Welcome Bags - yes or No?

We skipped this to save money and stress. We have been to a few weddings that had welcome bags and they've always just seemed like a waste.

Ditch it!

We did Welcome Bags and I've received them at literally every wedding I've ever traveled to.

That being said, if you don't have a room block I don't know how you'd logistically do them. Are you inviting OOT guests to the RD?

I would *love* to do them! I'm not sure they're in my budget, though. In the Spring issue of Martha Stewart Weddings they do a photo spread on them and not one is less than $120 per, so I think we're all wishing we could do them more than we're actually doing them.

We're not doing welcome bags partly because it seemed kind of a waste and logistically difficult given that everyone is not staying in the same place (despite the room block). We are doing favors at the welcome dinner the night before the wedding; over half our guests are OOT guests.

Hi There!

Just a couple more weeks! How exciting.

People do welcome bags or local area- centric kits ( i.e. maple syrup from Vermont) Here is a cool piece - 10 Wedding Welcome Bag Items that Make For Awesome Gifts

But if the logistics don't work, and you can't see yourself getting these bags to the different hotels, then you could find some other way to show your traveling guests some love.

Have them join you for in a central location when they arrive and you can give out the bags then or

think about setting up ride share services in advance for their local travel ( Uber/Lyft) to/from wedding etc.

We are skipping them to save money and time (we too have people staying at different hotels and I don't want to be bothered with driving all over the place to deliver them). Also, one of our hotels charges to hand out welcome bags. Ridiculous!!

I am doing the welcome bags but I am just doing one per room booked in our hotel blocks. I am not going to track down people otherwise because that seems like too much of a hassle.

Honestly I've never heard of welcome bags prior to posts about them here on WW app.
If people have the money and resources to do them, I'm sure its a nice gesture. I personally won't be doing them for my guests. We aren't doing a room block but would like to offer suggestions of where to stay on our wedding website. I don't know what everyones budget is for their stay and preferred not to do a room block for that reason.

I’ve never received them and we are not doing them. Seems like a fun idea but not in the budget

We ran out of time/money to do for our DW (plus, people ended up staying all over instead of our resort). But my family threw a Welcome BBQ the night before with great food & booze so we figured that would be better appreciated.

My sis passed out Welcome gift baskets at her Welcome dinner (also DW). Water, snacks, fruit.

If you do them: water, healthy snacks, maybe food and/or postcards from local area to tie into your destination.

We did them but we had everyone staying at the same hotel. Plus, it was a semi-DW over Christmas weekend so we wanted to treat our guests. But I think it might be hard to do if your guests are staying in different places unless it is easy to find out and it is just a few hotels in the same vicinity. Alternatively, you could give them their bags at the rehearsal/welcome dinner if you're having one.

We're doing them, but only because it's a small DW (max 20 bags and that's giving the kids their own) and because we're all staying together. Also, the hotel doesn't charge for me to leave them at the front desk (only if I want them waiting in the room its $4/bag).

If I was in your situation I don't think I'd make the effort to track everyone down.

I’ve received them at most out of town weddings I’ve been to and we are doing them. But we are giving ours out at the welcome party since everyone is staying at different places.

Welcome bags aren't required. However, they're pleasant and cute. I'm doing them. That being said, if I was in your shoes I would NOT do welcome bags. Welcome bags are for room blocks. You don't want the hassle of delivering these bags. It's a logistical nightmare. It may even be awkward. Sweet but awkward. Think about the week of your wedding. Don't do this! This is only reasonable if you drop them off at the hotel and the front desk hands them out to the people in your block. Don't do it!!

ETA: welcome dinner is a cool idea... Hmmmm

We have about 100 guests that are out of town but don’t have a central hotel block. We are hosting a welcome party and handing them out there.

I've always been given a welcome bag when attending a wedding and staying in the hotel, many people do them in real life. We gave them out for our wedding as well, but we had a room block and everyone stayed at the same hotel.

So no, it's definitely not "just a thing you read about", but if you don't have a room block and don't know where people are staying, then you can skip it.

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I don't know what Martha suggests putting in hers, but we did 50 bags for less than $200 total. I've literally never not seen them.

We are doing welcome bags! Our wedding is smaller and I’ve been able to find all the items I want on Amazon in bulk for cheap! I’ll be blocking out rooms well. My wedding isn’t until next summer though.

I wouldnt do them if your guests aren't all in one hotel. It's going to be too much work and stress for you.

We did them but we had a DW. It doesn't mean it is required but we felt it was a nice touch since people were traveling far for us (we had guests from overseas) - they are not cheap so make sure you add up all the numbers before you go for it.

In our case, not everyone stayed at one place but we made sure to meet everyone the day before the wedding, thank them for coming and hand a welcome bag. We got a lot of compliments for ours and everyone seem to have made good use of them.

If you don't have a lot of OOT guests you don't really need it - unless you budget allows and you're very inclined to do it, I would skip it.