Weddingbee Blog

One of the most important things I’ve learned as I’ve traversed through this dedicated online wedding community is that I have a true admiration for personalization within a wedding. There are so many ways to make a wedding unique, and for me, those little details really make a difference. Back when Frogger and I first got engaged, I began thinking of little ways to infuse our personality into our wedding and I’ve continued to add to that list as time has gone on.

For the OOTs (out-of-town bags), I’ve found a few really great DIY resources which I’ll include below, and inside… I’ve got some fun ideas to add a touch of humor for our newly arriving guests. In addition to brochures for local attractions, bottled water, a snack or two, etc. I’m thinking about possibly including the following with cute description tags:

• Smelling Salts – to be used upon first site of our wedding location… yes, it’s that amazing.
• IcyHot – to alleviate the pain caused by whiplash while exploring the gorgeous new surroundings
• Themed beer cozies – just so it’s clear what kind of weekend we are all in for
• Recovery kit – featuring Tums, Alka Seltzer, extra strength Tylenol and Gatorade (they’ll be in need of electrolytes)

Now, for my secrets to creating the bags themselves.

I can say, with some certainty that I’ve found a fantastic source for bags online and some impressive DIY tutorials to make uber cute OOT bags.

First up is the charming beach tote created by With this ring, I thee obsess (PS – how cute is that name?!):

The advantage of this approach is using iron-on transfer paper which can be purchased in bulk and isn’t quite as time consuming as the second option below. The drawback is that you can often see the clear background on the bag when the transfer is complete unless you are diligent about cutting around the image. If you are interested in going this route, there’s another great tutorial through HP that can be found here.

This second bag is seriously cute – and happens to be found on my all-time favorite DIY tutorial site, How About Orange… (Hi Jessica, let’s be friends, mmkay? PS – feel free to send me one… ya know, if you made extras). Please jump over there and browse through the DIYs that are offered, I mean, we’re talking mega cute craft explosion:

See, I wasn’t joking about the cuteness. The cool thing about this bag is it was made with…get this – freezer paper! Yeah, it’s astounding what smart crafty people can create. This bag is great because the final product has no transfer paper, no freezer paper, just the design on the bag and it holds up great because you are literally painting right onto the bag. The drawback is that you need to redo the image each time because when you do the design, the freezer paper is destroyed and cannot be used again. It’s a bit time consuming so unless you are starting well in advance, it may not be the best route. Although it could be great for just the bridal party—note to self.

Next stop – purchase said bags for ACAP (as cheap as possible). The best site I’ve found so far is Cheap Totes where they are currently available for 99 cents a piece. The great thing about this site is that it doesn’t require you to buy a certain amount to bring down the price so you can purchase as few as 1 or as many as 400.

So my question to you, my bridal buddies, is this—are you doing OOT bags and if so, what are you including to infuse personality and a taste of the location for your guests? Bring on the brain power!