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I do not think its necessary but do think its a nice gesture that guests really appreciate. You do not need to go nuts either. I ordered bags from papermart and made my own labels on Avery 5164. We haven't bought the goodies yet but was going to include, water, snacks, candy (our wedding is the day after halloween), advil/tylenol, gum and anything else we may find. If you mention it to family maybe even they will pay for it. My MIL said it would be one of her little extras!
We just did a folder with maps, schedule, and some area info. We stuck in a postcard too. Everyone really liked them- I have no idea if anyone missed a bigger bag, but I sometimes end up leaving those behind anyways! I'd say it's nice, but totally NOT required.
I think it's nice and something that you should do for your guests who are making the trip to your wedding. But, nothing besides a marriage lic. and somebody to marry you is required. As a frequent out of town wedding guests, it's nice to have some snacks in my room late at night instead of having to order room service or go find some overpriced snack in the mini fridge. It's also nice to have maps, info, etc. to look at to get more of a feel for the location. HTH.
pinklau- our wedding is the day of Halloween!!! I was thinking of going the candy route, too, but that is going to be part of our wedding favors so I don't want to overdo it. I'm also debating on a bag that is Halloween themed since I will also be having those as favors at the wedding. Oy.
I could put in some local brochures (I live near Disney and Busch Gardens so there's an easy one!), water bottles, and a few snacks. The problem is, is that for 70-90 guests, even if I only do 1 bag per couple, the cost could get easily up to $300 just to make these bags having water bottles and a couple snacks. I'm already giving out cute favor bags at the reception, so I'm just not sure I'm sold on the welcome basket.
But tiramisu--great idea with just putting in maps, schedule, and area info. I could get away really really cheaply by doing that....
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I agree that its not really necessary. Its a nice gesture and if you have the budget and time for it, its a good idea. However, most guests are not expecting it so don't feel bad it you can't .
We might just skip this. We were thinking that if we *do* do something we'll just give everyone something small, like a two chocolate-chip cookies wrapped in cellophane and tied with a bow in our colors.
Otherwise it's just a bunch more money we don't need to spend and people won't miss it!
As previous posters said, it's a nice thing to do but by all means NOT necessary. They will not be missed, but if you hand them out, they'll be more than appreciated.
Our bags cost a little more than $3.75 to create (including a bag that was $2.60) and were overflowing with goodies. The trick is to stay away from the pre-packaged snacks, as those are what really make it expensive. For all the compliments and thanks (and number of friends now doing the same thing for their guests), it was probably the best $120 I spent.
wow guys i didn't realise how lucky i am! I'm from Ireland and when I see the amount of little extras you guys do for your guests i almost feel bad that i'm not doing the same! the only thing is that my guests will never have heard of things like the out of towner guest bag and stuff so they'll never know they're missing it! I just feel bad for you guys having to stretch your budget with things like that. although i have picked up a few ideas from you guys that i'm sure i'm gonna be using on my day, like the little basket in the hotel bathroom and stuff. sorry for rambling there, i just wanted to make an observation! good luck!
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we're doing gable boxes with snacks, brochures for local attractions, welcome letter from us, and bottles of water.
On one side of my family welcome baskets are kind of a standard, so for our wedding each room at the hotel had a basket filled with snacks, bottled water, a welcome letter, a bottle of wine from a local winery, and activity pages for the rooms with children. On the flip side of welcome baskets, my friend gave each room a folder with information and two homemade chocolate chip cookies. I think guests like anything- it's the thought behind it that matters.
Even if you can't afford to make much of it, I would consider at least leaving a note of welcome to your guests. Our letter included driections from the hotel to the ceremony, ceremony to reception, hotel to reception, and reception to the hotel. We also listed a few emergency phone numbers in case a guest should need to get in touch with somebody(I would suggest putting phone numbers of at least two people- one on the groom's side and one on the bride's side-- but NOT your own number)and some of the local restaurants in the area. More than anything it was just a note of thanks for traveling to see us and to let the guests know they were appreciated. After our wedding we actually got a thank you note from one set of relatives for their welcome basket- they loved it!
Totally not necessary. Most decent motels have racks and racks of brochures on local attractions. Depending on your motel, a whole lot of them also have complimentary bottled water in the rooms, and the Marriott hotels have freshly baked cookies for their guests in the afternoon. Little packets of Tylenol send an interesting message about your planned festivities, but I can't remember the last time I ended up on travel without my own. And if I really need some, I definately need more than the two pills in the little packet.
I have seen a few cute ideas for OOT bags on various posts, but frankly a lot of the things that seem to get put in the bags I would just end up tossing. We chose to let our OOT guests fend for themselves in the snack department; we had them to a backyard barbecue two nights before the wedding, to the RD the night before, and we had previously sent them extensive information about local recreation (wine tasting, golf, etc). If you have both extra time and money that you can't figure out how to spend elsewhere, then go ahead. I don't think our OOT guests felt slighted for the lack of a goodie-bag.
I think it completely depends on what you want to do. There is a possibility we will have our wedding in Brooklyn, and we will at the very least leave people with a map pointing out cool local restaurants and areas and maybe snacks, a note from us, etc.. Many of our guests have been to NY before but are not very familiar with Brooklyn. I don't think you need to go and provide a ton of snacks for people. They can find that on their own. I think if many of your guests are not familiar with the area perhaps some information and a welcome note might be nice. Also we are not planning on doing favors so this will be in lieu of them for the out of towners.
OOT bags are not necessary but are nice if people had to make a trip to come to the wedding.
If you reserved a block of rooms at the hotels, then I would say that anyone who took you up on that offer gets an OOT bag. You can't be in charge of knowing where everyone is staying!
I made reservations for 10 blocks of rooms at 2 hotels, so I'm making 20 OOT bags.
If you didn't make reservations at any hotels, then I would do it for the non-locals and try to figure out where they are staying, if you can. Otherwise, don't sweat it.
I think I'm going to do these -- hopefully not spend a ton of money -- we are planning on putting a note from us - a timeline - bottle of water, snacks and thats it! Super simple and nice but my question is how do you get all the OOT bags to all the guests!???
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Thanks girls.. I think I am going to keep it really simple. Maybe a timeline of events, phone numbers, and some cookies. I don't need brochures as everyone knows what there is to do in FL (hellloooo Mickey Mouse!) I also think it's smart just to do it where people have blocked off rooms.. come to think of it, I don't know how I will know where people are staying if they aren't staying at the resort I've blocked off rooms at. I think I would rather splurge a little on the wedding favors as the Halloween theme is very important to me and I can do a lot with it favor-wise. I'd rather take that $100-$200 out of town gift bag expense and throw more candy in their favors! I honestly don't think people will really expect gift bags either.
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Oh Meggyg8r so exciting we are getting married a day apart! My favors are caramel apples actually with candy or other condiments on them. You could actually make your own cookies if you want to do something small and cheap. I am going to put in list of things to do as well since our resort offers a lot. Do something in your budget is the best advice I can give. People will not notice if they don't have it has been my motto for the whole wedding. If you do decide to buy some snacks go to Costco or BJ's. You will save yourself lots!
My thoughts......You are providing dinner and an evening of entertainment. They are traveling to come see you. A little something would be nice. There are many things you can do inexpensively.
The only thing necessary at your wedding is that you get married. Everything else is just icing on the cake! If you have extra room in your budget for a nice gesture such as a gift bag, go for it. If not, no one will look down on your if you forgo this detail.
we werent going to do welcome bags but in the end we spent the time & effort to do them since we felt people were spending a lot to stay at the hotel. a few people gushed over them, but most didnt mention them at all. i think i even had to ask my mom if they even got one. of course i dont expect guests to start talking about the bags in the receiving line or anything but it was nice to hear from a few guests how cool they were. also i know quite a few people didnt even read the welcome letter until after the wedding. at the time we felt obligated (altho it wasnt expected in our families) but i dont know if would i do them again.
i didn't know about OOT bags until finding WeddingBee, but am happy to include them as a nice guesture for our traveling guests. We'll have a welcome letter, a map and timeline of events as well as some baked treats and water. Nothing too elaborate, definitely useful or thoughtful stuff. That said, OOT bags are totally not required. If you have time and resources, it's a nice touch. If you don't, most of your guests probably don't know about them either. :)
I think I have always gotten an OOT bag - I think it is a small way to show your appreciation for those that have travelled for your wedding. With 1 per room, it can end up being really cheap. You can get bags for $0.20, buy some water and a snack or two in bulk and then put in a letter, map, weekend schedule, etc. You could easily do the bags for <$2 per room, probably <$1 if you are extra thrifty. I think it is a nice touch that is worth the effort if you have the time!
My family always does them, so it wasn't a question for my mom to do them for our wedding. I agree with the previous posters who said that even some homemade cookies and a bottle of water with a personal note would be sufficient. It's the thought, not the stuff, that makes it nice!
Also, most cities have tourist bureaus and will give out maps and brochures of area attractions for free -- you could include those too!
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I tried finding a post on this, but can't, so I am going to ask!
Almost all of my guests coming to the wedding will be from out of town, and of those who aren't, a lot will still be staying at local hotels near the wedding. My question is--is an Out of Town Guest Bag necessary? I honestly would never even have known about these if it wasn't for these boards so that makes me wonder how aware of them the guests are. Are you always supposed to have those? Do I need to make one for every guest/couple staying at a hotel (even if they aren't out of town) or do I just make them for the non-locals?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. It's just another thing to add to the budget that I didn't really think about in the beginning! :(
TIA everyone!!!