We put miniature Payday candy bars in the bag along with Goldfish crackers. I had a few friends tell me they loved Paydays because they are salty & sweet and they don’t melt. We also did bottles of water, itineraries, & some literature on things to do in Nashville. Final thing was that D ordered personalized koozies with initials & date and put those in each bag. She then had the extras available at the reception. Wedding party received gifts & friends and family who hosted bridesmaids luncheon and morning after brunch received boxes from Batch Nashville filled with a variety of local treats.
Thanks for all the ideas!! B&G are chocoholics, so in addition to some of those great ideas, we may do tylenol packets, we may do little milano cookie packets. (if they have the big container at costco in CA like they did here yesterday… and jumped into my cart - bu no I don’t want to bring them from here as the pack is bulky and missing a few packs already…)
I had fogotten that we had Advil packets in the bags as well. According to my kids, that’s the preferred medication for beating back the hangover. S says acetaminophen can lead to liver damage when combined with alcohol (per his physician friends).
Ah, thanks. Any other suggestions for the bag?
MOB will be seeing them shortly (they are travelling through her city, flying back to theirs) and she will ask.
We did a welcome bag with the bride and groom’s favorite snacks(candies, chips), local beer/coffee, water, and a first aid kit (aspirin, band aid, tums). D1 ordered from Sam’s and had everything shipped to the wedding planner. She also had a cloth bag made with her own design of Ithaca map.
GosD did water bottles, mini TicTacs, advil, pretzels, bar, local candy, campus map and welcome letter with schedule of events & locations
We got a fridge magnet from the location of one wedding we attended, along with granola bars, water, local map & places to visit.
We had the first aid/toiletries stuff in baskets in the restrooms at the reception.
We did not make any hospitality bags for hotel guests. They were scattered too far and wide! In fact, I wouldn’t do a room block again at a hotel when people are visiting a city that has many hotels to choose from. We barely met our quota and it was pretty chaotic - for example, they wanted MIL and FIL to physically check out and check in again because they wanted to add a few days. MIL and FIL refused.
So many details…love hearing about the fun, personalized gift bags. We hosted rehearsal dinner, post -rehearsal dinner gathering (largely for the guests of the bride and groom), an elaborate seaside wedding with cultural festivities, cocktail hour, dinner and dancing for DD’s wedding. While the bride set up 3 hotels with room blocks, the groom’s family hosted their guests at a fourth hotel. Many of our guests stayed at alternate places (a variety of hotels, air bnbs and bed and breakfasts). In the end, we opted out of hotel welcome letters and bags. Who gets them? Where? Certainly no wish to step on groom’s family’s toes or ask where every guest was staying. We could have just done them for room block hotels, of course.
Here’s hoping that the rest of the weekend spoke for itself. I mention this because sometimes, even when much is possible, it can make sense to say “we are not doing that.” Whatever “that” is. Of course, circumstances vary widely. No one size fits all with weddings; priorities are specific and for some weddings are guest bags are a no-brainer. We likely would have proceeded differently in other scenarios. I share this as a way to say do what makes sense to you, maybe even what is fun to put together. Many ways to add extras to a wedding, yet rarely are fond memories dependent primarily on opting in full tilt for all.
Happy planning!
At one wedding they had the welcome bags at the Friday night dinner. I think if my S does bags they will be given to those staying on site and at the two hotels nearby. People at random places won’t get one.
With so many of the younger generation liking to stay at an Airbnb, the last wedding we went to brought the gift bags to the rehearsal dinner/welcome party for guest that did not stay at the hotels with room blocks. As it was a college town, a good number stayed elsewhere with family, friends or another hotel; this was an easy way to get the gift bags to the guest. As the welcome letter was in the bag with time and directions to all the events, it was helpful to get them to people Friday night. Most of the information was also on their wedding website.
@mom60 that’s what DS did at their wedding- had the bags at the fri night BBQ. We can’t drag them all to the welcome party this time.
Attended a wedding in another state last weekend that required an airplane. They gave goodie bags at the welcome event and they had plastic water bottles with name/date, kind bars, candy, Tylenol, sunscreen and the thingies to put on a can or bottle. Then they gave out blankets after the reception. Will admit, I only kept the Tylenol and food, threw out the other stuff. I didn’t want to pack the items in my luggage. I would have been aok without goodie bags
Okay, one more question about shower etiquette as MOB. I’m flying to the east coast in a few weeks for a shower being hosted by the MOH for my D. Upthread I was puzzling over what to get. I’m thinking I might get one of their more expensive honeymoon items on their registry (they registered for tickets, restaurants, food experiences, etc in their honeymoon location). I can set it up so they aren’t emailed about who gave it until their wedding date, and print out and put in an card for her for the shower. That way I don’t have to carry anything on the plane or ship to someone else.
@Gourmetmom A non-dowdy floral that would look very chic on a tall slender woman with the right accessories:
Oh this is funny…well maybe not.
Our DD is writing her thank you notes. There was one card where she couldn’t read the signature, but she was pretty sure it said one name. I wasn’t so sure, so I sent a pic of the signature and just politely asked…is this your signature?
Answer was…no.
Uh oh!
So we had to go through the whole list again…and we have a second choice…and we think it’s right.
There are also more than a handful of folks who didn’t send gifts at all, so DD is writing them notes thanking them for coming.
I do wonder about why people would “forget” to send a gift. On the other hand, by sending a “thank you for coming” note would it look like you are looking for a gift? I just never thought of it. Will speak with D1 about it.
We thought of that @oldfort. But in our case, these are young friends who spent a considerable amount of money to travel cross country or so to attend the wedding.
Plus DD did put on her website “your attendance at our wedding is your gift to us. However should you want to send something, we have a small registry”
So…really…thanking these folks for coming is the right thing to do. They are mostly college friends who were here for five days…from across the country.
Does she have some pictures to include with the ‘thank you for coming’ notes? I’ve received those and really liked them.
@twoinanddone her wedding was less than a month ago, and she will complete writing all of her thank you notes…today.
That trumps putting pictures in the thank you cards, in my opinion.
Plus…everyone at the wedding had a camera.