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I would only give them to the people who are staying at the hotel. Partly for ease and partly for necessity. Anybody's house would have anything that was needed!
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How common is this? I've traveled for many weddings and have never received an oot bag. Is this a new thing? How do you know who is staying where? How do you get it to them? What is in it? (sorry for so many questions!)
From what I gather they are mostly used for destination weddings, where everyone is oot.
I'm doing them.. but I kinda have the same logistical questions as calico. Do hotels charge to hand them out?
We're doing them because my fiance is from NYC (wedding is in Dallas) so a lot of people are staying at the hotel. As far as we know, everyone is staying at the hotel we have our block at, but I guess that could change.
We're making about 25 bags and bringing them to the hotel. The hotel can tell when someone checks in from our block, so they'll hand the bag to them. They are charging us $1 per bag.
We're including city maps, maps we've made with local hot spots, restaurants, shopping, etc, maps to all the wedding stuff, snacks, bottles of water, aspirin/tylenol (for hangovers!) and toilitries.
I think the OOT bags are a relatively new thing, but a very nice touch. I will have about 80-90 bags and my hotel will hand them out for free, they've done this before. And I've gotten them before at other weddings I've been to.
If you have a room block set up, you can normally ask the hotel for a list of who has booked rooms in that block. So that's how you know who's staying where. If you haven't set up a room block, I don't think you could ask random hotels who their guests are. =) To get the bags to the people, you bring them to the hotel a few days ahead of time, and the front desk will give them to your guests as they check in.
If you email or call the local tourism office, they will normally give you brochures and maps for free. Mine did! They even shipped them to me for free. Hey, they're trying to promote tourism! We will also do water bottles, snacks, pain relievers (all similar to missminij), antacids, band-aids, and a schedule of events for the weekend. Hope that helps!!
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we're currently debating oot bags too. i could totally come up with some cute stuff for them, and have had a lot of inspiration on weddingbee, but honestly i dont think we're gonna. as for rates, i know our hotel charges $1/ bag. and to answer the question, if you are doing them, go for people staying in the room block. if they are staying in someone's house i wouldnt give them out unless you have some sort of "starting" event on friday evening or something, then give them out there?
I think it really depends if this is a "welcome to town" bag or a "have a nice stay at your hotel" bag. We made sure every guest visiting town for the wedding, be it a 2-hour drive or a 6-hour flight, was welcomed with some snacks and maps and goodies.
It's a completely non-essential thing to do!
Mr. Lemon was in charge of dropping off all the bags, and while we had no hotel blocks anywhere, he happily reminded each hotel (while dropping them off) that we had provided significant business for them due to our wedding. We dropped bags off at 9 locations with no charges incurred. We asked everyone where they were staying on the invite (and when they were arriving) so we had it ready at hand upon their check-in.
All I know is that it was very well received, and now many of our guests at the wedding have taken the idea and duplicated for their guests. Remember.... it doesn't have to be much at all! It's REALLY the thought that counts in this instance!
I agree that these are definitely an extra and that the thought counts most! I am planning to create OOT bags as well and will only deliver them to the hotels where guests are staying. I am planning to buy a simple colored bag, use our monogram to design a label, include items from the Boulder Chamber of Commerce (Local COCs are often a great source for maps, attraction info, etc.) and some goodies from Costco (Bottled water, 100 calorie packs, gum, fruit leathers, etc.). I love the idea of adding pain relievers and band-aids:)
We are doing OOT bags for our destination wedding instead of favors. We are getting married in the Bahamas, and are including maps, bottled water (personalized), Bacardi Rum Cake, a handcrafted Bahamian photo album, a "passport to paradise" welcome booklet with all the details of the activities over the week, a cd of tropical music and some bahamian jerk sauce...all stuffed into a gift bag.
Hopefully our guests will appreciate it!
Indy, to answer your question-give one to everyone who is from "out of town."
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i think just giving one for each person in the hotel is fine. our OOT bags are basically taking the place of a minibar, so there's really no need for people staying with friends to get them. however, you might want to give everyone a package of information (a welcome letter, things to do in the area, your DOC's phone number, phone numbers for transportation, etc.) that would go in an OOT bag.
Indy, there's great info on OOT bags at http://wiki.weddingbee.com/Out-of-Town_bag
I have received them at weddings in the last 5 years where I traveled to attend the wedding. Our wedding was local, but we had a lot of travelers, so we provided bags for everyone. We pretty much knew who was coming from out of town, and asked them to let us know where they'd be staying and created a master list of names and locations.
Sounds like you know who your travelers are, so I'd include bags to those staying at homes of friends or family. It's a really nice touch and shows your appreciation for their efforts to join you.
Don't forget to include a personal note from you and your FI welcoming everyone! If you can, assign the drop off of the bags to someone else, the last thing you want to do the day before your wedding is driving around town to different hotels.
If the guests at the hotel are a combination of out of towners, and in towners who don't want to drive, do we give the bags to only those from out of town? I want to avoid 2 people checking in at the same time, and some getting bags and some not.....
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What is the etiquette for OOT Bags? Do I give one only to people who travel to the wedding and stay at a hotel?
I have one couple who will be staying with my FMIL and another couple who will be staying with FSIL. Also another couple who used to live here but moved out a couple years ago. They will be staying with their parents. Do I send one to these people?