Organising A First Holy Communion
Running a business around events and special milestones, I can understand how important and exciting a first holy communion is for every child. And I’ve recently had the privilege of experiencing this first hand with my eldest daughter Elisa. Last weekend we celebrated her first communion and she received the sacrament of the Lord!
It’s a day we have been preparing for months, and went way beyond flavoured sugared almonds! It was my turn to put myself in the shoes of a typical customer organising an event. With a trillion things to prepare for it!
Seeing as it was Elisa’s special day, it was only fair that she picked the colour theme, (also anyone who has kids these days knows they love to have an opinion!). So I asked her to give me a colour she liked, and came back with… blue! Now as gorgeous as blue is, I convinced her that blue alone probably wasn’t the ideal colour for a girl, and gave her some suggestions to which we agreed on blue, pink, ivory and white.
So what bomboniere and flavoured sugared almonds did the Founder of SAB go with for the event you’re probably wondering? To start with, I found some gorgeous dome glass jars which I sourced via the Ali Express that I wanted filled with preserved flowers. I brought my vision to the florist and briefed her on what I wanted, and she came back with the perfect sample that both Elisa and I were really happy with. We then used the colours of the flowers as the base to match everything else to, and sent the colours to the cake shop and balloon/stand company to work with for their parts.
Now for the sweetest part… the flavoured sugared almonds! We also based these on colour matching to the flowers as well as Elisa’s favourite flavours. These included strawberry, pistacchio and nougat (mum’s fav!) flavoured sugared almonds, gianduia crushed nut in pink and navy blue dark chocolate sugared almonds. Five sugared almonds were enclosed in our popular ivory NODS. I also added the final touches being the pink chiffon ribbon as well as the tag I created to attach to the front of the bomboniere. I must say between the work of the florist and my own, I was pretty impressed with how they turned out!
Elisa also helped me create the invites using the colours and elements from the preserved flowers. We made sure to allow plenty of time to find the perfect dress, as we had gone dress hunting before our trip to Europe. One less stress to worry about when we got back!
On the day of the communion, it was nothing short of a beautiful occasion. As her mum, I might be biased, but Elisa looked absolutely stunning. My husband and I could not have been more proud of her.
Our guests had a great time and LOVED their thank you gift!
As I am a big believer in supporting small businesses. I have attached a list below of those I used. You can find them on Instagram, and we have also tagged them in our latest post.
- Flowers: The Art of Nature Floral Studio
- Flavoured sugared almonds, NODS, Tags: Sugared Almond Boutique
- Cake: Vicki’s Cakes Melbourne
- Balloon display: Itz My Party
- Communion dress: Princess Boutique
- Photographer: Imagine The Possibilities
- Make Up: Nails Makeup by Mimma Valente
- Dome glass jar: www..aliexpress.com/
Note: if you decide to order from Ali Express. Take into consideration the lead times for delivery as they can take a while.
Book your venue!
Once your child’s school has confirmed the date for the communion ceremony, the next most important thing to book is the venue where you will celebrate after. Leaving it to the last minute and finding all your preferred venues booked out is disappointing!
Be prepared – DIY or Made For You bomboniere
Firstly you need to decide if you want to DIY your bomboniere or have someone make them for you. Depending on your vision and how extravagant you want to go, I would suggest to start looking into this early, because some items take longer to order (for example my glass dome jars), and you don’t want to be rushing around at the last minute and can’t find what you need. If you DIY always allow a few days to put your bomboniere together as they can be fidgety little things, and if someone is making them for you give them an earlier deadline date to make sure they are ready with plenty of time.
Hire a photographer
The last thing you want to be doing is running around with a camera or your phone glued to your hand trying to capture all the moments throughout the day! You’ll miss being present and enjoy socialising with your guests. Leave everything to a professional who will handle it all for you. You can be confident that you’ll receive exceptional professional photos to cherish and print.
Remember the real reason for the occasion.
We sometimes get so caught up in the stress, materialistic and glamorous side of organising the event, we loose sight of the real meaning behind the celebration. Remind your child about the meaning of receiving communion. On the day, don’t worry about the small details; everything will fall into place!
Enjoy the big day!
These special occasions may be stressful when you’re in the moment trying to organise everything, but once the big day arrives and everything comes together, it is all worth it! Try to sit back, relax and enjoy the moment with your guests and most importantly your child!
Check out our website for all our products for your next event or celebration!
With sweet love,
SAB xx
