Camp Mandylane

Growing up in Canada was especially memorable for me during the summers where I spent 2 months every year for 10 years at Camp Timberlane. It was a special place where I met my best friends and made many special memories. Well the same goes for my sister…who met her soon to be hubby Jason there. Jason proposed at camp which I thought was super cute and couldn't have made a more perfect theme for the "stagette" as we call it in Canada (known as a bachelorette party to the rest of the world) this weekend.  Mandy's bridesmaids, who I worked together with on Mandy's beautiful bridal shower, flew in from Toronto for the weekend to celebrate. I thought it would be fun to play with the Camp Timberlane logo and turn my house out east into Camp Mandylane for the weekend. I had two of my best helpers on hand to do this. Ali took care of all of the graphics which turned out incredibly well on the water bottles, our spa station and all of the signage on our table. Then I also was VERY lucky to have my Uncle Steve and Aunt Debi in town the week prior to the big girls weekend as they helped me craft some amazing wood signage to put up around Camp Mandylane. Uncle Steve and I took a trip to home depot, picked up some wood planks and then he got to work. He stained the boards into a deep espresso color which was the exact color of everything at Camp Timberlane (the signs, cabins, etc.) and then drilled holes, hammered in stakes and attached wire for me to easily hang. Mandy had NO idea what I was planning so when she arrived at the house and saw the sign she started to wonder what was in store...
 

For the main set up and decor I was very inspired by the "glamping" party that I found on the hostess with the mostess blog which I turn to all the time for inspiration because they post some of the coolest and most creative parties out there. So I also had Uncle Steve find a log for me to hang under my umbrellas on the patio table to string lanterns from with twine. Of course he did this with great creativity and was able to make it super easy for me to hang and take off by using wire hangers to make hooks. This was my favorite part of table where I set up "Mandy's Mess Hall" which is what our cafeteria at camp was called. On the other side we set up a "Tuck shop". This was a cabin at camp that we got to line up outside of at 4pm every other day to get a treat such as a chocolate bar or chips and a soda. Uncle Steve constructed another sign to hang here and this is where I set up desserts such as s'mores with twigs as the rods, candy ribbon skewers, grape skewers, cherries, homemade lemonade, sparkling blackberry Izzies and bottles of water.

Lunch was catered by Gloria's Fine Foods in Westhampton. She's such a sweet lady who put together an easy and delicious lunch menu for our special afternoon which included:

Tuscan Style Grilled Chicken with Pesto Mayonnaise, Fresh Mozzarella, Artichoke Hearts, Plum Tomatoes and Mixed Baby Greens on Foccacia Bread

Grilled Vegetable Wraps with Fresh Mozzarella and Sundried Tomato

Bow Ties Pasta with Garden Vegetables, Oven Roasted Grape Tomatoes & Herbed Vinaigrette

Fresh local corn salad with red onions and basil

Since Mandy loves the picnic style look I turned to a couple of my favorite vendors for cute gingham and polka dot supplies to create this look. Think Garnish has the most fabulous items for packaging…not to mention great ideas of how to work with their items! I ordered some of the berry baskets to put a Pelligrino and sammie inside of as well as white 8oz containers for the salads which I marked with stickers that had "M" on them in a wood log font.

For the chips I ordered gingham cones from Shop Sweet Lulu and served these on "Riv Beach" which is the beach we used to lounge on at Camp Timberlane which was always one of our favorite activities to get assigned in our day. I also ordered the adorable blue and white polka dot cups for trail mix which looked so great up on the tuck shop table. I picked up some plain white waffle tea towels from Crate and Barrel to tie a bamboo fork around with red & white gingham ribbon for each of the girls to use for the salads.

Since Camp is based around daily activities I figured let's make our activity for the afternoon mani/pedis…and a special treat from a massage therapist! Also from Shop Sweet Lulu I got some blue and white polka dot gift boxes to package up for each of the girls to enjoy. This is where my incredible Auntie Debi really stepped in the week prior and helped me out big time. We went to Target and Michael's to pick up dollar items that would be practical and fun for the girls to use over the weekend such as manicure tools, mini sunblock, lip smackers, hand lotion, travel size make up removers and a special Camp Mandylane CD made up of the songs I planned to play over the weekend. We also couldn't resist getting a pair of flip flops for each of the girls which turned out to be a great idea since so many of them forgot theirs! There was one more very special item for the girls to enjoy and this was personalized bottles from Pretty Please Nail Polish that I ordered from a girl who had gotten in touch with me from a LMP postcard I had placed on the bulletin board in my apartment building. Aunt Debi set up a little workshop and packaged each box with lots of love including little tissue fans coming out of each. I positioned this all in the shaded sunroom where the girls could come and go as they pleased to paint their nails and toes.

Saturday the girls spent a cloudy day shopping at the Tanger Outlet mall, came home to eat leftovers and shower and then we made our way out to Montauk. We started at my favorite roadside bar Cyril's where the drinks are flowing and the crowd is nothing but good looking. Then we drove down the street to The Surf Lodge. An all time fave. We had a fantastic dinner on the water while getting a gorgeous sunset and then partied in the sand with some great drinks and good tunes.

The weekend was awesome and the girls had a good time. This mama is pretty tired and ready to take a little rest…but couldn't have been happier with how it all played out. Now…on to the wedding, THIS SEPTEMBER!  Can't wait to celebrate Mandy…it's going to be amazing.