Gift bags

[zoebartlett]

Haven''s comment about gift bags in her thread got me thinking: what are you planning on using, if you know? I can''t decide...I might just wait and see how many people are actually staying at the hotel and then decide how much I want to spend on the bags themselves. Right now I''m thinking of just using solid colored paper gift bags (I know they''re cheap at Michael''s and you can get a whole bundle of them together). I had originally wanted to do small/medium canvas bags but there''s no way I can afford that, now that our guest list has doubled in size.

For the stuff in the bags, I''m thinking:

1. two bottles of water (or four, depending on how many people are in one room)
2. chocolates (maybe a simple chocolate bark) from a local candy shop
3. a nice message typed up and put on nice stationary, thanking guests for coming and explaining specifically what each person means to us (the last part was my mom''s idea)
4. salt water taffy (we''re getting married in a beach town in Maine) -- should the taffy be wrapped individually in cellophane bags or is it okay to put a few loose pieces in each gift bag?
5. maps and tourist brouchures from the local Chambers of Commerce
6. for the little kids, my mom wants to give them the book, Blueberries for Sal, because it takes place in Maine and that''s where we''ll be
7. Bubbles, coloring books, crayons, small beach ball, etc. for the little kids (in their own gift bag)
8. Maybe a small jar of blueberry syrup (real Maine maple syrup - no fake stuff) or blueberry jam, locally made hopefully

Anything else??? We''re not going to do favors, so I can put some money into this, but I don''t want to fill up a bag with random, useless things. Is there anything I''ve mentioned that you''d skip?

 

[labbielove]

Holy cow,
I just typed a huge response and hit the wrong button- Poof....

well, here were the key points, i hope they may help:

1) We did OOT boxes for our recent wedding and they were a HUGE HUGE hit, people love them

2) To simplify it, do one for each person and leave at the desk for guests to pick up when they check in (hotel instructions are that each member of the party gets one bag/box). that way you don''t have to label them all and can just throw one of everything in each bag.

3) Include a "welcome packet"- we did one quickly in Word and it was a hit: a brief welcome letter from you thanking them,etc., a listing of the items in the bag and why included (we included bottled water from our fave local store, candy from a shop on our street, our favorite chocolate chip cookies,etc.), we made a map of the area around the hotel and labeled the location of restaurants, shopping, services,etc. and yet ANOTHER set of directions to the wedding, reception, and a timeline of wedding day events, a list of important phone numbers- mine and dh''s cell phones, the phone number of the venue, etc.

4) consider if people are traveling by air that syrup may not work if they try to put it in a carry on (the liquid/gel thing)

5) throw in some tic tacs or other mints if possible

 

[Tacori E-ring]

Okay let me see if I can remember what was in ours. We did OOT bags too. Since we got married in Wisconsin it was all local stuff (thought it would be more fun that way). We put in Root Beer (from a local company), pretzels (made in WI), cheese (of course!), a small knife for the cheese, sumer (sp?) saugage, Wisconsin playing cards, chocolate (another local place), and some maps. We might have had a harley key chain too. I think that was it. I included a list of local attractions in our invites since surprisingly Milwaukee has a lot to offer.

I suggest NOT putting names on them. We did and the hotel staff didn''t pay attention to them anyways (even though we told them) so it was a big mess. But they were a big hit and a nice gesture.

 

[diamondfan]

I like the idea of local treats and things that are pertinent to the area. I did Wissahickon bottled spring water, liberty bell shaped milk chocolates wrapped in foil, Wise potato chips, Tasty Kakes, some things are made here in the area and others just represent it. I think it is great. You can also type a little sheet of interesting and cool facts about Maine just as a fun FYI type of thing. Your bags sound awesome!

 

[Harleigh]

I''ve already started on this...so far I have the following:

-Individual packets of SPF 30 sunscreen...I have at least enough to put 4 per couple-depending on our #''s, this could go up a bit. maybe to 6 per couple to last them a few days!

-Individual tissue packets-they have a blue flower on them that looks like Plumeria...thought it was kinda Hawaiian-ish!

-Body wash or scrub w/a body puff-1 per bag/couple

-Packs of gum-have enough for 1-2 packs per room

-Individually wrapped hard candies...have enough for 3 per bag

-Scented tealight candles in the wedding colors to get rid of that "hotel room" smell-one fuschia and one celadon per room

I also found a website that will personalize lip balm tubes with our names, wedding date, etc... for $.44 each...haven''t ordered these yet, but I''m still thinking about it.

We also plan to pick up some bottled water and macademia nuts at the local Wal-Mart when we get to HI, along with maybe postcards, souvenirs, etc... We are going to try to pick up matches for the candles at the hotel, but if not, we will buy those, too.

We will also include a welcome letter with things to do, places to see and an itinerary of available things for our group to do along with a wedding day agenda. We also plan to include tour books and maps from AAA that they give away free to all members...several of my friends and my FI are members, so they said they will go get them 2 at a time if need be

, but FI says he will write them a letter at the beginning of the year and ask if it would be possible to get enough of the 2008 versions of each for our OOT bags. I''m already thinking of reminding him about that on Dec. 31st as the ball drops in Times Square!

I''m sure I''ll pick up some more little things along the way, but that''s all I have in mind for now...I did find some canvas bags on ebay available in the wedding colors that I thought would be great on the beach, but they are a bit pricey, so I''m holding off on that until we have a better idea of numbers...right now we''re sitting at 40-50 people, but I''m hoping for a few less!

Hope that helps! All of your ideas sound great, zoe!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

I love the idea of putting as many local things as possible in the bags, that was my goal when we did ours.

For the bags, I got some of those canvas totes (like the ones from Land''s End). I think they are boat bags, which worked well for our beach wedding. In them we had:

2 bottles of water
Granola bars
bags of pretzels
microwave popcorn
local chocolate truffles
A bottle of champagne
little bags of Dunkin'' Donut coffee
shampoo/conditioner/body wash
tea
packets of Kleenex with the Eiffel Tower on them (where we got engaged)

And finally, I spent hours and hours putting together these "local attraction" packets with directions to all kinds of things to do around the area, bus routes on Martha''s Vineyard, ferry schedules, things to do in Boston, etc.

Oh, and I painted all of the nametags by hand, which was HILARIOUS because it took me about 12 hours to do them all.

All in all, I think people really appreciated them and while the welcome bags did take a long time, I''m glad I did them because they provided a very personal touch.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I just went to a wedding last weekend and the welcome bags were great. They had canvas shopping totes with 2 bottles of local beer (from groom''s hometown-Utica NY), 2 bottles of water, mustard dip and pretzles from ME (where the bride is from), chocolates from Dylans Candy Bar in NYC (where the B/G met and fell in love). Nonni''s boscotti, nuts, and a welcome packet. It was a really nice gesture. We plan to do this too if our budget will allow it.

 

[Jas12]

I made welcome baskets and my biggest recommendation is to make sure distrubution is well organized. I had ppl staying at two different hotels (one was really good and left the baskets behind the desk--they asked guests if they were part of the wedding when they checked in and gave them the basket) but the other hotel would not do this. My poor groomsmen spent so much time tracking ppl down and hand delivering the baskets to the room (which was a nice touch but time consuming!). At the end of the wedding we still had many left over b/c a lot of ppl decided not to stay in hotels etc. so again the groomsmen had to hand deliver them to couples as they left the wedding on their way home--it all worked and they were a big hit--but i would be better organized if i could do it over.

Contents of Basket (brown wicker baskets wrapped in cello with a ribbon and a monogram welcome tag)
--2 bottles of locally brewed ginger ale
--2 lrg monogram sugar cookies
--packets of local tea
--A mini ''first aid'' kit that included tums, advil, bandaids , brushups, pack of gum
--An itinerary for the weekend''s festivities (map, restaurant info, resort info etc.)
--a few other snack items

 

[blushingbride]

We did welcome boxes (they were gable boxes) see pic below. They were a HUGE hit - people liked them so much better than regular bags. Inside we put the following:

1. A welcome note to all guests thanking them for coming, etc. The note also contained:
-breakfast coupon which guests could "cash in" the next morning for a free breakfast at their hotel.
-itinerary
-contact informaiton
-area attractions
2. 2 bottels of Jana Water (it''s Croatian spring water since my DH is originally from Croatia)
3. A little favor box filled with milk chocolate nonpareils from Josh Early Candies in my hometown (these chocolates were my absolute favorite candy from growing up - and still are today!)

4. A brochure from Westchester County containing more area attractions and a map.
5. Mini M&M''s (we gave out M&M''s at our engagement party which had our wedding date printed on them - kinda like our save-the-date, plus DH''s last name begins with M so we thought that was cute).

6. 1 granola bar
7. 1 pack of cheese & crackers
8. 1 bag potatoe chips
9. 2 individual packs of Advil
9. 1 pack of Tic Tacs