Weddingbee Blog

I decided a while back that we should give out-of-town bags to all of our guests. Considering they are all spending a ton of money to make it out for us, I want them to feel welcome when they arrive with a little gift/beach survival kit. I saw some cute ideas with a beach theme like this…

(source)

… but how in the world do you bring 24 buckets in your luggage? We could always have them shipped, but I figured if it would be hard for us to bring them, it would be hard for everyone to get them home. Call me crazy, but I’m thinking most people don’t leave enough space in their luggage for a bucket on their return trip.

Then I thought about a tote that my friend gave me as a bridesmaid’s gift and I went off that idea. A beach tote that our guests could take down to the pool or carry in town or around the resort would be perfect. And they would be a lot easier to stick in a carry-on for us on the way there, and for guests on the way home. Not to mention, I’m always looking for new DIY wedding projects and this one seemed far from impossible. So, I scoured the internet for inexpensive but well crafted totes and I found these on InGreetings.com…

I love the ocean blue! They arrived and are actually a lot nicer than I thought they’d be. They’re 18″x14″x4″ so they have some good depth to them and they zip closed. With the 2 little kiddies that are coming too, these bags are bigger than they are, so I also got 2 smaller ones for them…

The initial on the top is an iron-on that I found at Michaels. I thought it would be cute to personalize all of the bags, so for the couples, I applied each person’s first initials on one bag, and for the singles, I did the same.

I realized when I was organizing the initials that some of our coupled-guests have some unfortunate first initial combos – BM, BJ, S&M – so I had to choose wisely who would be the top letter and who would be the bottom.

I also have since then realized that I may have jumped the gun on initials since we don’t have a final RSVP from everyone. I guess we’ll have to figure out what to do down the road if someone RSVPs no, or if any of our single couples happen to go their separate ways by then.

I also realized once the bags were finished and I threw them in a box, that although they’re smaller than buckets, they still take up quite a bit of room…

Add to that everything we’ll be putting in them, and they’d take up a decent amount of precious luggage space. Thankfully, my friend that is coming is a frequent VIP flyer on United (I think?) and she has no luggage restrictions and doesn’t get charged for extra bags, so she offered to bring them down with her. What a lifesaver!

Although they turned out cute, I still think they’re a little plain looking, so I may be taking a trip to Michaels for some more embellishments soon.

More to come…