welcome bags?

Re: welcome bags?

• Maggie0829 member

  

  April 2014

  megalega14 said:

  Hey everyone!  Just wanted to get some opinions... My wedding venue is about 25-30 minutes from where I live (and the majority of my friends and family live)  Most of my friends and some family are getting hotels because no one wants to drive home drunk so I'm wondering should I do a welcome bag?  It's a Friday night wedding, and I can't see many people staying in the hotel Saturday so I wouldn't need to include things to do on Saturday.. so I'm wondering if you think it's more a waste of time and money, or should I just have a little something as a 'thank you' for staying at the hotel.
  
  thanks!!
  

  I would skip them.  Save your money and use it to add maybe an extra appetizer during cocktail hour.

  
  

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• csuave member

  

  April 2014

  Skip them.  

  I think using the money for more food or on a nice edible favor will be appreciated more, especially since those will be enjoyed by all guests and not just the hotel group. 

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• chasingsunlight member

  

  May 2014

  We are in a similar situation.  Our wedding is on a Saturday and most people will just be spending the one night because the 30-40 minute drive is too much at 1:00am when the reception ends and after all the alcohol has been served. 

  
  

  We are planning to do small welcome bags because we want to include information on the shuttle we have / a Sunday brunch we are offering.  Most of our friends have done bags for their weddings and those were even more local than ours.  We decided it would be cute just to put a few of our favorite things in the bags (favorite snacks, etc.) and some basics people may forget. 

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• AddieCake member

  

  May 2014

  I would skip them. To me, welcome bags are more for people coming in from much farther away and who are not from the area. 

  What did you think would happen if you walked up to a group of internet strangers and told them to get shoehorned by their lady doc?~StageManager14

  

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• thenewmrsq member

  

  May 2014

  I was actually hoping to get some advice on a similar problem ... slightly different details though. The hotels we booked blocks at are 5-7 minutes from the ceremony/reception venue. We're getting married Saturday evening of Labor Day Weekend, and every single guest is from out of town (and 90% are from out of state). In fact, I'm the only one who lives anywhere close (40 min drive). [The details of that are that I live in MI, due to work, FI lives in CT, his family is scattered all over New England, mine is scattered down both coasts, and my friends are all military, so they are tossed to the 4 corners as well].

  
  

  I assume that because it is a long weekend, most guests will stay the extra day (though, who knows ... if it was me, I might fly back on Sunday because flights will be cheaper). We've included TONS of information on our wedding site about local area attractions, but I still think it would be nice to have 1 welcome bag per room. Unfortunately, this isn't a small undertaking (we invited 297, and are expecting 225-190). I'd love to hear if your advice is the same for me ... I know I loved getting welcome bags when I traveled for weddings, but FI feels it is an unnecessary waste of time and money. 

  
  

  Thanks ladies.

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• Maggie0829 member

  

  May 2014

  @rmkuffel - Instead of a welcome bag with a bunch of little things, what if created an informative pamphlet of the area (local attractions, a list of good restaurants (6 or so), events that may be happening around town, etc) and then include that with two bottles of water and a small box of chocolates or a local specialty (cookies, pretzels, chips, etc).  Doing something like this would be less money then bags that you feel you will have to fill up with random stuff.

  
  

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• thenewmrsq member

  

  May 2014

  @Maggie0829 - That's a great idea. Thank you! We included most of this on our wedding website, so it won't be hard at all to just print out a bunch of that info.

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