What to put in hotel gift bags for wedding guests?

We are having an out door ceremony on the beach, but instead of the usual welcome bags upon entry to resort, we will place the bags on the ceremony seats to welcome the guests - one larger bag for each couple, kids get a smaller version of their own. We will include:

* wedding program in shape of fan with ceremony info and festivities for the two days

* bottles of water

* small bottle of suntan lotion

* crackers with cheese/cracker with peanut butter

* mints and/

Cotton tote bag

or hard candies

* hand sanitizer

* local paper

* Flip flops

We will get personalized bags from Vistaprint.com

I am having a destination wedding in New Orleans. I found a local shop that has cute New Orleans totes, I emailed them and they sold them to me in bulk at a huge discount. Then I called another little shop in New Orleans that has cute local stuff and they sold me some things in bulk at a discount.

So never underestimate calling local businesses and seeing if you can work out a deal.

in addition, we did the typical hangover kits, water, chips, pralines, etc.

I went to a wedding once with really lovely welcome bags! They had a list of restaurants close by, (very helpful when my SO was at the rehearsal and I was left on my own.), some local snacks and water.

The only thing was my SO was deathly allergic to peanuts, and the snacks where peanut butter cups, which was sort of awful, particularly considering the bride was a sister! So be careful of peoples allergies.

Oriental Trading Wedding Section. They have some super cute stuff

We are providing welcome bags, and really splurged on them. Now, if we were having more than 30 people, it would be a completely different story. I will have:

Water

Hangover kit

Soap

Bathbombs

Sugarfina Champagne Bears

Champagne

A Vintage Tennessee postcard

Fresh fruit and trail mix

I purchased the bags on Etsy and I LOVE them

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This is super cute! I love your boxes!

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Sounds super fun! I am offering sunglasses, sunscreen, water, paper fans and flipflops - however, we have a "refreshing" station at the ceremony's entrance (on the beach) and everyone will take what they want versus bagging and placing on their seats. I found it easier to handle and better so if someone is not interested in something they don't feel obligated to be carrying around - whatever is not taken during the ceremony will be moved into the reception area (a garden) and people will have the items available until the party ends.

I have thank you notes to go with some personalized items we have to each couple attending. Our guest list consists of about 40 people including children so we could make it very personal to what we give.

OP - keep in mind that none of this is required. Leave to to the end so you see if/what you'll be able to afford. It is a nice touch to add welcome bags but not necessary at all.

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I love this!! Which vendor did you use??

View Quoted Comment Thank you!

View Quoted Comment Thank you! PreppingParties from Etsy

A walking map of the area (there's probably a good free one around town), a schedule of any wedding events, a couple of water bottles, coupons to local attractions you've recommended, a sweet snack and a salty snack. I was over thinking it and wanted to do something fancy but once I read this list, I really got it.

I'd include things that guests can use the moment they receive the bag like water and snacks. (The drink chip they have to cash in on later and not everyone will. Do you have underage people receiving the bags?)

The basic rule of thumb that we followed was: water, something sweet, and something salty. We had 2 water bottles, 2 Berger cookies (Baltimore thing), UTZ chips (crab and regular), tissues, and info cards (weekend timelines, Baltimore facts, crab soup recipe). It was one bag per couple/group of two that stayed in the hotel block.

The wedding is in Washington DC. Here's what we're putting in our Wedding Hotel Welcome Bags:
- 1 mini champagne bottle (FMIL's idea)- 1 box of personalized M&Ms (FMIL's idea)- 2 boxes of mints in bride & groom boxes; "Mint To Be" - 2 travel-size Advil packets - 1 travel size tissue packet - 1-2 Shout stain remover wipes - 2 pumpkin spice chai tea bags - 3 Vietnamese instant coffee bags - 1 Rap Snack chip bags- 2 (of 3 types) snack bars - 1 16oz Fiji water bottle - 1 personalized wedding theme door hangers - 1 copy of the latest Washingtonian magazine - 1 list of "Things To Do" and "Where To Eat" around Dupont Circle- itinerary of the weekend events *ask them to use the wedding hashtag, include number of DOC for wedding related questions- 1 letter from groom's family welcoming the guests (FMIL)

We are doing welcome bags! We’re doing a map of things to do, a welcome itenerary, and we’re including a mini travel/“hangover kit” (not that I’m expecting anyone to get s hangover lol) w/ a small chapstick, advil & mini water bottle.
we were also going to see if the hotel or surrounding attractions could give us coupons to go inside!

These were my bags. I included: tissues, shout wipes, advil, mints, hershey kisses, granola bar, cheddar bunny crackers, annies bunny grahams, 2 bottles of water, 2 custom iced sugar cookies - one was a cutout of the state with a heart on our city, the other said welcome, and an insert with times for wedding events and things to do.

We are! We found these cute burlap bags on Amazon and are going to stamp the state of CO on the outside. Inside, we are including 2 bottles of water, a pamphlet with some information on nearby restaurants, stuff to do, and wedding information, a sweet snack and a salty snack, and two packs of ibuprofen!

We are doing aspirin, drink, cookie, list of our favorite restaurants and attractions nearby, directions to the venue, reminder of schedule and numbers to call

I've thought about doing them and I wouldn't be surprised if my mom took it upon herself to do it. Shes the one who told me about it. Haha
If I do end up doing them, it will probably be a water bottle, some SNACKS (chips/microwave popcorn/candies) my mom saw cute door hangers that say "Do not disturb...we spent the night celebrating at X & Ys wedding"

We considered it - but when we found out that our hotel would charge something like $5 per distributed bag, we decided not to.

But had we done it - we were going to include:

- wedding event listing

-bottled water

-aspirin

-snacks (fruit snacks, granola bars, etc.)

-starbucks gift card ($5)

-welcome notes

-list of our favorite places to go nearby

I'm doing a destination wedding. I only have to do about 10 bags, do I decided to spend more per bag. Beach bags with sunblock, snacks and other items. Probably spending about $20/bag.

I think your idea sounds great! I'm sure your guests will appreciate it and you don't have to do a ton.