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True, out-of-town bags are definitely not a wedding guest essential. In fact, they’re often the first thing to go when a budget’s busting out of its seams.
tote-ally welcome - by Whisked Away on Polyvore.com
But, imagine for a minute that you have a sky-high spending limit. Wouldn’t these be the cutest carryalls for your hospitable goodies? L.L. Bean will be adding new limited edition tote-ettes to the party each month. I’m overwhelmed by the adorableness, and wishing I could find a way to squeeze them into the festivities.
Where are you purchasing your out of town bags? Were they a save or a splurge?
I haven’t done anything yet, but I would like to do some sort of recycled bag for them and fill it with local goodies that they can’t find anywhere else. I’m still on the planning stage for this.
Those bags ARE very cute!
Someone on here had the cutest idea to do OOT bags with a cute reusable grocery bag, I think it’s a great idea, and probably cheaper than a tote! I think I just found some today I want to use with mountains on them, they’re really cute!
I love those bags, so cute! We bought these bags from CheapTotes.com to use for OOT bags with the intention of having a friend screen print something on the front of them….now that are are T-Minus 2 months they might just stay plain since the friend’s business is now booming and I hate to ask for a favor.
http://cheaptotes.com/canvas_tote_bag_8.html
Depending on how many OOT bags I need, I might do the reusable grocery bag…but if I’m scraping for money, I might just use gift bags! OOT bags, are definitely something I have decided I won’t cross off! I want my guests to feel SO appreciated!
Love the new LL Bean designs, so cute! For my bachelorette, I got each girl a mini LL Bean Boat n’Tote with pink hearts on the handles - my family actually owns the company, so I got a big discount, it’s the only way I could afford their bags!
These were my actual OOT bags -
http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/some-tips-for-diying-oot-bags
Ya know the reusable bags that most stores are selling for $1? Yup - thats what we used! REI is a coop that we are a part of - we love their company, their products, and their attitude towards life and the environment. So we bought 40 bags from them and loaded them up with goodies and in the welcome letter, included a line about why REI. They are made out of recycled material, are reusable, and recyclable. Grand total? $40. The only other $1 option we found were plain paper gift wrap style bags. We got LOTS of comments about them being great beach bags too!
I should add that just today, the mister and I were at Wegman’s, and snatched up three of their new reusable tote designs. Each has a different fruit or veggie covering the entire bag — one with grapes, another featuring peas and the last has a giant, up-close tomato…they’d be super appropriate for our foodie “themed” wedding (and are three of our four wedding colors, coincidentally!), but not sure yet if we’re definitely doing OOT bags or not.
I’m not purchasing out of town bags. Honestly, I think they are kind of a waste, unless you’re having a destination wedding. It totally depends on what kind of guests you’re having and how far they are traveling from, etc. But personally, I don’t see a lot of my guests actually using any of the stuff that I would buy for them. It just seems kind of wasteful if they’re either going to leave them in their hotel room accidentally or bring them home to sit in a closet somewhere.
we are actually using THESE bags as our OOT bags! the only difference is that we are monogramming our guests’ last names on the bag (one for the family - not each guest) instead of the generic image. i am SUPER happy with them and working LLBean’s $10 off coupon when you make a $50 purchase for all it’s worth right now (it’s making the ordering process a little slow… but whatever).
We purchased our OOT bags from a cute site called onebagatatime.com. I really wanted to do enviromentally-friendly bags (and had grand ideas of monogramming etc etc) but found some wine bags onsale for 99 cents! They are black + white and have a pic of a wine glass and wine bottle on the side (perfect for our “theme”). My wedding isnt’ even until May 2010 and I already bought them haha!
Oh, and for the bachelorette, I “monogrammed” the bags with each girl’s first initial by using an iron-on letter as opposed to paying for them to be monogrammed - http://www.flickr.com/photos/31612377@N05/3189232280/ - just a thought to save $!
I am sooo close to dropping OOT bags from our budget! We have a ton of local people staying in the hotel too, so we would have to make a ton of bags!
those are so adorable! i love creative gift giving and to me, the package outside is as important as the gift itself so i will defintately give this to someone special as a gift bag.
Just to chime in on OOT bags - My bags themselves, along with the contents - a welcome packet, local fliers/brochures, candy, water, popcorn, sunscreen, etc. - came in under $10, and they were just one per couple/family/hotel room (I made 30 bags total for 73 guests).
People not only loved the FL bags (they were sort of favors in my mind), but the welcome packet with times, directions, etc. were invaluable since 98% of our guest list was from out-of-town. So at least for me, I am very glad I did them - the $300 was worth it 
My office moved last week and we got rid of a TON of stuff since our new office is smaller with less storage. Among the stuff getting tossed were small brown gift bags. I scooped them up and decided to use them for both our OOT town bags AND the bags for our candy buffet. For our beach wedding, we wrote lots of things in the sand (”Save the Date”, “Thanks!”, the table numbers, etc.). Among the things we wrote was Welcome to Ocean City. I’ll make that image into a sticker (using sticky labels) and we’ll place that on the OOT bags. Then for the candy buffet bags we’re using an image that has our names and the date of the wedding. I did buy some of the canvas embroidered boat bags (or beach bags) for my girls, though. Each has a different necklace, a beach towel, flip flops, small trinket bowl with a ceramic glazed starfish at the bottom, etc. I got those a $5 Below for, well, $5.
Mrs. Lemon did a post about her OOT bags. I bought the same bags (and didn’t screen print them) and was impressed with the quality for the great price.
http://www.weddingbee.com/2007/07/30/diy-details-out-of-town-bags/
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Mrs. Bruschetta, Philadelphia Age and Occupation: 25, Communication Professional Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Physical Therapy Graduate Student Engagement Date: November 30, 2007 Wedding Date: August 2009 Venue: St. Thomas of Villanova Church & the F.U.E.L. House About Me: I’m a self-proclaimed grammar geek who loves singing (like, really belting it) in the car. My mister and I are planning a vibrant summer soiree celebrating our passions – including food and Philly – and when we make it official, we’ll have been together for eight years! Being super competitive is in my nature, and talking excessively is in my genes. I’ve got a terrible sense of direction, but can always easily find my way into Mr. Bruschetta’s arms.
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