Mrs. Gingerbread, Vancouver
Age and Occupation: 32, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Software Engineer
Engagement Date: Sometime in the fall of 2004
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 24, 2008
Venue: Rainforest wedding, beachfront restaurant reception
About Me: I recently moved to Canada from Southern California. Trying to plan a wedding in a new city, not to mention a new country, is tough, but the fact that we can get legally married here more than makes up for it! The wedding will be an opportunity for most of our family and friends to see our new city for the first time so it will be both a wedding and a reunion. Besides my future wife, I am also madly in love with a good bargain, Swedish pastries, Tivo, and my two dogs and calico cat (in no particular order).
Building the Out-of-Town Bag
July 2nd, 2008 @ 5:55 pm by Mrs. Gingerbread
My biggest barrier to the OOT bag was the bag itself. I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for it. There are lots of cute options out there, but even at $5 apiece, it quickly adds up to over a hundred bucks in bags. I also didn’t want to go the paper bag route because I wanted a bag that people would reuse. Then it dawned on me. Reusable shopping bags are everywhere in Vancouver. All of the grocery stores, department stores, and specialty shops have them. Around Christmas, Sears had the most adorable damask reusable shopping bags. Sadly, those are gone, but the Bay has some simple ones that we snatched up for .99 each. It even says “Esprit Global” on the bag (instead of “The BAY”), which kind of fits our whole destination wedding/travel theme. I am thinking that our guests will be more likely to take this bag with them on future grocery shopping trips than one that has our names on them.
To fill ’er up, we hit the Vancouver Touristinfo Centre, where we picked up some maps and brochures.
Next we headed to Costco for some Canadian snacks as suggested by the lovely brides on the Vancouver board 
We had to get Ketchup chips and All Dressed chips (my favourite). Miss GB 2.0 insisted that we include “No Name” juice, which is the actual name of the brand, just because it’s funny. We also got a bunch of candy, including Smarties. We included other stuff, like granola bars, sesame sticks, and fruit snacks. We threw in bottled water, though if the budget allowed for it, I’d love to give people reusable water bottles since we can actually drink the tap water here. We also added a postcard and a card from us.
Here’s the cost breakdown, because I love cost breakdowns.
Bag = .99
Juice = .32
Chips = .25
Chocolate bar =.62
Small candy (.13×4pieces) =.52
Water =.28
Sesame sticks =.21
Granola Bars (.14×2) =.28
Fruit packs (.13×2) =.26
Card =.75
Postcard = .25
Total = 4.73
We are giving one bag to each couple/family with slightly more stuff inside. The main point of the bag is to share some handy tourist info and I don’t think groups need duplicates.
Are you providing out-of-town bags? Are you giving one bag per person or one per group? What are you including?
24 Responses to “Building the Out-of-Town Bag”
Ketchup chips?! Seriously? Canadians figured this out and not Americans? I’m devastated. Are they the best things ever fried? Tell me all about them. And what are All Dressed chips? Man, I thought I had the Canadians all figured out once I got pountine under my belt.
Yeah, I’m not so sure how I feel about those Ketchup chips - but your bags look like fun!
What are All Dressed chips?
Awww I love Ketchup chips I used to love eating those when I would visit my friend in Quebec!
We’re planning on doing one bag per couple maybe two a group (depending on the amount of ppl) and we also want to use reusable shopping bags.
We love Trader Joe’s so we’ll most likely use their bags that are $1.
excellent breakdown!
we wanted reusable bags as well, but didn’t find any we like, so my mom is making fabric bags. we’ll stuff them with a custom map, local info, note from us, snackies and bottled water.
on the distribution front, we’ll probably do one bag per room/group, except in cases where each person would like/could use a bag (for example, FH’s two adult cousins are sharing a room, but we’d provide one bag for each, as they’d appreciate a bag of their own).
Wow that’s one of the most affordable OOT gift ideas I’ve seen- nice job Miss GB!
Wow! I love your oot bags. I would def use it. And I love all the goodies that are in there.
I’m Canadian so it’s funny to hear about all the “Canadian” items you’re including - No Name Juice, Ketchup/All Dressed Chips and Smarties are what we grew up with. I love that you’re introducing your non-Canadian guests to these new treats!
A note on Canadian potato chips:
Personally, I am not a big fan of ketchup chips, but I think our guests might get a kick out of trying something new. Other fun flavours…salt & vinegar, dill pickle anyone? All Dressed chips are basically all the random chip flavours on one chip (ketchup, sour cream, vinegar, etc). Perhaps a real Canadian can explain this better than me Linzerella, would you like to help me out?
I’m so digging your reusable grocery bag. I was going to get the standard totes, but this is a much better idea, and if gets some of our guests to use them while shopping all the better! I LOVE my reusable grocery bags, they hold so much more than those nasty ol’ plastic ones!
@Miss Espresso: I think the cost of the bag is probably what hikes up the price on OOT bags. I’m also trying to take the approach that it’s a gesture, a token of our appreciation and snack, not a full mini-bar :p
All dressed chips are a little tangy and a little salty… vinegary! They’re an orangy colour, and they’re quite delish !
Love that you didn’t do the monogram thing. You are right it will get used more this way. Great idea!
My experience with OOT bags … one per couple (just double up on the snacks).
great oot bags! i’m using tote bags but only because i got them in the motherland (sri lanka) for uber cheap. we are gonna have a bunch of canadians from out of town, i wonder if i can scrounge up some all dressed chips for their bags
Love the OOT bags, Miss GB! The Smarties and All Dressed are awesome choices. 
All Dressed chips are hard to explain - sort of a combination of flavours, but they don’t really taste like the individual components. They are delicious!
@Miss Margarita: Check out this website - http://www.canadaonly.ca/ Last time we were in the U.S., one of Miss GB 2.0’s coworkers asked that she bring back Oreos. Apparently, the U.S. and Canadian versions are different! I find snacks food differences to be so fascinating.
Ok, I’m not a budget OOT bag girl, so ours are going to be expensive. We have a very small guest list for our vow renewal, so we can afford to spend more. We’re hosting a weekend in Seaside, FL, so I’m doing a beach bag of course. I’m thinking about using the Land’s End tote bags, in fact I just ordered samples of the colors. I’m going to put one beach towel, maybe flip flops, snacks and water, small bottle of wine, message from us, custom map, itinerary and info on the town, reusable plastic cups with our logo on them, wrist bands for the tab we’ll have open at the beach bar all weekend, sunscreen, advil/aspirin and I’m making everybody a blank photo album to put any pictures that they take that weekend. If anybody decides to bring their kids, I’m going to do a sand pail filled with candy and cookies in them. I can’t decide if I’m going to do one or two beach towels per couple. I’m doing one bag per house (the town is made up of little cottages to rent), except when families are sharing with others, like my SIL and her husband and my BIL will probably share a place. I’m sure I’ll find more to put in there…I have a lot of time to think about it.
These bags are awesome! You did such a great job! I love the grocery store bag idea. The design on yours is particularly cute!
Yeah!! I did the reusable grocery bag thing too.. I guess it’s a West Coast trend.
I found bags in our wedding colors at IKEA. Everyone loved them!
is it ok to NOT have OOT bags?
I’m torn…
@melanie: Absolutely! I think if you are looking to cut back somewhere, this is a great place to do it. No one will miss it
Melanie~ I agree with Miss GB. I’m doing them because people are going to travel 5 hours away from home to attend our vow renewal and it’s their reward! LOL Well that and all the other stuff I’ve got planned. We also have a very small guest list. I probably only have to make 15-20 bags. If you are having an wedding in a town where most everybody who is coming lives and you only have a few OOT guests, I would skip it. But, if everybody is traveling for your wedding to a new city, I would at least try and gather some info on the city for them and combine that with a welcome note and a few snacks from Costco or BJs and you’d be great.
At the moment EVERYONE is an OOT guest at our wedding, but right now we’re not giving out OOT gift bags. Technically the reception is their gift isnt it?? At the end if money allows we may put together something simple, but there isnt anything to do in the town we’re getting married in. We chose it for the beautiful river views, and the fact I can have my wedding there for free (a relative owns the land) unfortunately thats about all it has going for it.
OMG, I grew up next to Canada (my friends teased in college that my parents’ bathroom is IN Canada…), and I haven’t seen Ketchup chips in YEARS. That is awesome. We have Dill Pickle and Salt & Vinegar in MN…do they not have those in other parts of the country?
Also, to the commenter that mentioned pountine, all I can say is YUM! Why can you not get this fabulous food in the states??
To make an actually on-topic comment - I love your bags, and I think giving reusable shopping bags is a fabulous idea!
I love your idea for the bag and the items in the bag. Your guests will love the sweet gesture. You may want to add mints or a candy int he bag.
