The ceremony for Brooklyn, 5, and Romeo, 2, was held Thursday on the grounds of the Beckhams' Hertfordshire mansion north of London, which has been dubbed "Beckingham Palace."

The christenings were conducted by the Rev. William Paul Colton, a bishop in the Anglican Church of Ireland, who had married the couple five years ago.

John arrived with his partner, David Furnish, in a silver Rolls-Royce. The ceremony was closed to the media, but reports said John would become the godfather of the two boys.

Other guests included actress Elizabeth Hurley and former Spice Girls  Geri Halliwell , Emma Bunton and Melanie Chisholm. Melanie Brown, known as Scary Spice, didn't attend.

Victoria Beckham, also a former Spice Girl, is expecting the couple's third child in March. She recently announced that she would give up her music career to focus on being a fashion designer.

Aerial photographs showed a private chapel that had been built for the occasion. To get to the chapel, guests walked past fake ruins modeled on the crumbling Irish castle where the couple wed in 1999.

The Beckhams are Britain's pre-eminent celebrity couple — he the England soccer captain with a flamboyant fashion sense; she the former Posh Spice with an unrivaled flair for self-promotion.

Their marriage came under the spotlight earlier this year when David Beckham's former personal assistant Rebecca Loos claimed that she and the Real Madrid star had had a 10-day affair.