Midnight. The night before camp. My fiance is sitting on the couch cutting out tiny white felt circles with child-size scissors. He loads the vehicle for camp, videotapes our enrollment, and has his own special name-tag that says “Mr. Sparkles” because he heard that the other Guider husbands have special nicknames, too.
When I asked about making one of my Sparks the flower girl, he suggested I have all my Sparks come and parade in front of me down the aisle. Due to our small venue, we couldn’t do that – although I know most of my Spark moms would have been onboard! My co-Guider has three amazing daughters, one of whom was in my Sparks unit last year, and the oldest who has been in my unit for two years. They became my flower girl and junior bridesmaid.
Planning the bridal shower, my mother (Tawney Owl) and I explored Pinterest and found the idea to give away s’more kits as favours. Of course, several of our Guiding friends were invited, and were quickly delegated to the task of assembling the gift bows into a hat. The cake was also made by a local Guider. The MOST Guiding thing at my shower, however, was a gift from my mother’s fellow Owls – wrapped of course in a Girl Guide cookie case and decorated with pink, orange, blue, green, and red tissue paper.
Our Guide unit worked on goals for this past year, including the girls’ lifetime goals. Along with goals for school and future jobs, many of them stated they wanted to get married, so as a challenge I created a Special Event Planning badge. Our parents joked that I was trying to get out of the work of planning my own wedding.
At first I wanted to get custom badges designed for our wedding to give to my girls, but the cost of badges can add up. When planning our favours, the idea came up to get title tapes printed with our names and the date to tie onto our candy pouches. All of my girls got one, too.
Girl Guides has been such a defining part of my life, that all these little nods to Guiding just weren’t enough. I had seen unique bouquets where people included lockets or pins. It seemed the perfect solution to include a Girl Guide pin on my bouquet. I chose the enrollment pin, instead of an appointment or other earned pin, because it symbolizes the core of Guiding. It is the pin you receive the day you promise to do my best, and it was the perfect pin to have the day I made another lifelong promise.
Of course, the wedding day wasn’t complete without the “Guiding” photo.
Guest post by Jane Taft, a Unit Guider with Sparks and Guides and Community Guider in Southern Ontario who is addicted to camping and collecting crests. See her previous posts: The best seat at the campfire; Words in Action: It’s more than just collecting book donations.
Has Guiding made its mark on your life in unique way? Share your story with us! Email ggcblog(at)girlguides.ca
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