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I think they're nice but not necessary. If you had the budget I'd say no problem but really they make more since when they include maps etc.
Maybe just do welcome cards with a little note and a sample size of sunscreen to greet your guests.
the best part of the welcome bags to me is ALWAYS the water. maybe you could just do that?
I think they're nice for a destination wedding especially. I wouldn't worry too much about goods necessarily but information. When you're stuck in a place for days it's nice to have the itinerary printed out for everyone in case they forgot theirs and info on fun stuff to do, places to eat, etc. You can include a few little things but I wouldn't worry about spending a ton.
I think they're a nice guesture or thank you to the guests who travelled to come to your wedding. They don't have to be expensive as others have said, just something thoughtful thanking them for being there. I had never seen them until I went to a wedding a few weeks ago, and that was the first thing we noticed when we got to the room... They had information about the couple and how they met, information about the town and places to go, and they had bottles of water, mints and a granola bar for each guest.... They were pretty simple, but it showed they cared :-) But in the end, it is not necessary to have, as a brunch the next morning would show the same gratitude for them sharing your special day with you.
I am SO excited about our welcome bags, its probably my favorite thing so far, that being said, its completely unnecessary. But its only costing me a little over $200 for the 50 bags I'm giving out and I have SO much stuff in them! I'm really happy with them so the cost was worth it for me.
As a guest, I've always liked getting them (like someone said, the water is inexplicably the best part!) but they've always struck me as a waste, too. I see and appreciate the generosity that the b+g have displayed, and the welcoming spirit is always nice, but I always forget about it 5 minutes after I see it in the hotel room, etc., and it ends up left behind.
That said, my favorite OOT bag contained bottles of wine. THAT was nice.... and really expensive I'm sure :)
I think it's certainly a nice gesture, but in my own opinion I think it's a total waste. Especially if all that's going in are snacks and water -- I'd love to be handed a bottle of water too, but is it really that big a deal to buy one if you want one? Personally I'd much rather spend the money elsewhere, like on food & beverage for the reception or something. I don't judge brides who choose to have them or find them important, I just personally think they're unnecessary.
I like the welcome bags. It is nice to have something to open up when you arrive. And on more than one occasion I've used those "snacks" as my dinner for the flight home :) And who does appreciate a packet of advice at their fingertips the morning after the wedding? That said, I spent $4 on each of my bags and I think that was plenty.
Have you ever arrived at your hotel tired from traveling all day. Now, think about how nice it would be if your friend left you a snack and a note saying how glad she is you are here for her wedding, even though she can't be there to welcome you personally. I'm figuring <$3 per couple. A paper bag, a bar of chocolate, a bag of chips, a welcome note, restaurant recommendations, and an invitation for drinks after the rehearsal dinner since we can't invite all our out-of-town guests to that. If you're worried about money do something to show you care, like a hand-written card, and skip the material stuff.
I did welcome bags, but they did get expensive and took up a lot of time at the end to assemble since many things were perishable. I second just putting together a note/itinerary and maybe a bottle of water or two. Throw in a couple snack size bags of potato chips too. That shouldn't cost you more than $2/room, maybe even less than $1/room. I do like it when I have bottled water when I go to a hotel.
I think beach towels, sunscreen, etc can be a waste. Food, water, info is really not a waste. We're doing welcome bags, but we're not including things like sunscreen. They will include info on the resort, Cabo, wedding agenda, etc.
We're not doing favors or gifts for the guests, but we are going to include some wine or booze in the bags. The resort isn't all-inclusive and knowing our guests, they'll appreciate that more than snacks or first aid kits (sad, true)
We're going to buy the wine/liquor at the Sam's Club once we arrive. I'm ordering 1 tote/room, so 15 totes, for $1.50 online. We'll also buy flats of water in bulk and put some in each room.
I LOVE welcome bags but they aren't necessary. I like having something there to make the guests feel comfortable when they get there, especially if they drove 4 or more hours. They can buy their own things like water or snacks, but to me, nothing is better than FREE.LOL I'm sure they'll appreciate it!
We didn't have them for our guests and no one missed them. Honestly, I don't think a lot of guests have seen them outside of the wedding world.
My hubby certainly thought they were a waste of money...especially with all the rest of the stuff we did for our guests...like you, we spent the money elsewhere.
That said, we DID do info packets, for visiting guests who were going to be part of the rehearsals & rehearsal meals, that WERE invaluable. There was a good amount of driving for all of that & Mr. & I created the maps & directions for each time people got in the car...we drove them before hand to make sure they made sense & made revisions where we thought a direction was confusing or could use more info. We added the names, contact numbers, & pictures of our favorite restaurants & spots in the area, as well as where to find the most convenient grocery store, starbucks, other "necessities" for the weekend. That cost very little (just typed, printed, & stapled together, put in those cheap $0.05 folders, with our logo sticker stuck on top) & saved a BUNCH of hassle & anxiety for our guests. Pre-wedding, it was one of the most mentioned & most appreciated aspects of the wedding by our guests.
I don't think they are necessary. I just did something easy peasy for my aunts and brothers who traveled 3,000 miles for my daughter's wedding. I think I bought some oranges, a cookie, maybe a bottle of water, and a granola bar or something. I knew they would be prretty dependent on us for transportation, so I thought it would be nice to have a little something if they needed a snack, but didn't want to ask. I actually went to dollartree and bought pretty gift bags. :)
I've seen everything from a couple homemade cookies and bottles of water to wine and gourmet snacks, and I really appreciate the gesture. I've been fortunate that my mom has taken over a lot of the details of wedding planning, which has allowed me to focus on fun projects, so I went a little nuts with the OOT bags. I can because I only have to do 15 of them.
Overall, we wanted our wedding to be about appreciating our family and friends and being grateful for the love and support. I'm a big believer in thank you notes and our oot bags were our "thank you" for traveling to our wedding. We've dedicated a large portion of the budget to aspects of the wedding that will make it fun for our guests. For us, it was a worthwhile investment to spend a little extra money to show our gratitude to the people who have been there for us.
In the end, folks may not remember every detail of the welcome bag, or the wedding itself for that matter, but I hope they leave knowing how much they mean to us.
We did welcome bags for our destination wedding and everyone was really appreciative. It was our way of saying thank you to our guests for traveling many hours to be at our wedding (and we did not do separate favors).
They also ended up being really useful in a few ways. First, we had several guests that flew in from other islands late at night and there wasn't really anything open at the resort. They ate most of the snacks we provided in the bags that night, and most people were glad to get snacks and not pay resort price. Second, we included band aids. Unfortunately several people got injured over the course of the wedding weekend (scrapes on rock ledges, stepping on sea urchins, etc.) and they were REALLY useful, as was the tylenol. We included the information about bus pick-up times and event transportation in the bags since that wasn't finalized prior to invitations and (as expected) no one printed the info before getting on the plane. The bags we got were relatively inexpensive and plenty of people also took them to the beach/pool.
I don't think they're absolutely necessary but they were really helpful at our destination wedding. I wouldn't call them a waste but it probably depends on the type of wedding you're having.
I think they are really nice, but definitely not a must-have. It's a corner we gladly cut.
I've been to 2 weddings that have done welcome bags. One gave out bags that were really cute & useful, especially since we were away for a full weekend. Another was nice, but for us a little less necessary. We've contemplated doing one since we have guests coming from 12 different states, but have decided that our wedding is enough. So, just do what you want to do!
THIS-----> I wouldn't call them a waste but it probably depends on the type of wedding you're having.
They are not necessary - they are a delighter. People will take advantage if they are there but no one will think you messed up if you choose not to do them. I agree that providing event information and a welcome card would be nice.
I have always really liked them at the weddings I've been to that have had them. And, if I'm being honest, once I realized they were a "thing," I did kind of miss them at the weddings that didn't have them. Not that I dwelled on it, or didn't enjoy the wedding because of it, but there was just the tiniest tinge of disappointment when there wasn't one. After spending however many hundreds of dollars traveling to and staying over at a wedding, it's just REALLY nice when the couple makes a nice gesture to let you know they appreciate you coming. It doesn't have to be anything too fancy, or too expensive. We're doing them and right now the cost is hovering a little under $4/bag for ~50 bags. It'll probably creep up as I add more stuff, but showing my appreciation for everyone coming to the wedding is important to me. I guess it's just about what your priorities are, what kind of wedding you're having, and what you have enjoyed about other weddings you've been to.
I like the idea of providing these, but I don't want to pay the hotel extra for delivering them.
@brwneyedgrl - Most of the hotels we left the bags with didn't charge us. We got the bags there before the guests checked in and they just held them at the front desk. For the one hotel that refused to hold it and said we had to pay for delivery, we just hand delivered them to people when we saw them since we were visiting people in the days leading up to the wedding. Maybe if they don't do room delivery, they won't charge?
We didn't do OOT bags. We had a guest count of 83 and it would've been too pricey to do something like that. I feel like with OOT bags, it's either go big or go home. No one really wants a bag filled with cheesey/cheap things in my opinion. It's a nice plus if you have the budget for it, but we took the money we would've spent on it by chartering a private catamaran for a sunset sail that had snacks and an open bar, which I think the guest appreciated more. Also, I think we are all grown adults now and can pack our own sunscreen, etc. It definitely was not missed.
@MrsPinkPeony: What are you putting in your bags? You must be an excellent shopper!
brunch vs. stuff brunch vs. stuff brunch vs. stuff I'd take brunch any day!
If I had to choose between a OOT and a brunch, I would go with the brunch. We are doing OOTs but we have quite a few coming in from out of town that haven't been to Omaha in awhile or have never been here. There is also alot of big events in town that week so we are making maps that will have the best traffic routes around town.
You might consider giving OOT guest an envelope with a map, schedule, and contact information. A few months ago we were at a wedding where the grooms family was late because they got lost. The bride and groom had their phones off so they had no way to get ahold of anyone.
An update on mine. (1) I had several people say how much they appreciated the bags. (2) No one asked for directions last minute because their welcome brochures had lots of info. (3) Schedules and assignments for the wedding party were distributed with bags so I didn't have to find everyone later.
We had an unhosted casual breakfast the day after, which worked great - no one minded paying for their food and everyone arrived and left on their own schedule but we got to see them all one last time.
An update from me ... the bags were a big hit with guests. We had around 75 guests, but I did one bag per couple, which brought the total number to about 50 bags. I put advil, band aids, lip balm (we got married in the desert and you don't realize how dried out you're going to get until you're there), water, snacks and some other odds and ends in there. Mostly things you wouldn't think to pack but would appreciate having pre- or post-party. I got everything at the dollar store/Costco/online in bulk so the price per item was never more than 50 cents. Some things were only ~10 cents each, like the Kleenexes and the water. Many people said that the water/Advil "saved" them the night of the wedding. And since a lot of people were arriving the day of the wedding and rushing from the hotel to the venue, they appreciated having the snacks to tide them over until they got to the wedding. One person even used her bag as a purse at the wedding, which was cute. We spent maybe $300 total for the contents (plus a little more for custom tote bags, which were totally unnecessary but which my mother offered to pay for, so why not). I probably could have stopped around $200, but I went a little crazy on Costco snacks at the end. I'm not sure what else I could have bought for that money ... an additional meal for all 75 guests would've cost way more. Overall, I was really glad I did them. Making the guests feel welcome and showing my appreciation for the distances they had traveled to get there was super, super important to me. I know there are tons of other ways to do that (and we did do a lot of other things throughout the weekend), but the bags were a nice, tangible, (relatively) inexpensive gesture.
One BIG note ... putting them together was a LOT of work, and I had no bridal party, so I was doing it all myself. Even though I thought I was super organized, it was still a lot of rushing at the end. So, just be prepared for that aspect. If I had it to do over, I'd eliminate any perishables from the bags and get them totally ready to go a week before the wedding.
Oh, and we just put sunscreen in the bathroom at the venue. Mini sunscreens are expensive and it's not really enough to last you very long. Yes, people should remember to wear sunscreen when they go out in the desert, but lots of people forgot and it was almost all gone by the end of the day.
i think they are worth the effort and don't have to be outrageously expensive
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I keep seeing these things on line about welcome bags that appear to be at least $10 per person. That just seems like such a waste, and some of the items don't seem necessary. For instance, I'm getting married in Maui and some people include water and sunscreen.
I'd rather save that money and host a brunch the day after. What do you guys think?