What are you putting in your welcome bags?

Pixieliddle23 · January 2012

We haven't really given out of town guest welcome bags too much thought but we'll probably be doing some. However, we're not too sure what to include in the bags. So for those of you doing the welcome bags, what are you including in them?

Zimsgirl26 · January 2012

I think they're a waste of money so I'm not doing them but I generally see people doing water, local snacks, etc

gregamywedding · January 2012

I was going to post this today. Lol.

goodine11 · January 2012

I was thinking of doing welcome bags since my gueast are traveling with us over seas however, I already have other things to lug over there so, I will not be doing welcome bags. I may have my FI write a welcome note to every guest letting them know how appriciative we are that they came to witness our BIG DAY

niknik15 · January 2012

I'm doing welcome bags, but mine will be a destination wedding so I don't think much of what I put in mine will help you, but I'm thinking:

put everything in a reusable bag (which can be used to carry beach towels), waterproof disposable camera, livestrong style bracelets with pirate sayings (so everyone will know who is in the group), luggage tags, cheap sunglasses, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, chapstick, either an advil or a dramamine, and a welcome letter.

sweetcanadian1979 · January 2012

I think personally they are a waste of time, most people i know can take care of themselves. I don't want to spend money on something that may be wasted. My family would not expect them, i have never seen them given to guests before.

I would do water, snacks, map of the area etc.

Zimsgirl26 · January 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_putting-welcome-bags?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:d6b3ce0c-0e6a-4232-96be-882583144ec2Post:ade53496-45c3-4458-9773-3d5441dd4c63">Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags?</a>:
[QUOTE]I think personally they are a waste of time, most people i know can take care of themselves. I don't want to spend money on something that may be wasted. My family would not expect them, i have never seen them given to guests before. I would do water, snacks, map of the area etc.
Posted by sweetcanadian1979[/QUOTE]

That's how I feel. My block is at a holiday inn so they'll have cups and ice buckets and whatnot. No one will expect it

chelseakopperud · January 2012

We arent doing them, but if we were we would include the following:

-Welcome letter
-snacks/treats
-brochures for things to do in the area
-gift card to a local restaurant

Ash61612 · January 2012

We aren't doing them but I agree with the PP's suggestions

diamondx423 · January 2012

Small water bottles, pretzals/chips, granola bar, advil, and excedrine

CvilleClaire · January 2012

We're doing them for the OOTers. I want them to fall in love with my little city and providing them with some snacks and lists of the best resturants, attractions, and shops might help.

So far...
Water
Starbucks Via (because hotel coffee can be pretty bad)
Cereal bars
Small packs of Advil
Welcome book from the city
Virginia is for Lovers stickers (free from the state dept of tourism)
Our personal list of favorite restaurants, vineyards, shopping areas, and historical sites

...and probably come Virginia peanuts

gregamywedding · January 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_putting-welcome-bags?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:d6b3ce0c-0e6a-4232-96be-882583144ec2Post:4de1f81d-49d9-4fe0-b2a5-705b1f9d371f">Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags?</a>:
[QUOTE]Small water bottles, pretzals/chips, granola bar, <strong>advil, and excedrine
</strong>Posted by diamondx423[/QUOTE]

I hadn't thought of that. I like that idea.

kelsey+brandon · January 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_putting-welcome-bags?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:d6b3ce0c-0e6a-4232-96be-882583144ec2Post:c89faf54-c52c-483a-9324-2185b514e91f">Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags?</a>:
[QUOTE]We're doing them for the OOTers. I want them to fall in love with my little city and providing them with some snacks and lists of the best resturants, attractions, and shops might help. So far... Water Starbucks Via (because hotel coffee can be pretty bad) Cereal bars Small packs of Advil Welcome book from the city Virginia is for Lovers stickers (free from the state dept of tourism) Our personal list of favorite restaurants, vineyards, shopping areas, and historical sites ...and probably come Virginia peanuts :)
Posted by CvilleClaire[/QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>We're doing a lot similar to Jeannine.</div><div>-Mini water bottles with our labels
-Small advil packets</div><div>-Toothbrush and travel toothpaste in case they forgot theirs</div><div>-Maps and brochures for Raleigh</div><div>-Maybe some other stuff too, but I'm not sure yet.</div>

kelsey+brandon · January 2012

P.S. those Virginia peanuts are SOOO yummy!! I love the Virginia cashews too!

CvilleClaire · January 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_putting-welcome-bags?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:d6b3ce0c-0e6a-4232-96be-882583144ec2Post:541058e1-674c-4cad-801d-f72f07232524">Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags?</a>:
[QUOTE]P.S. those Virginia peanuts are SOOO yummy!! I love the Virginia cashews too!
Posted by kelsey+brandon[/QUOTE]
I'm not a peanut connoisseur, but people always rave about them!

BTW, our favorite secret attraction in the RDU area is Duke's Lemur Center. Have you been? I'd put it on the list of of attractions...I've never seen anything like it!

HarperBargo · January 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_putting-welcome-bags?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:d6b3ce0c-0e6a-4232-96be-882583144ec2Post:c89faf54-c52c-483a-9324-2185b514e91f">Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags?</a>:
[QUOTE]We're doing them for the OOTers. I want them to fall in love with my little city and providing them with some snacks and lists of the best resturants, attractions, and shops might help. So far... Water <strong>Starbucks Via</strong> (because hotel coffee can be pretty bad) Cereal bars Small packs of Advil Welcome book from the city Virginia is for Lovers stickers (free from the state dept of tourism) Our personal list of favorite restaurants, vineyards, shopping areas, and historical sites ...and probably come Virginia peanuts :)
Posted by CvilleClaire[/QUOTE]

Love the Starbucks idea!

The majority of our guests are OOTers. I know I have always appreciated and liked getting the bags when we go out of town for weddings. The list so far for ours:

-water bottles
-pack of gum/mints
-small advil packs

and then local stuff:
-maps and brochures
-Grippos chips
-Busken smiley face cookie
-local chocolates
and my personal favorite: little bottles of bourbon (Kentucky is home of the bourbon trial)

gregamywedding · January 2012

I have no idea what would be good local stuff for Dallas. I know there really are not any cool things to go see. The only thing Dallas really has the any other city doesn't is JFK got shot here and the is not something to be really proud of.

Sarah0335 · January 2012

I always like getting welcome bags when staying at a hotel for a wedding. I feel like we always pick out the water bottles and food and don't pay too much attention to the other things.

I was planning on doing water, pretzels or granola and maybe a peice of local candy. We will probably pick up some maps and stuff for free from the tourism area too.

Cassandra999 · January 2012

I don't think they are nessessary but my mom really wants us to do them sooo... we might:

-water

-chips or pretzels

-cookies

-list & directions to local attractions

-thank you note

-maybe something local or fun

I like the advil packets idea too.

Those that are doing them- are you doing specific bags per family or all the bags are the same? 1 bag per room. My mom wants 1 water bottle per person. We have guests that will be 1 per room, up to 5 per room (3 kids). Is the hotel going to be willing to hand them out by name?

jfellows82 · January 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_putting-welcome-bags?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding Club BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:d6b3ce0c-0e6a-4232-96be-882583144ec2Post:ade6b6ae-a89c-461f-9584-042fb57d0764">Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags?</a>:
[QUOTE]I think they're a waste of money so I'm not doing them but I generally see people doing water, local snacks, etc
Posted by Zimsgirl26[/QUOTE]

I'm so glad to see this! I was starting to feel like the only one who didn't want to spend the extra money on this. I love all my guests, but we have a very tight budget and most of that stuff just ends up in the trash anyway.

kelsey+brandon · January 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_putting-welcome-bags?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:d6b3ce0c-0e6a-4232-96be-882583144ec2Post:14e7ffc8-0418-4c90-b347-1586ae30b448">Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags? : I'm not a peanut connoisseur, but people always rave about them! BTW, our favorite secret attraction in the RDU area is Duke's Lemur Center. Have you been? I'd put it on the list of of attractions...I've never seen anything like it!
Posted by CvilleClaire[/QUOTE]

<div>Wow, I've never heard of that place and I was actually born in Durham and my grandma still lives there! So funny. My mom hasn't heard of it either.</div><div>
</div><div>I love the idea of having fun places for our guests to go! Thanks for the tip!</div>

CvilleClaire · January 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_putting-welcome-bags?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:d6b3ce0c-0e6a-4232-96be-882583144ec2Post:f52d3176-0dc0-4f53-a1f3-bfcdbeb06d0f">Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags? : Wow, I've never heard of that place and I was actually born in Durham and my grandma still lives there! [/QUOTE]
You MUST go! A professor who no longer works at Duke set it up to study lemurs. He's gone and I've heard that Duke wants to get rid of it, but they can't.

Aside from the lemurs, they have a house full of nocturnal animals that you almost never see in a zoo. You enter in total darkness and they turn the lights up the tiniest bit, very slowly, so the animals don't hide. We were about five feet from an Aye-Aye (only found on Madegascar) and a slow loris (probably one of the cutest animals ever...they look perpetually worried).

The tours are run by Duke students, but not typical Duke students.

Oh, and the lemurs apparently love to play with boxes. The students bring them emtpy beer cartons. :)

slice85 · January 2012

The majority of our guest list is from out of town and staying for the entire weekend. We're planning on including water bottles, granola bars, mini bags of chips/crackers, Tylenol, and info on our favorite local attractions and restaurants. I also have an Iowa shaped cookie cutter so we want to add one or two cookies with a heart on the location of our wedding since many of our guests haven't been to that city before.

aor9487 · January 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_putting-welcome-bags?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:d6b3ce0c-0e6a-4232-96be-882583144ec2Post:114302df-a326-4aee-9818-f01a581f953a">Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: What are you putting in your welcome bags? : Love the Starbucks idea! The majority of our guests are OOTers. I know I have always appreciated and liked getting the bags when we go out of town for weddings. The list so far for ours: -water bottles -pack of gum/mints -small advil packs and then local stuff: -maps and brochures -<strong>Grippos chips</strong> -Busken smiley face cookie -local chocolates and my personal favorite: little bottles of bourbon (Kentucky is home of the bourbon trial)
Posted by HarperBargo[/QUOTE]

<div>I read this and thought "mmmm Grippos" like I was Homer Simpson or something! I'm not from Cincy, but my FI is and I remember the first time I tried all of the local treats--Delish! </div>

kipnus · January 2012

I don't understand why people include water bottles, unless they're reusable! I'm pretty sure you can get water to drink at most hotels and restaurants in North America...seems a little wasteful to me.

What are you putting in your welcome bags?

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