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I love the idea of having a welcome basket or bag in each guest’s room upon arrival. I have only been to one wedding with a welcome bag, but it made me feel like the bride and groom really cared and appreciated that I traveled to their wedding and wanted me to feel comfortable and welcomed.
I plan to go the DIY route on this, but needed some inspiration, so I turned to the web.
Kate Parker Weddings has a ready to buy Newport option. I like this one a lot. It comes with a welcome note, a custom map with points of interest related to the wedding, two bottles of water, coffee beans, cookies for a snack, a medicine kit, and a Newport Visitors Bureau Travel Guide. It’s super cute, but most definitely out of our price range, but there are elements I’d like to include that are inspired from this. I like the little Advil packets and the Welcome to Newport note.
I’m planning to DIY because I want to customize the items and make sure it fits in our budget. I think options like Kate Parker’s are beautiful and perfect for time-conscious brides.
Here are some of my ideas on what to include in our welcome bags:
These are some idea I’ve been throwing around, but I need to narrow it down.
Which items do you think would be the most helpful if you were a guest at an OOT wedding?
I’m trying to decide if we can afford/have time to put together welcome bags or baskets, and this made me want to do it even more! Great ideas!
I’m also working on ideas for welcome bags — but I caution using something other than a bag (if you have lots of people from out-of-town and flying in, it may be hard to get something other than a bag on a plane/packed in a suitcase).
The beach towels are a brilliant idea! Especially since hotel towels tend to be tiny, even if they don’t use them at the beach your guests will use them on their trip!
We also provided a schedule of the wedding day / days leading up to wedding. This allowed everyone to know when/who was involved, and also for us to schedule group dinners / activities. Including pens, useful telephone numbers, and in our case, a world time conversion chart, was also helpful. Oh, and we also provided cell phones for every couple that came to our DW.
Those are some great ideas! I’m going to be making OOT bags. I’ll have to use your list when I’m deciding what to get!
I have a question about this - do hotels usually let you go into the guest’s room before they arrive to put their welcome basket there? Or do people typically leave them in the lobby for guests to pick up when they check in?
Great ideas. As a guest, here are the items i would love!!:
– Itinerary
–Maps
– Restaurant menus
– twenty-four-hour drugstores
– Medicine kit
– Sunscreen
– Beach towel
We are doing this too! We just raided the Christmas Tree shop of all their blue sand buckets w/shovels. There are organizational issues though that go with making these, and one of them is transport. We are going to have to assemble them when we get to the hotels b/c having to transport 100 of these in a car just isn’t feasible. Also, most of the weddings I’ve been to with these just have them at the front desk and as people check in they are handed them…which makes personalizing them hard because hotels want as little work to do as possible.
I really like the restaurant menus and area information. Everything else is an added bonus!
Water and local information, some munchies (maybe local ones, if possible), and anything like tylenol, chapstick, etc.
I got an OOT bag that also contained a little booklet with information about the bride and groom, including a few childhood photos, mini bios, and the story of how they met. I was a friend of the groom, but didn’t know the bride very well, and that was nice information to learn about her before the ceremony.
I will likely be having an OOT wedding as well and would really like to do some sort of welcome gift.
I have a silly question though…how do you know where your guests are staying? Do you go to a bunch of different hotels dropping stuff off? And does a hotel staff hand it to them or are they placed in the rooms by the hotel?
i love oot bags! hopefully i can make some too, but i’m definitely leaving it as one of my back-burner projects for now.
@Miss Biner: I’m asking guests where they are staying (and when they are coming) on our rsvps!
I got this tip from someone else in the Hive- check out http://www.minimus.biz/ for awesome deals on mini sized snacks and individual packets of aspirin. Perfect for OOT bags! I’m using it to make the little baskets for the restrooms too!
Here’s what I would find handy:
Itinerary
Information guide
Water
Personalized note
Contact Information
Medicine kit
Sunscreen
Snacks
Beach towel
The restaurants are a big one for me. Whenever I go to a new restaurant suggested by a friend, I always want to know what they tried that made them like the restaurant. So if you do that, maybe you can include favorite or must try dishes!
@farmersdaughter - It really depends on the hotel, I think. Some will let you go through and drop them off, but if there’s a huge amount of turnover (As it is with Newport), they probably just have them pick up the bag when the check in.
—
We’re doing out of town bags for our guests too. I’m not sure what Rhode Island-y stuff we can really include. Ours is a mix of MA and MD items since that’s where we’re from. This is what we plan on having in ours:
- A welcome note with a reminder about our welcome party following the rehearsal dinner
- The list of things to do from our wedding site.
- Brochures for some of the aforementioned things to do
- Newport Map
- 2 Bottles of Water
- 2 Bottles of Sam Adams
- Crab Lollipops (I’m from MD, so we went with crab over the traditional New England lobster)
- A pack of Necco Wafers (A Massachusetts thing)
- 2 Cow Tails (Baltimore, MD thing)
- Small bag of Cape Cod Potato Chips
- Small bag of Little Bites Muffins
- A pack of Orbitz Gum
- A little vial with Old Bay Seasoning
- Sunscreen
- Advil
They are all probably going in a reusable grocery tote so that the bag is also part of the package. I’ve yet to decide if we’ll get a blank tote, a tote with something pre-printed on it (Like the NE Patriots totes that float around the grocery stores), or if we’ll try our luck with the Gocco.
I’ve thought about OOT bags but I still can’t make up my mind! All of our guests are coming from relatively nearby, and they’ve all been to Austin multiple times. But I still love the idea!
Since most of his family and friends are from out of state I would love to make OOT bags with all of the area and restaurant information and goodies to introduce them to MI. I have wondered about the logistics though so I appreciate the tips!
I love OOT bags! I usually go right for the water, the snack packs, and if need be, the Tylenol 
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Mrs. Starfish, Boston/Newport Age and Occupation: 25, Operations Assistant Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Sales Engagement Date: October 8, 2008 Wedding Date: October 2010 Venue: The Atlantic Beach Club About Me: I'm a perfectionist who is a planner at heart. I don't do well with surprises. I love planning, crafting, Newport RI, family and friends, and most importantly, Mr. Starfish---all of which will be big components in our October wedding in our favorite little city by the sea.
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