I was gone today and just saw your post. We did 6lets baptism at 8 months. With the holidays and FIL and sMIL being gone from Jan-March and our schedules it ended up not happening until Mother's Day. Kid 2 will probably be similar. We have a confirmation, 2 First Communions, and other crap going on, and my parent's being in the Dominican Republic for 2 weeks. We may just wait until summer.
As for food- I did a fairly cheap menu. Pick up a spiral slice ham at Christmas while they are cheap. Then I did pasta salad skewers, deviled eggs, and potato casserole. Easy, peasy and cheap.