For the OOT’ers
July 16th, 2008 @ 9:29 am by Mrs. Tiramisu
The other night on Miss Gingerbread’s BeeTV broadcast, a question was posed to us Bees with only a few days left until our weddings: “What did you want to do that you just didn’t get done?” I couldn’t really think of anything at the time, which I I took as a pretty awesome sign that I’ve actually finished up almost all of the projects that I wanted to do. Later on though, I realized that part of me does wish we were doing more for out of town baskets. I had big dreams (I never actually considered spending that much, don’t worry!), and saw some drool-worthy examples out there, but with around 50 parties of out-of-towners, it just wasn’t feasible to do much.
Mr. T and I decided that the most important things were to make our guests feel welcome, and to make their visit as easy as possible by providing them with all the important information. So, without further ado, I give you our very pared down welcome baskets folders.
Welcome to Maine, here’s a folder!
Welcome to La-La Land!
November 23rd, 2007 @ 2:14 pm by Mrs. Jasmine
I’m in LA for Thanksgiving weekend– it’s so good to be home! I adore Chicago, but a little part of me misses the sunshine and palm trees of So Cal. I’m so excited to introduce our many out-of-town guests to Los Angeles next year.
To that end, I want to put together a “Welcome to LA” basket for all of our out-of-town wedding guests. I’ve started to brainstorm about what kind of items I could include, but I’m coming up short. Here are some ideas I have so far:
Out Of Town Bags
September 28th, 2007 @ 11:32 am by Mrs. Corn
The very last DIY project I had to do before the wedding was the Out-of-Town bags. I got the bags on sale a while ago at AC Moore for something like 23 cents each. They were on the small side, so we only put a few things in them. Each bag had:
- A guidebook and a map of the Newport area that Mr. Corn and I picked up while we were in Newport the week earlier to get our license,
- A newsletter that I designed (but mostly copied off of one I saw online) with info on the bride and groom, the bridal party, the families of the bride and groom; van pickup information; a Mr. and Miss Corn related crossword puzzle; directions to the fort and a list of things to do in Newport,
- A packet of previously made Marzipan shells
Keepin’ It Local
September 21st, 2007 @ 5:44 pm by Mrs. Penguin
I love a bride that introduces her guests to local fare. One of the easiest ways to leave a lasting impression on your guests is to introduce them to the area. Sure, you can serve salmon, but why not serve fish native to the region? And yes, Heinekens are a crowd pleaser, but why not treat your guests to beer from a local microbrewery?
Many guests travel hundreds, even thousands of miles to attend a wedding. Caesar salad, steak and steamed veggies with a country club backdrop can certainly equate to a successful affair, but I can travel 15 minutes down the road any day of the week to eat that meal. So even if your wedding takes place in a banquet hall or at a country club, you may want to mix up a little “local flavor” for your guests to enjoy. Here are some of my favorites that we’ll include in our Northern California winery wedding, and brunch the day following:
Tears of Joy?
September 20th, 2007 @ 1:14 pm by Mrs. Kiwi
You guys have heard of Tears of Joy packets, right? It’s the tissue that you package in a cute way for guests to use during your romantic and life-melding ceremony. Well, have I got news for you: make way for this year’s Tears of Joy packs!
It’s the Box O’ Sobs of Ecstaticness! I am aware that’s not a word. But it spells B.O.S.E, and I like it. Anyway, while I was at CVS (yes, the second time in two days), I saw these CVS brand tissues, a must-have for fall season brides. 
Even though I long ago tossed the idea of a guest basket in the restrooms, I totally want to put these tissue boxes in the bathroom.
Mr. Kiwi thinks I’m losing it because I want to put these in the bathrooms at the reception. Would it look crazy?
Wedding Websites
September 20th, 2007 @ 11:30 am by Ms. Dahlia
Being fairly technologically savvy- (Well, Mr. Dahlia is, seeing as he works in IT; me, well, I’ve taken Introduction to Java, and have taught myself basic html using this excellent tutorial- really, it is, if you ignore the blinking things and really bright colors)- one of the first things that we talked about was a wedding website. We knew that we wanted one, and absolutely didn’t want to use a premade template.
Now, if you are looking to take the path of least resistance, MyWedding.com and WeddingAnnouncer.com both offer free wedding websites. If you register with Bed Bath & Beyond, you can get a free website from them as well.
But like I said, the easy way is not the way for us.
To gather ideas, I dug around in places like google and indiebride for websites that I liked. And I did find some that really stood out to us:
Dial DIR-ECT-IONS
September 19th, 2007 @ 2:38 pm by Mrs. Penguin
Dial DIR-ECT-IONS (347-328-4667) is a FREE service you can use to help your guests find your wedding.How does it work? Your guests call DIR-ECT-IONS (or 347-328-4667) from their cell phone, state your event name (like “Penguin Wedding”), state the address or intersection that they are currently at, and a text message will be sent to them, free of charge, with turn by turn directions to your venue!
Of course, you must add your wedding to their database in order for your guests to be able to find it. To add your event to their database, go to their website and in the upper right hand corner, you’ll see an “events” button. A scroll down will pop up for you to “add an event” where you can post your event name, address, and date.
Welcome Bags
September 5th, 2007 @ 6:45 pm by Mrs. Onion
When you host a “destination” wedding, all of your guests are from out of town, so it’s really nice to make them feel welcome. And packing welcome bags is almost as much fun as Halloween candy or holiday gift bags.
Mr. Onion and I went to visit our parents this weekend (both of them live within 10 minutes of each other which is great) and we got a lot done. The bags were purchased at Papermart.com and were reasonably priced at $.40 each. I chose these bags because of their color, size and the quantity. You could purchase these bags in sets of 25 — you didn’t have to buy 200+. We also packed all 30 of our welcome bags for our guests. I’m really happy with how they turned out.
New York, New York
September 5th, 2007 @ 2:23 pm by Mrs. Spider
Mr. Spider and I spent Labor Day wandering around Union Square. We stopped by Fishs Eddy, one of my favorite shops, in search of a butter knife. We were delighted to see their new (to us) New York City collections. We ran out of time during our wedding planning and had to forego gift bags for our out-of-town guests but if I could turn back time, I would have definitely selected a few of the items below as gifts.
Good Ol’ Ice Cream Social
August 31st, 2007 @ 5:42 pm by Mrs. Peppermint
Because we’re having a destination wedding of sorts, we were thinking that after our rehearsal dinner it might be nice to have an informal ice cream social at the hotel. My cousin did a similar thing two years ago when he got married outside of Lake Tahoe. At first I didn’t think to suggest this idea for fear of the cost and coordination of another wedding event. Though, after talking with my family, I think we’ll be able to keep it all under control. It doesn’t need to be fancy–after all, we just wanted a chance for our guests to socialize before the big day.
