Essential or Extra - Welcome Bags

We did them for our destination wedding and guests loved them! I only made 20 bags total though and would never do that for a big traditional wedding.

They’re an extra, but I like them. I always use them as a guest, and I gave them to my guests. I didn’t get fancy. Just water, sweet snack, salty snack, candy mints and Advil. And information about shuttles and the events! This was probably the most important part.

i will say we ended up with one of our welcome bags and we used everything in it 🤣

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Wow really, what a shame!! I guess it's nice for you and your coworkers who get to eat the leftovers!

I think it’s an extra. My out of town guests don’t need extra gifts to feel welcome. They’ll all be invited to the rehearsal dinner though so that’ll be my welcoming gift.

Extra - definitely an added cost that might not be worth it compared to everything else we're spending on. I think it might be fun to put a note and something small like candy in guest rooms, but that depends on time.

This is definitely an extra! We are doing Bathroom amenity baskets for the reception though!

Essential. Logically, it should be an extra, but i love this idea too much not to make it a NEED. Its like a pre-party goodie bag, and then later you get favors which is like an after party goodie bag!

Extra. We’re getting married where we live which is 400 miles in opposite directions from our hometowns. Most of our guests are out of town. I’m doing a welcome party the night most people are checking in.

We didn't have welcome bags and to us, it's not essential so they are extra...

We’re doing this for everyone choosing to stay in the blocked hotels. It fits in our budget & I thought it would be a nice gesture for those especially traveling long distances or may not be familiar w/ the area.

It's a little ridiculous.

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Makes sense!! Have you decided what you are putting in them yet?

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That's awesome!! I would rather be invited to the dinner over a gift bag personally!

View Quoted Comment Not entirely. A few things I am thinking of include: bottles of water, possibly a small firstaid kit (one or two bandaids and a Tylenol perhaps), a snack such as chips or cookies, brochures/a printout of things to do and places to go, a handwritten note, and something to tie in my background as well as my fiancé's background. We grew up in different states and met in college.

If everyone was staying in the same hotel I would probably do them. All of our guests are picking different hotels all over Vegas though so it's not possible for us

It's definitely an extra, but we're doing it as over half of our guests are from out of state. I got craft paper bags and tissue paper in our colors, some individually wrapped make up remover wipes (checked - neither of our hotel blocks include them) and some advil 2-packs. We're going to get discount candy as it's 1.5 weeks after Halloween, and some bottled water. I'm also putting a self-printed packet of things to do in the area, such as museums, restaurants, and coffee shops. I have a schedule for the events of the weekend with a welcome party, the address of the venue and time of ceremony in case any one forgot their invite, and an invitation to join us for brunch the day after if they're staying at one of the two hotel blocks. I included the price in case they're not staying at our venue.

Extra. I think they are a nice touch, but logistically impossible for our wedding (guests are staying all over). I will put a basket of essentials at the wedding in the restroom, so they can grab some if they want/need them, including Advil for the next day!

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That sounds like a good welcome bag, all the essentials!! It's especially nice to provide information about the shuttles and events to them!

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This sounds like an awesome welcome bag, it has all the needed information as well as some yummy snacks to munch on!

It’s an extra that we will not be doing it.