Mrs. Lovebug, Tucson
Age and Occupation in 06: 31, Writer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Professional Game Show Contestant
Engagement Date: February 18, 2007
Wedding Date: April 19, 2008
Venue: Historic Inn
About Me: Likes: blogging, wikis, semi-colons, cuddling, fragrant flowers, syntax, and spooning. Dislikes: typos, dangling modifiers, flypaper, citronella candles, and run-ons. If I had my druthers, I'd exchange simple vows in a candlelit library. But I lost my druthers long ago...anyone seen them?
A Tisket A Tasket, A Southwest Welcome Basket
March 24th, 2008 @ 11:57 am by Mrs. Lovebug
For the out-of-towner welcome baskets, we decided to dish up some Southwestern goodness. (Did you know that Tucson is home to one of the largest annual rodeos in the country? Yee to the haw.)
I picked up everything locally, and tried to coordinate all the treats, papers, etc. in a palette of, well, Southwest-y colors: turquoise, brown, red, and gold:
The baskets are a Cost Plus find (on sale!), which I bound in frayed, heavy twine (seemed more apropos than ribbon). The “Welcome” table tent is printed in our font-du-nuptials, Feel Script, with a schedule of events on the flip side:
The whole shebang:
Conveniently, all of our guests are staying at the same resort (making it loads easier to set up mass-transit). In the baskets, we tucked a card explaining how we’re gonna get ’em all to the wedding:
We gave them each a classic, stranded-in-the-desert postcard…
…pre-stamped with a 26-cent panther (but I think he looks more like a mountain lion, personally). Also in the mix are a tiny plastic (suitcase-friendly!) bottle of hot sauce, some local pistachios, and a golf bag tag from the resort (which I trimmed with matchy turquoise leather cord):
I also found little bags of “rock” candy at a local shop, which I re-bagged and packaged with homemade labels:
And finally, the coup de grace. We made sets of western-themed wine charms for each guest, boxed in coordinating paper and personalized stickers (woo hoo, Xyron!):
Each set is slightly different, but the bead colors and charms are all straight-up Old West:
Mr. Lovebug was a huge help with this. Jump rings are the devil, oh my god. I almost went blind trying to get those little buggers on. His sharp eyes and fingers saved the operation, for sure. We popped a bit of raffia into each box and put them down for a one-month nap:
Of course, they’ll be a jumbled mess by the time they’re opened. But that’s just the way the wine charm tumbles.
There’s still a bit of room for another goodie in the basket, so suggestions are welcome!
Any welcome essentials I’m forgetting?
27 Responses to “A Tisket A Tasket, A Southwest Welcome Basket”
Water bottle.
But I live in a part of the country that the tap water tastes terrible. Your mileage may vary. 
OMG. I love it all! Can I come to the wedding just to get one of those babies???
Definitely bottled water! My parents live in Phoenix, so I know bottled water is a big deal in AZ. 
Maybe some prickly pear candy? That’s red!
Those are so awesome! I wish I didn’t have so many out-of-towners… mine will be lucky if they get a single map
I swear to god if you EVER talk about your not being crafty again I will pull out my laptop and personally whoop your ass with this post.
Great job.
Bottled water and maybe some sample size packs of Advil or Tylenol. Mints are also a great addition to welcome baskets!
Those are amazing. We’re getting married in SoCal in the heat of the summer and are including little travel sized bottles of sunscreen- those might be a good addition to your baskets. They are SO incredible!
A couple of mexican beers are always a good idea and for people who are not really drinkers, water bottles. Another thing that could add a personal touch, if you are into this sort of thing, is canning up some homemade salsa and adding a bag of chips. I know when I am in the Tuc all I want is a cold beer and some good chips and salsa.
Miss LB, Can I order up about 100 of those for my out of town guests come October!? Super cute!
Where did you buy those adorable charms and beads? Great job on them - they are too cute!
My favorite things about Tuscon are: San Xavier del Bac, the Pima Air and Space Museum, and the university Center for Creative Photography, where you can schedule pulic print vieweing from the collection, which is one of the best in the country. If you have out of town guests who haven’t previously spent much time in the area, some information about local attractions would be really nice.
Oops bad fingers - should have said “public print viewing”
Can I ask you about what type of paper you used to make your stickers.
Good stuff! Love the homemade wine charms! Other than the bottled water, your baskets are definitely good to go! Your guests are going to love them
Amazing! Your baskets are an inspiration:) Water and sun screen are great suggestions for a warm weather wedding. You could probably make personalized labels for both to tie them into your theme if you wanted to.
miss lovebug, where did you get the charms?
Thanks for all the input, guys! Since I wrote the post, I added “single-serving” sunscreen wipes, too.
I should have mentioned that water is provided in the mini-bars in pretty much any decent hotel in Arizona. And though ours of course would be free, I wouldn’t be able to refrigerate it. Room temp water is a no go, I think.
Heather: I know, I was thinking prickly pear candy! But what with the rock candy, I didn’t want to overdo the sugar. We have so much sweet stuff at the wedding, too…
CG: The mexican beer and salsa idea is great, but again, there’s the refrigeration issue. Hmmm. Will see if I can circumvent.
JenniferB: absolutely! I seriously would, no problemo. It’d be way more fun if it wasn’t MY wedding, ha!
Taaliza and rebecca: watchface-charms.com, sixty cents each
Suzanno: we have a page of our website devoted to those exact local sites! Plus, the whole weekend is “blocked out” with activities. But def - I love San Xavier, too.
Marisa: it’s just an off-white resume paper from Kinko’s. They have loads of soft palette color options, and it’s pretty cheap, too!
Wow. That’s seriously the best out of town bag/box I’ve ever seen. And I looked at a lot.
Miss Lovebug, I love your welcome baskets! Most of our guests will be coming from out of town, so I’m not sure if I can find it in the budget to do them, but I love the idea.
[…] they are given a “welcome” basket that is placed in their hotel rooms before hand. See HERE . While I would LOVE to do this, I just don’t see how we could afford doing these for […]
Do you have templates for the western theme handout for the oot? I would LOVE to get a copy! I am planning a western wedding and would love to incorporate some of your ideas if you are willing to share!!! Thanks jmateach413 at yahoo dot com. Is there any way to know what hot sauce you purchased too. and a list of what items you put in the baskets?? Thanks for the inspirations!
Mrs. Lovebug:
I love the idea of your Bags is it possible fo you to send me the templates for your welcome tent card and activites. I am helping my sister with her bags and I thought this would be nice to add. You can send it to brandi_riley@comcast.net
Thank you
I’m afraid I don’t have actual templates for the tent cards; I kinda just knocked ‘em together in Word using our fonts. =)
Thank you. Is it possible that you can please help us out on the wording. We are sitting trying to figure what to say.
Can I also have the welcome wording??
Can I also have the welcome wording??
