A Sweet Start
How to plan the perfect christening celebration? For an Emerson family, it required a little trust—and lots of desserts.
The boy of the hour’s name is Benicio, “but we call him Benny,” says mom Krystal Bruno of Emerson. Benny won’t remember his own christening, as he was only five months old on Oct. 25, 2025. But his family celebrated it in style—thanks to a major assist from party planner Aimee Petersen of Wyckoff-based The Perfect Shindig.
From the first moment Petersen and Bruno sat down together to plan, it was a perfect match. “Krystal and her husband Paul were basically my ideal clients,” says Petersen. “I never mind when people are very involved in the process, of course, and I’m always happy to adjust and curate for them—that’s part of the journey. But it’s also amazing when clients give me free rein and trust me to execute an event. That’s why you hire a planner, after all.”
And Bruno offered that trust right from the start. “From the second we sat down, Aimee was awesome,” she says. “She looked at my inspiration images and saw my vision right away. It’s not that I don’t like planning myself; it’s that I didn’t want to think about logistics the day of. I wanted to enjoy this day with my son and my family.”
Her older son, 6-year-old Paulie, had been a COVID lockdown baby—going all out for his baptism was a no-go. “So I wanted to do that for Benny,” Bruno says. “I wanted to have a fun, relaxing, special day for him.”
That day started with a service at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Oradell. It wasn’t the family’s regular church, but was chosen for a very specific reason. “We had only moved to the area about a year before,” Bruno explains, “and around the same time, the priest who baptized Paulie, Father Christian Scalo, had transferred to St. Joseph’s. We wanted him to baptize Benny too.”
Father Scalo led the service welcoming baby Benny into the church while new godparents, Paul’s best friend Michael and cousin Virgina, looked on. “The guest list was a small group of friends and family,” says Bruno. Then she corrects herself: “Well, small for us. My husband has a huge family, so ‘small for us’ is around 90 people.”
Meanwhile, at RP Prime Steakhouse in Mahwah, Petersen was working her magic. “I’d describe the vibe as upscale, classy and a little more neutral,” she says. The color palette, provided by Bruno, added a sentimental touch—sage green and white are the colors of Benny’s nursery. Florals and centerpieces from Allendale Florist embodied those colors, as did glassware that Petersen rented from the luxury tabletop service Spoon + Salt. Botanicalpatterned table linens sourced from BBJ La Tavola added texture, while the orange-toned peach accents (also from Spoon + Salt) provided brightness, as well as a playful nod to the time of year and Halloween’s approach.
“When we walked into the room I was completely overwhelmed—in the best way possible,” says Bruno. “Aimee took all of my ideas and brought them to life, but so much of the design I never would have thought of on my own. It was all her, and it all looked great.”
Bruno also praises Petersen’s consideration of every guest, including the little ones. “She made individualized activity buckets for each of the kids,” she recalls. “They were all Halloween-themed, personalized with their names and filled with age-specific games and toys.”
“I used to have a gift-basket business,” explains Petersen, “so whenever there’s a lot of kids at an event, I like to make those. I source them all myself.”
RP Prime provided the food, hors d’oeuvres plus a three-course meal, which Bruno reports was a hit with the guests. As for the dessert spread? “Well, my husband’s family owns Palermo Bakery in Little Ferry,” says Bruno, “so we tend to go really all out on desserts.” That may be an understatement: cookies, cupcakes and a tower of chocolate-covered strawberries all surrounded a beautiful custom cake with blueberry cheesecake filling.
“I sometimes get concerned when guests want to source something themselves, because I worry it could throw off the cohesion of the look,” says Petersen. “But Palermo is so well established that I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. The quantity, though—that was a little unexpected.” Nonetheless, she styled the spread with ease. “I work well under pressure,” she says.
Says Bruno: “It was just an incredible day. Getting to celebrate Benny with our whole family was something really special. Everything looked beautiful and came together perfectly. I can’t imagine working with any planner other than Aimee again—in fact, we’re already working with her for Benny’s first birthday party.”
