I'm thinking about making welcome bags for our out-of-town guests.
Those of you who made welcome bags - what did you include?
A lot of our guests are from very far away (halfway across the country). Many are also from 30-90 minutes away and will be staying in the hotel.
Who did you give them to? Everyone, everyone who stayed at the hotel, or only the truly "out of town" guests?
Re: Welcome bags?
BTW, AddieCake and LaPeanut1018
love your wedding pix!
I loved doing welcome bags and got a ton of compliments on them. For some reason, putting them together calmed my nerves the days before the wedding. I included homemade sugar cookies shaped like California (you can make them a week or two ahead and freeze them), a bottle of California beer, a mini-bottle of California champagne, a little pin I bought off etsy that referenced my county, a card with info on the hotel shuttle and the address/times of wedding events, a mini-packet of tylenol, a couple tums, some band-aids (with Mickey Mouse on them, to match the Southern California theme), some candy, and homemade chococlates shaped like the bear on the California flag. Most of my hotel guests were from out of state, and several hadn't been to California before, so I thought it was fun.
We only had about 25 bags, so I also bought large plain gift tags, and handwrote a note on each. Just something like, "Thanks for much for coming out! We're so excited to spend time with you this weekend. We're in room XXX if you need anything."
I had a lot of angst the day before I dropped them at the hotel, worried that the hotel would have a problem handing out bags with booze in them to guests. But they didn't ask about it. I tied the bags shut with ribbon, but I'm sure they knew there were glass bottles in them when they picked them up.
We also had issues with people booking the hotel, but not officially as part of our wedding block. So it took some sleuthing to make sure that all my guests were on the list to get a goodie bag. But, I just had my parents check with their family members from out of town who weren't showing up on the hotel block list. And I called the desk a few times and asked, "Is John Doe staying there Saturday?" They were pretty accommodating.
It wasn't as extravagant as I'd hoped: bottled water, chips, crackers, candies, and a wedding packet with a map with all the pertinent places, a handout I made using tripadviser of things to do in the area, a master schedule of the weekend events for those who were coming to the extra things we were paying for. Since it was a very small destination wedding and I'd been coordinating multiple people promising to help each other, I also included guests names and phones so they could continue coordination. Might not be applicable to your group, but my small group of family/friends REALLY liked having each other's contact information.
I stuck with pre-packaged. I got a bunch of Hershey kisses, and I'm putting a few for each guest in a little mesh bag so they aren't loose in the guest bag (super cheap when you buy in bulk).
I'm also putting little stickers on the bottom of the Hershey kisses that say our wedding date and stuff. I know, it's super Pinterest-y, but it's honestly kind of a relaxing thing to do after work that doesn't require much thinking, and can be done while drinking lots of wine. Plus, I think it's cute, Pinterest-y or not.
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There are some great ideas in this thread. I'd started putting together some ideas for welcome bags but now I have so many additional ideas!
Thanks!
I've gone out of town to occasions where I was given gift bags in containers that were too big.