welcome bag?

lhypse

I see a lot of you talk about welcome bags? Can i ask what this is and what you put in it? I'd love to do something nice for the guests attending!
Thanks!

motoLyn

Welcome bags can be whatever you like.  In my case I bought canvas tote bags put our wedding logo on them via iron transfer paper and put a welcome brochure from the bride and groom , Maui travel brochure, travel size sunblock, aloe vera gel, and will add various snack items that represent Maui.  I wanted to give the guests a little extra welcome and thank you for traveling to our wedding.  I've also seen welcome boxes as well.  You can make it your own and do what you like.  I heard of some brides including coffee mugs, maps, cookies, local sodas, beer.

Tanq&Tonic

I am a huge fan of welcome bags!  It's such a nice treat after taking a long trip to a wedding to get to your hotel/room and have some water and snacks awaiting.  I don't think they have to be elaborate.  We went a bit overboard...

- Bags: reusable shopping bags from Foodland
- Water
- Hawaiian juices
- Beer
- trail mix
- beef jerky
- box of choco macadamia nuts
- sunscreen
- advil
- bug wipes
- Hawaiian mug
- Welcome letter & pamphlet/directions/timelines

They were very well received and we did see people using the bags to go to the pool and beach throughout the week so that was cool too

racholas

Just to offer another perspective - and I know I'm in the minority here....

I didn't end up doing welcome bags - and initially I had planned to - largely due to time and because, to be honest, I've probably received about 15 welcome bags in my wedding attending history and few have been that well curated. What I mean by that is that I ended up with extra stuff I didn't want or couldn't carry home (wine and wine openers that most guests lost at the airport come to mind) or they had so little useful stuff that it felt like a poor attempt. Overall, I've definitely consumed less than 50% of what's been in my welcome bags. And, I hate waste and I hated to throw things away, but I just didn't want or couldn't use all the random things (gum, trail mix, etc) that were in the bags.

To do a welcome bag well I think you have to spend a good chunk of change, and I just decided to spend that elsewhere. For example, we gave all our guests leis at the wedding, which really added to the festivities. I think the cost all-in for the leis is a lot less than what I would have had to spend on making a really good welcome bag, and the leis truly added to the party, whereas the welcome bag adds to their trip. Mostly it was a decision based on time and logistics though.

I'm all for a great welcome bag, but if you feel pressed for time / money / or it's just logistically a pain (e.g. people will be staying all over the island and will arrive at different times) I don't think it's a must do. If there's anything I learned while planning my wedding is that just because everyone else does it, doesn't mean I have to do it.  

Side note - what we really wanted to do, but ended up scratching due to time, was to make custom beach towels. I was insistent that they be high-quality and have a great design, one that didn't make it too obvious it was from our wedding and one that they would be excited to use in the future. But, alas, time just didn't allow for it. That's what I get for a 4.5 month engagement.

WinstonsGirl

We did them, and guests loved them.  Ours included:

Reusable bag (ABC store)

Small box of chocolate covered macademia nuts

Sample of cookies from Honolulu Cookie Company

Sample of Macademia nuts

fake lei (cos our invites mentioned them)

Free maps/coupon books for Waikiki

Brochure with a local map and our itinerary/address for the ceremony

Card with extra wedding activities

Welcome/thanks for coming card we wrote for each guest

For wedding party and parents, we also added a card with WP events/rehearsal dinner info

For our 2 kids, we added plastic sand pails/shovels and for the few teens, we threw in inflatable air mattresses for the pool/ocean

We did them as an extra thanks to our guests for paying so much to join us in Hawaii

kimmykupcakes

We are doign them, too. You can see some of what we are putting in them on my planning site. Link in siggy. 

carrieoz_76

There's info in my bio about what we put in our welcome bags, and where we got each of the items.  We handed them out whenever we first ran across our guests, which for about half was at the welcome reception, and the other half was when they popped over to visit us at our lodging.  They all were really surprised to receive their goody bag, and now almost two years later they'll often tell me of one or two of the items in the bag that they still have and serve as souvenirs of the trip.

lorena224

We tried to keep our simple so we wouldn't have too many things to travel with or buy there. 

We got canvas bags with a palm tree and sunset in the backgroud and had Maui Hawaii printed on them. From what I can remember we added a bottle of Kona Brewing Longboard beer (we weren't fans of Maui Brewing beer), a pineapple bottle opener (since they weren't twist offs), a bottle of Waialua Root Beer for the one underage guest. We also added a box of 5 assorted Honolulu Cookie Co. cookies, a welcome broschure (it had wedding, luau, restaurant, activity info and the names of everyone who was there since our families had only met a few times before), thank you card, Maui driving map, beer coozie (they looked like hawaiian t-shirts and everyone found these so useful since the condensation on your glasses there was awful), and a little bag with bandiads (in case you got hurt from wearing heels or an adventure), Advil, Tylenol, sanitizer, mosquito repellant wipes, aloe, and chapstick.

Everyone loved them. We saw guests using them at the beach, on a bike trip, on a catamaran ride. H doubted they would be useful, but was pleasantly surpired when he saw everyone using them and telling us how they loved what was in them. Especially the beer!

mauigirl2012

We got these amazing canvas totes with a hawaiian flower print on the edges. Everyone used them for the rest of the trip! I included:
 - a welcome brochure
 -2 Kona Brewing Co. Beers,
 -a bottle champagne
 -a shell bottle opener
 -a starfish wine stopper
 - hawaiian short bread cookies
 -a couple cans of macadamia nuts
 -maui chips
 -a small bag filled with chocolates
 -2 beach candles
 -a travel size sunscreen and SPF lip balm