We have to do welcome bags AND favors?!

I do not want to say you can not use them as your favors, but it is not the norm. your guest receive Welcome bags upon arrival to their hotel rooms. Wedding Favors are received at the reception.

You are not required to do either, if you do not wish to.

You don't have to do either. I'm not doing welcome bags for OOT guests, and my mom is doing some kind of favor for the wedding. I say do what you want, and what works best for you!

You actually don't have to do either.

I would stick to your original idea. No need for favors.

You don't have to do either of them! Both are absolutely NOT required. Give yourself a break and remove both from your to-do list

You don't have to do either. However, I think the Welcome Bags would be nice for a DW. Favors, though, will just take up space in someone's suitcase unless you make them edible.

But no, they're not the same thing. (FWIW, I'm not doing Welcome Bags, but our wedding is in boring old NJ and 90% of the guest list lives within two hours of our venue.)

What are you doing for your welcome bags? My wedding is in Orlando and 1/2 of my guestlist is from out of town so I've been wondering about this...

Personally I'm not doing favors either. I did a photo booth instead. Although I was looking at welcome bags for the hotels. I'm going to follow this post to see what other people say.

Agreed you don't have to do either but for a DW I think gift bags are a nice touch. Stick with your plan, don't worry about favors.

There's no need for favors. I do think gift bags would be nice for those who are traveling far for your wedding.

I don't get welcome bags, personally. Are they like soaps and toothpaste and stuff that guests are likely to pack themselves or use the hotels' anyway? Not bashing em, just genuinely curious.

But whoever gave you flack about the favors is full of it. If the favors aren't food, 90% of it (probably not exaggerated) are thrown in a drawer and forgotten, tossed, left in the car from the time they leave the reception, or not taken at all. Don't sweat it.

Skip the favors -- who wants extra stuff to remember to back, anyway? Welcome bags are great -- it's a nice way to greet and thank people for making the trip out.

What goes in a welcome bag?

Lol. you don't have to do either. don't stress yourself out. do one or the other, or neither.

I did welcome bags for our oot guests. We did bottled water, fresh fruit, pretzels, muffins and a few chocolates... I thought it would be nice for them to have some snacks in their hotel room. Everyone thought they were great and they didn't cost a lot to put together.

Thanks ladies! We are all OOT guests, so we are doing maps, bottled water, post card, a koozie, some redbull and a small thing of vodka. There is probably some more stuff my mother is throwing in, but since we are doing such a big welcome bag, we are probably going to pass on the favors

Forgot to add: we are getting married in Key West!

I think that sounds perfect! Skip the favors. You don't need them.

I think it is fine. You can donate money to a local charity in your guests' names as well

What's the logistics for getting the welcome bags to your guests? Do you have to have a list of all the hotels where they're staying at and ask staff to put them in the room? My guests are ALL over the place, even though I booked a block of rooms. Apparently half my family was able to trade timeshares and book them in Orlando for around my date. It's become a mini family reunion. And I already have a succulent nursery growing at my house for favors, and my aunt painting little terra cotta pots, LOL.

You technically don't have to do either.

More then 90% of our guests are from out of town, we are doing both welcome bags and we are actually having multiple favors.

ETA our OOT bags will have two bottles of water, 'Oops, Ouch, Eek' packets with hair ties, bobby pins, band aids, alcohol wipes, Tylenol, antacids, floss picks and probably adding wisp disposable tooth brushes. We will also have multiple snacks including granola bars, chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin muffins.