been disciplined for describing a couple as "not the type of people that we would want" to get married at their venue! Can you even imagine reading that???
Pauline Bailey and her fiance Paul Carty had wanted to hold their 
Are you in need of some wedding table plan help...especially when it comes to your top table layout? Then look no further! The diagrams below are designed to help you with 
The Bride's Parents-Separated/Remarried Top Table:
The Groom's Parents-Separated/Remarried Top Table:
Alternative Top Table:
Australian star Holly Valance married her billionaire fiancee in a lavish three-day ceremony last weekend - and it was a beach wedding with a bang!
This was one occasion where no expense was spared, and a reported £2 million was spent on creating Holly and Nick's perfect day. It was, naturally, completely OTT from beginning to end.
The bride’s dress was a mix of dove-grey and ivory, with the bride's (ahem) famous assets on show for all to see. The dress apparently cost £35,000, and included a positively regal 15 foot veil in shimmering white lace - Kate Middleton-style.
Just in case the gown wasn't enough of a show-stopper, Nick hired Katy Perry as their wedding singer (of course, who else?) which is rumoured to have cost around £1.2 million for the 45-minute set which she performed. Then there was a £60,000 flower bill, with blooms stood in huge columns, and included the bride’s very modern bouquet of ‘black magic’ calla lilies.
But all of that was nothing compared to the cost of the weekend of festivities laid on for guests, which included the serving of thousands of canapés, mounds of sushi, two pre-parties (why would you just have one, when you can have two!) and two barbecues to boot. And just when you thought it couldn;t get any more extravagant...the cast of Jersey Boys were flown in specially, as Holly loves the musical! Phew, we're tired just thinking about it!
If you're planning a beach wedding (a little less elaborate!) then why not take a look at the 
We love a good wedding fayre, and get to see quite a few in our line of work.
I don't know what it is about them which makes everyone (apart from grooms-to-be it seems) a fan. Maybe it's the anticipation in the air that all the lovely ladies milling about the hall are about to experience one of the best days of their lives. Maybe it's the free cake! Whatever it is, I do enjoy attending as many of them as possible and seeing the ones which work well and the ones which are a bit of a flop.
One of the ones which falls firmly into the first category is the etc Wedding Show which took take place yesterday in Darlington. Held at a five-star hotel, over 250 brides-to-be turned out to view everything on offer for their big day. It was the second time that the event has been held this year, and was a huge success. So, what made it a good fayre?
Well to start with, there were thirty handpicked exhibitors - some shows go overboard and cram as many companies in as possible. This just means that you have loads of the same stalls advertising the same things and it can get boring - as well as creating a rubbish atmosphere among stallholders who are all competing for the same business. The stalls were relevant to the industry - I visited a wedding fayre a couple of years ago were a lady was exhibiting her crocheted tea cosies...I kid you not! The fashion show was great - all styles and budgets catered for, not just overpriced designer dresses which nobody could afford. There was also a men’s formal wear section which isn't always catered for at events such as these. The icing on the cake (pardon the pun!) was a goodie bag and glass of champers - surely a staple of the wedding fayre circuit, but not always done. And let's not forget the organisation of the event (including table plans to let you know where to find everything). It's a must so please don't forget it if you are organising an upcoming event.
Wedding stationery is one of the areas not often catered-for at Wedding Fayres, so if you're like to shop for your wedding stationery (including