OOT Bags for Guests

ctr24

We'd like to assemble bags for our guests traveling from OOT. Any budget tips? 

Some ideas we've had are to buy bulk bags of candy and make snack size bags or baking some cookies. 

climbingsingle

Honestly, I'm not doing this. I just don't have the time and I feel like it's a waste of money. 

peachy13

I'm definitely making welcome/good/guest bags for everyone staying overnight, which is most. I always appreciate getting these things when I stay overnight at a wedding.

Definitely a good idea is to buy in bulk and make your own snack bags. We will be doing that for sure. You can get cellophane bags and ties pretty cheap and make the snacks (Oriental Trading is good). Will definitely be a project but you'll definitely save money. I'm also going to include a couple of water bottles which you can buy in bulk as well. Also included a printed card (printing myself) with some details of the wedding/timeline/etc.

Good luck!

MissChloe225

I am doing OOT bags with stuff that is related to our area, since everyone is coming from away.  We can use a lot of stuff that is pretty cheap like small sample-size food products and postcards.  That said, I don't think they are necessary at all if they don't fit in your budget.

Lizzieyounce

We did welcome bags.  

We bought the bags, personalized wine and water bottle labels from Oriental Trading.  We had the following in the bags:

One bottle of red and white wine (the single glass size) in each bag.  I got the wine when it went on sale.  Removed the labels and replaced them with the ones from Oriental.  Just stand them in a sink full of water until the labels loosen (just don't let the caps get covered.  Then take a razor and remove the label.

The water bottles we got at Costco, labels were easy to remove and replace with the personalized ones.

We put beef jerky, Gardetto's snack mix, truffles (the four pack kind bought on sale) a hang over kit consisting of alkaseltzer, ibuprofen and loose tea plus a map/directions to the church and reception venue, a welcome letter and an invite to our open house/rehearsal dinner.

There were a couple of families with small kids, so I added juice boxes and animal crackers to those bags for the little ones.

That said, if you don't have it in the budget, they aren't necessary.  I bought the bulk of it way before the wedding and used coupons, hit the sales, etc.  The tea and chocolate were bought right before.

CTYankeeBride

They're definitely not a requirement. We're making them as I do appreciate them when I go to a wedding as an OOT guest.  Using sales and coupons we're able to do this inexpensively. We're still under 50$ for 10 bags and our bags will have bottled water, apples from a local orchard, goldfish crackers (Pepperidge Farm is local to CT), soda from Foxon Park (in CT), some granola bars, some chocolates and some "CT Grown" magnets (they were free).  We've included a map of the area (our wedding is on a historic Main Street) and a welcome letter. They don't have to be elaborate, just things that would be a nice touch/ snack for your guests.

emz101

I am doing guest bags for the out of town guests, I haven't actually bought anything but I am going to put in a bottle of water, a bottle of wine, a single serving bag of chips, single serving bag of nuts or crackers, some chocolate and I was thinking of adding a individual cake from a local bakery that is famous in my city. Nothing huge, nothing that is just a 'filler' that will be thrown away.

Denise40

Lizzieyounce said:

We did welcome bags.  

We bought the bags, personalized wine and water bottle labels from Oriental Trading.  We had the following in the bags:

One bottle of red and white wine (the single glass size) in each bag.  I got the wine when it went on sale.  Removed the labels and replaced them with the ones from Oriental.  Just stand them in a sink full of water until the labels loosen (just don't let the caps get covered.  Then take a razor and remove the label.

The water bottles we got at Costco, labels were easy to remove and replace with the personalized ones.

We put beef jerky, Gardetto's snack mix, truffles (the four pack kind bought on sale) a hang over kit consisting of alkaseltzer, ibuprofen and loose tea plus a map/directions to the church and reception venue, a welcome letter and an invite to our open house/rehearsal dinner.

There were a couple of families with small kids, so I added juice boxes and animal crackers to those bags for the little ones.

That said, if you don't have it in the budget, they aren't necessary.  I bought the bulk of it way before the wedding and used coupons, hit the sales, etc.  The tea and chocolate were bought right before.

I didn't know they did personalized labels for wine? Are they for regular size bottles or the mini?

Lizzieyounce

Denise40 said:

Lizzieyounce said:

We did welcome bags.  

We bought the bags, personalized wine and water bottle labels from Oriental Trading.  We had the following in the bags:

One bottle of red and white wine (the single glass size) in each bag.  I got the wine when it went on sale.  Removed the labels and replaced them with the ones from Oriental.  Just stand them in a sink full of water until the labels loosen (just don't let the caps get covered.  Then take a razor and remove the label.

The water bottles we got at Costco, labels were easy to remove and replace with the personalized ones.

We put beef jerky, Gardetto's snack mix, truffles (the four pack kind bought on sale) a hang over kit consisting of alkaseltzer, ibuprofen and loose tea plus a map/directions to the church and reception venue, a welcome letter and an invite to our open house/rehearsal dinner.

There were a couple of families with small kids, so I added juice boxes and animal crackers to those bags for the little ones.

That said, if you don't have it in the budget, they aren't necessary.  I bought the bulk of it way before the wedding and used coupons, hit the sales, etc.  The tea and chocolate were bought right before.

I didn't know they did personalized labels for wine? Are they for regular size bottles or the mini?

I got the mini wine bottle labels, but I believe that I saw labels for the regular sized bottles as well.  Sorry it took so long to answer this, I'm in nursing school and have been nose deep in Pathophysiology!

annakay511

As a guest at many out of town weddings, I can tell you they really appreciate this!! Oriental trading has bulk bags in multiple colors that you can coordinate with your wedding colors. You can put in things like a printed list of your favorite spots in town (bars, restaurants, breakfast spots, sight-seeing spots, etc), a map or local tourism book (free at your city's tourism office), candy/snacks, bottles of water, travel advil, breath mints/gum, etc.

eshaney

Yes!  Buying wholesale online or in bulk at Costco allowed us to put together three types of gourmet bags together for less than $10/bag.  We had a bag for all of our college friends that had beers, sunscreen, aspirin, waters, cookies in the shape of South Carolina because my first wedding was in charleston - which one of my bridesmaids slaved over to make herself out of 4 tubes of cookie dough and a state cookie cutter, personalized candles, etc... I can't remember everything.  We had a bag for families that would be spending most time at the pool or beach with their little ones.  And our final bag was for our adult guests that included a recipe book from some of Charleston's famous dishes, waters, candles, golf tees because the guys golfed all weekend, and other goodies.  Like I said, including packaging, less than $10 per bag!!!

pswed2015

I'd really like to do guest bags, just need to make sure we can do it in-budget. My fiancee and I went to one wedding that had guest bags and it made such an impression on me. And really all it was was some bottled water, apples (it was in upstate NY in the fall aka awesome apples), and homemade granola. And probably like one or two other small things but those things stood out. It was just so yummy and cute!

cheapchicbride16

I don't feel like gift bags are really needed. I have never expected anything from the weddings I have gone to. Save your money and spend it other places.

jenijoyk

We did welcome bags for the hotel guests and they were a huge hit. We got so many compliments. One thing that is budget friendly but looks super fancy is to buy big bags of candy in bulk, and then head to the craft store (Joann or Michael's in our area) and buy a big bag of those little clear cellophane bags with twist ties (you can 100 for a few bucks). Then you can divvy up your (cheap) candy into cute little individual bags and they look adorable. Because we live in Orange County I went to Target, bought a bunch of giant bags of those candy orange slices, and then split them into the cellophane baggies. They looked way more pricey than they were. 

I also made sugar cookies in the shape of California (I think I got the cutter on Amazon for a few bucks), already had the ingredients in my kitchen, and then used the cellophane bags again to make them look fancy. You can make them a few weeks ahead of time and freeze them, since it would be a nightmare to be baking the week of your wedding. You can look up instruction for how to freeze sugar cookies online. It was super easy, and they tasted delicious after they thawed. I think I tied those up with a little piece of ribbon instead of the twist tie. 

Another thing that is essentially free that you can include is a handwritten note. Since the people in the hotel were the same people who traveled the furthest for us, we wrote something like, "We're so glad you're here - we can't wait to celebrate with you. We can't tell you how much it means to us to have our friends and family from far and wide here this weekend." Or something. I think it's worth it to buy a little stack of gift tags and write the notes out by hand in a pretty marker than to type and print.