The one thing I regret about camp from this summer is that I wasn’t very spontaneous. Not until towards the end anyway.
The last week of camp, Buttercup and I were on a night hike with my 10 little Pony Tail girls (literally my favorite group of campers all summer!). I was leading the group, and she was picking up the rear. I overheard two girls talking.
Girl one: “Did you ask her yet?”
Girl two: “Not yet!”
Me:”What do you have to ask me?”
Girls: “Nothing!”
Buttercup: “Are we asking Chatter questions?! Chatter, will you marry me?!”
Me: “No! Not unless you give me a proper proposal!”
Buttercup then proceeded to sprint to the front of the line (breaking the camp’s no running rule). She got down on one knee, held out the archery key ring (we had also done archery that night) and said, “Chitter Chatter Cheddar Cheese Sassafrass Neow Box will you be my bride?”
I laughed for a long while before finally saying “YES!”
All my girls cheered! They were insistent that they were going to throw us a wedding! Buttercup only meant it to be a joke! By the next morning it was determined that the camp director, Colonel, was going to be singing. Buttons, the Irish international, was going to be our priest, and Bam was going to walk me down the aisle. Oh, and it was taking place that night and the whole camp was invited!
During their Me Time, my girls made invitations, flowers, decorations, wrote us vows, and came up with a color scheme. Behind the scenes, Rev, the health supervisor, was conspiring with the cooks to have a wedding cake decorated and he made a reception playlist.
When it came time for the actual event, it had to be moved inside due to weather. The benches were lined up to form an aisle and the walls were nicely decorated with drawings of hearts. I was not allowed to see the place until it was my turn to walk down the aisle. As my flower girl, bridesmaid, and best maid (they didn’t like the maid of honor thing) proceeded to walk down the aisle, I had never been happier. Then it was my and Bam’s turn to walk down the aisle. The other staff members that were not in the wedding (especially Bacon, who was filming the whole thing) encouraged all the campers to stand. I couldn’t believe all this was actually happening. Camp sure makes people do wacky things!
B was standing at the end of the aisle laughing so hard. After a hug from Bam, I joined B awkwardly laughing as we said “I do”. It was with great enthusiasm that we exchanged rings made from pipe-cleaners, beads, and water-balloons. We then secured our friendship with a hug and an epic high five.
After a lovely ceremony where we even had some objections (from Bam and Dandy), we opened gifts from our gift table (lots of pictures and a paper mache eggplant!) and then we had our first dance to “Love Story” by Taylor Swift. It was an interpretative dance that transitioned to everyone fist pumping! Then the reception started! The typical line dance songs were played like “The Cha Cha Slide” and “Cupid Shuffle” intermixed with Disney music and other random hits. About halfway through the reception we had cake! It was wonderfully decorated and we even fed each other a bite, which I was weird about since I don’t like people touching my food- but I did it anyway in the spirit of camp (after we flipped it over since I don’t like frosting!)! See the video to see the cake part! Balloons were thrown everywhere and a good time was held by most.
It meant a lot to my girls to be able to plan such an event! I told them they should all go in business together and plan weddings for a living, but they all looked at me like “never again”, my girls were exhausted! But, it is things like this that make camp so memorable for the campers. My girls will always remember the time they planned a wedding for two counselors.
Next summer I’m going to make it my goal to do more spontaneous things like this, although probably not to this extent! I am going to jump in the mud pit, swim with my clothes on, and not hold back when it comes to anything! I want to see my girls have huge smiles all the time because their counselor is always awesome, not just sometimes.
CampChatter 