Goodie bags for out of town guest...help

Think of the things that you would like to have when staying at a hotel. Bottles of water are always great, and cheap. Some advil for the morning after the party is nice. Not a bottle of course, just those little individual packs. You could put in some info about the area or maps. Maybe some tiny tissue packets. Go to Costcos or Sam club and get some bulk snack bags or stuff like that.

Thanx Laura,

I thought about water bottles with our monograms, which I was going to buy in bulk at Coscos but a friend of mine told me that would be tacky, I really didn't think so but then again i'm like well she is going to be a guest and if she thought it was tacky maybe everyone else will too.

I also thought about the tissue paper, which I will do, the tylenol/advil sounds very good too.

Honey

I think water is a great idea....you need something to wash down that advil

I would put in a salty snack too (pretzel sticks?) and maybe gum?

Haha that was funny but your right...

Personally, I try not to drink tap water...and I have this weird thing about drinking water from different cities....ha ha...i know it's crazy...I'm not in Mexico!

Lol, no it isn't weird i'm the same way... so the bottled water thing is a deff.. so this is what I have so far...

Bottled Monogrammed water

mints

Hershey kisses

Advil & Tylenol packets

I think that's good right.. or what do you guys think?

My sister put 2 mini bottles of water, a small bag of chips, directions to our dad's house for the Rehearsal Dinner/Farewell Brunch, Directions to her Venue, an invitation to the Farewell Brunch, and a few brochures on some sight seeing touristy things to do (a Trolley Ride around Salem, MA, Duck Boat Tour around Boston, MA,& a Fairy Boat from Salem, MA into Boston, MA and back to Salem). I'm planning on making a little Passport for ours themed in New Orleans and adding touristy places, directions, a Thank you note for traveling, an invitation to our farewell brunch, chips, water, Mardi Gras beads, a Mardi Gras mask or small jester doll, and doubloons (since New Orleans is well known for Mardi Gras). And the kids ones I'm going to put in some crayons, coloring book, a disposable camera (for the older ones), granola bar, animal crackers, raisins, and a Mardi Gras Themed Alligator or Crawfish Stuffed Animal

RAO that is wonderful... when is your wedding.

Well I was thinking the hotel is going to give me some discounts to local area hotels for our guests on sat... so I was thinking I can put those in there as well as any site seeing booklets.

But you have yours down packed... we decided we didn't want any kids at our wedding so I'm not doing little kid ones..

Another great thing to add is an Itinnerary of the weekend so that way those invited to your Rehearsal Dinner know what time and where if they forget their invitations at home, and a time outline of your Wedding Day and if you have a Farewell Brunch, that info is also appreciated.

Water bottles with your monogram are the furthest thing from tacky!!! They are all the rage. if you go to my profile there is a link for my wedding planning bio....check out the OOT box section - there you will find all of the contents of our welcome boxes. Where are you from/where is the wedding? you can incorporate goodies to that area in your box/bag....like we are getting married in new orleans so we are putting new orleans-y stuff in ours.

Tracy,

Thank you. I'm originally from NY but we live in Concord, NC. I'm going to your page now and check it out.

The stuff your putting sounds great... is funny because they tell you ask yourself "what would you want to get at a wedding?" and then you think about it and you draw a blank lol.

I'm doing a lot of the stuff myself as favor wise.. so let's see how this one turns out.

I will be putting hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes in mine along with lots of snacks, area information, water, advil, and sunscreen. I'm sure I am missing something but it's what I have so far.

Right now we're planning for June 1, 2013 (our 6 Year Wedding Anniversary). We got married by a JOP so we're giving ourselves time to get out of debt and do a lot of things ourselves and save up for a Larger Ceremony for a Vow Renewal and Reception. We have a son who will be our Ring Bearer (by then he'll be 6) and our Twin Nephews, so I can't leave out kids and only a small amount of cousins have kids, only 3 additional kids, which isn't a lot. Check out your local Chamber of Commerce. They'll give you brochures for free and as many as you need. A lot of my items are similar to Tracy's if you go to see her OOT Boxes on her page. My cousin years ago in baskets for his Bar Mitzvah gave embroidered monogramed towels, snacks (water, fruit, chips, nuts, trail mix) in a nice basket. His dad's an Optometrist so his were all fancy. We're going to buy whatever we can from Sams with hubby's fam's membership card (at our expense) and get all the snacks, and really just buy in bulk.

I love the personalized water bottle labels. They look a lot better than receiving bottles of regular water with the Manufacturer's labels on them for a Wedding. That was one thing that I thought looked cheaply put together in my sister's bags, they just left the Poland Springs Labels on them. Their bags were simple and since the daddy-o and witch stepmom were angry with us for staying at a hotel off of their list (we stayed at a Days Inn) they never got around to bringing our bag to us. No biggie. We could have used the water for bottels of formula for our son and the time for the Farewell Brunch (instead of having to ask what time it was and getting a nasty response with "Didn't you get a Welcome Bag?" "Well had you stayed where everyone else was you would have gotten one."). Make sure your hotels do hand out OOT Bags/Boxes/Baskets. My sister was furious that the Check-in-Desk didn't give anyone theirs when they checked in.

If any of them like tea or coffee canalways put either tea bags or personalized coffee in there baskets. water bottles, mints, idk what else.

The water from Costo and we made labels for those bottles. I went to the dollar store and got toothbrushes, toothpaste, chips, gum, advil, etc. You would be surprised what you can get at the dollar store.

I thought of something else that might help. If you're putting in bottles of water, snacks, etc. and buy in bulk, if you don't have a Costco, or Sams Club Membership, and there is a BJ's near you, you can get a free day pass there to buy whatever you need. I was looking into those when we went to MA for my sister's Wedding to buy snacks, beverages, plates, napkins, cuttlery, and a Birthday Cake to have a family b-day party for my son who turned 1 a few days before the Wedding without it costing a fortune for us to do. My mom and her boyfriend were gracious to buy the majority of the things we needed and since we drove and ran out of water and drinks for our hotel room, we bought soda and water and brought it over to the hotel my mom's fam was staying at, and they even brought over wine and stuff to make Bloody Mary's. We even let the family keep any left over snacks like the tostitos, salsa, cheese dip, cheese, pretzel crisps, and anyone who wanted to take any left over bigger bottles

Of water, since they were given 2 tiny bottles of water that you could drink in 2 big gulps, and that way it saved them from hunting for grocery stores to buy more drinks and snacks besides paying for snacks and drinks out of the over priced vending machine. They appreciated it more than just a small bag of chips and 2 tiny bottles of water after flying. It wasn't a big deal at all for us to head back to the store and buy more if needed, since we knew our way around and where the stores were. We even left them extra plates, cups, utinsils incase they needed them. They handed back anything uneaten to us to take in the car back home with us instead of tossing it. If any of you have any get togethers before your Wedding with family, share unused items with them. More than likely they'll get use out of them

Also if you have a Christmas Tree Store near you, you can buy items there similar to the Dollar Stores for far less money to include in your Welcome Bags.

How about putting your gift items in a pretty tiffany blue bag??? That would make the gifts seem extra special!! You can get them from http://sophiesfavors.com/boxes_aquablueshoppingbag.html