Leaving your wedding guests with a favor at the end of your special day is always a nice touch. It acts as a token of your appreciation, and will leave them with a little something that will remind them of your love.
One form of wedding favor that is becoming more and more popular is a wedding welcome bag for destination weddings. Presenting your out-of-town guests with a welcome bag upon their arrival is the perfect way to welcome them to the experience they’re about to have throughout the next few days.
If you’re looking for a little wedding welcome bag inspiration, we’ve got you covered.
1. Local Items
Photo courtesy www.napawineproject.com
Local items are the ideal way to introduce your out-of-town guests to the local flavors of your city. Include popular locally-produced food or wine to truly show them a little bit about the city they’ll be spending the next few days in.
You could also offer small gift cards to local restaurants that are a staple of your city. If you’re in Los Angeles like we are, what better place to send them to than In-N-Out or Barney’s Beanery?
2. Prep Them For The Local Weather
Being in sunny Los Angeles has its perks, but one thing that most everyone here can’t live without is a pair of sunglasses to help shield their eyes from that California sun.
Your wedding welcome bag can help your guests brave the conditions by offering them a small gift that can help them combat the local weather for that weekend. For us it may be sunglasses, but if you’re in Seattle, for example, perhaps a nice parka or even a small umbrella.
3. Include Some Of Your Favorites
Do you have favorite snacks or drinks that you and your partner truly love? If so, treat your guests to some of your favorite flavors by including some of your preferred snacks to munch on.
4. Include A Map Of The Area
Photo courtesy www.tomlambmaps.com
A nice touch to add to your wedding welcome bag is a map of the area which includes where your ceremony and reception venue will be located, as well as some local attractions. (Bonus points if you’re able to get a local artist to draw the map for you!)
5. Something To Help With The Hangover
If you predict that some of your guests may be, ahem, feeling the effects after partying it up with you on the night of your wedding, a considerate addition to the wedding welcome bag may be something to help them deal with the hangover the next morning.
Some of our favorites include Gatorade, Tylenol or Advil, a bottle of water, and a snack.
6. Mints
With all the food and alcohol your guests will be consuming over the next few days, offering some yummy mints such as Altoids will help them keep their breath as fresh as possible.
7. Transportation
If you have a lot of guests from out of town and are not able to provide them with transportation yourself, think about setting up “Uber Events” and add the card to your wedding welcome bag.
This is a great feature that Uber provides where your guests can set up their own Uber rides, and the charges will get billed to your account. It’s a nice touch for guests that don’t have their own transportation.
8. Thank-You Card
This will take a little bit of work, but a handwritten thank-you card adds a very nice touch to the wedding welcome bag.
Some of your guests may have traveled a long way to help you celebrate your special day, and sometimes just saying thank you makes all the difference in the world. This will be truly appreciated.
9. Useful Items
Since your guests will be away from home for a few days, including some small, useful items in your wedding welcome bag can help them in case of emergency. This can include things such as a lint roller, a shoe horn, chapstick, Band-Aids, a hand mirror, or small shampoos.
10. A Custom Tote Bag
So how exactly are you going to present all of these welcome gifts? A custom tote bag, of course! Have your names and wedding date printed on the bag so that your guests never forget how spoiled they were during your wedding week.
Conclusion
Obviously, creating a wedding welcome bag for all your guests can become quite an expense, and it’s not for everybody. You don’t need to include everything suggested on this list; even a few of these would make a nice gesture.