Totes?

nightmare_of_beauty · January 2010

I'm trying to decide if (along with their other gifts) I should get each of my bridesmaids a tote. If I did, it would be personalized with their name. All but MOH are recent mom's and MOH watches her nieces all the time. Also none of them have been in a wedding before.

So what is your opinion? Even forget the little bits of information I keep thinking of to validate the decision...Totes: Good or Bad?

Pink7781 · January 2010

I like the idea but that's probably because I'm doing this. I ordered from Just Embroidered Totes (www.justembroideredtotes.com) and they were beatiful and Kim is great to work with. Instead of their full name you might consider just their first initial. I'd personally rather carry a bag that has my initial instead of my full name.

emilyinchile · January 2010

Do they already have totes? If not, I think bigger ones make good beach bags (or smaller ones make good book bags in college) and would use one...but I don't need 5 totes.

I think if you added more personalized gifts - like a book you know one will really love, or CD of her favorite singer for another - then a more generic gift like this could be good as part of the overall package. But I wouldn't make it the only gift or gift any additional generic gifts.

jagore08 · January 2010

I did totes from the knot and they were really nice. Two of my girls are moms and they use it to tote around the baby stuff and the other two use it as a beach bag. I wish I would have bought one for myself.

These are the ones I got and they're on sale right now.

http://weddingshop.theknot.com/weddingwarehouse/ProductPage.aspx?pId=P2104(KnotShop)&cId=Boutiques(KnotShop)&scId=Totes(KnotShop)&cTypF=BO&org=BO

mbcdefg · January 2010

I like totes, and so do a lot of my friends, but I've only ever seen one girl I know carry around a tote with her name/initial on it. (It was an LL Bean big tote that she used for a beach bag ... if you're going for a big tote to carry a lot of stuff in, like a beach bag or an overnight bag, I like the big canvas LL Bean/Lands' End bags.)

Personally, I wouldn't want to carry around anything with my name on it because I wouldn't want strangers knowing my name. An initial or a monogram is O.K., although I'd still vote for plain over those things if it were up to me.

I got a tote for each of my BMs so I can put their other gifts inside ... they're those handbag-style smallish totes that you can carry around every day. I got one at Marshall's and one on Etsy.com. I remember that H&M used to have some cute ones, and Forever 21 usually carries them as well.

stina93446 · January 2010

I wouldn't carry around anything with my name on it. I also am not a fan of monogrammed things. However, if you do just the first initial, I might use it. But it also depends on what the tote looks like.

aerinpegadrak · January 2010

I considered doing the lunch totes for my girls; I know personally I have no use for a tote bag since I rarely carry a purse at all, but I bring my lunch every day. I ended up going another direction though.

Please fill it with personal things. I got a "bridesmaid" tote filled with random girly crap at my sister's bachelorette party, and was pretty disappointed to learn that it was supposed to be my gift. I never used anything that was in the bag, and the bag itself has long since disappeared (and the wedding was only a year ago).

nightmare_of_beauty · January 2010

Thank you so much for your input ladies! I actually broke down and asked the MOH and she said she would use it as a reusable grocery bag, she'd actually been planning on buying a couple (she just moved into her own house). So I think I'm going to go with it, but you're right just initials. I didn't want to do "bridesmaid" because I don't feel that can be re-used.

KJDOHERTY · January 2010

Since your MOH mentioned reusuable grocery bag, I would get that specifically, not a tote. I think the reusable grocery bags are a great idae. Totes are bulky, and most resuable grocery bags fold up real small so they're convenient to use. A lot of them are also made with eco-friendly products while traditional totes aren't. I personally am baffled by the tote idea, I never ever use them except for the beach once a year, but out of my 7 close friends who got married last year, all but one gave totes as a BM gift so people must have more creative uses for them than I can think of. Keep in mind though that your BMs might be likely to already have a couple if they've been in multiple weddings since they appear to have become a standard BM gift.

aerinpegadrak · January 2010

I think it would be better to personalize them by getting them each a tote that they would like individually, rather than getting them all the same one with their name on. It's a much more useful gift if it fits their individual styles.

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