What to Put In Your Guest Welcome Bags
One of the best ways to show your guests, great love, is by giving them a welcome bag full of cool gifts.
Your guests have made a lot of sacrifices to make it to your wedding ceremony. And yes, it’s a great idea to give them a warm welcome with bags full of goodies.
But, what do you fill these bags of goodies with?
Welcome bags are not for decoration. They provide thoughtful and surprising personalized tons of goodies that welcome your guests into the celebration mood.
These bags of goodies help you to effectively welcome your guests. Welcome bags for guests come in different shapes and sizes.
You may be opting for a sweet gift for your guests, or add extra special gifts for those that came from a far distance to celebrate with you. The choice is yours!
Even though there are so many options to put together a classy welcome bag, it starts with finding items that will excite your guests.
What to Put In Your Guest Welcome Bags
Here are great ideas of what to put in your guest welcome bags.
A Thank You Note
Appreciate your guests through a simple but special thank you note. The note could be typed or handwritten, however, must be made special enough. Here are a few tips for you.
- Add a sweet touch to the note by putting your signature or your partner’s.
- Add some designs to the note.
- Make sure that the colors of the note design match your wedding colors.
- Include your hashtags on the note. You can place this at the bottom.
A Map of the Area
Your guests must get acquainted with their surroundings. If your guests are traveling to your wedding, put a small map of the area in their welcome bag.
Mark the wedding venue on the map, along with nearby restaurants or public outlets. You can download and print a map from the internet or create your own using a design application like Canva.
Also, add the proposed outline or tour of wedding events to the map so that guests can plan their visit accordingly.
Good Snacks
Nothing tastes better than a good and sumptuous snack. Give your guests something delightful to feed their mouths with in between wedding festivities.
Everyone loves good snacks. Put some chips, chocolate, popcorn, candies, nuts, cookies, and others into your guest welcome bags.
They will appreciate this a lot. However, take note of the following tips if you want to add snacks to your guest wedding bags.
- You can add the wedding date, your and your partner’s name, and even your pictures to the packaging.
- Do not add any food a guest is allergic to. Make special bags that don’t tamper with the diet of guests who have dietary restrictions.
Water
You should put one or two bottles of water into each guest’s welcome bag, no matter the location. That can never go wrong!
However, you can add customized labels to the bottles, to make them unique.
If your wedding venue has a water bottle filling station, you can give out reusable water bottles instead.
Fresh Fruits
It doesn’t all have to be only candies and cookies. Nutritious apples and oranges are one of the easiest things to pack in a welcome bag.
They serve as energy boosters for your guests. You can add your state’s most recognizable fruits.
Mints
There are a lot of chit-chats with many people at a wedding ceremony. The best you can do is to help everyone keep their mouths moist and fresh with packets of mints.
They’ll be grateful for this and happily carry on with all the chatting, drinking, and eating. You can customize the tins of the mints to give them a unique touch.
Grooming or Beauty Products
Help your guests to look good at your wedding ceremony. Buy quality and popular beauty or grooming products such as lip balm, body lotion, or soap.
You can customize the products with your wedding date or your name, for a touch of uniqueness. Make sure that the products’ fragrances or colors match your event.
For example, if you’ll be holding a tulip bouquet, give a tulip-scented soap or lotion.
Hand Sanitizers and Disposable Masks
Keeping your loved ones safe is one of the best ways to include them in your celebration.
Help them to stay protected from germs with hand sanitizers and disposable masks. Sanitizers help to keep the hands soft and sanitized. Help your guests stay safe.
You can customize the bottles of sanitizers and the masks with your names and wedding date, to make your loved ones feel like a part of the celebration.
Weatherproof Items
Add weatherproof items to the welcome bags for your guests. Help your guests stay protected from harsh weather.
Handfans and sunglasses will help your guests fight the hot weather if your wedding is in the summer. Tea bags and portable hand warmers are the perfect items for a winter wedding.
If your wedding is during the rainy season, umbrellas are the best bet.
A Personal Gift
Give your guests memorable gifts that represent you and your partner. However, attach a small note to the item to explain the meaning of the item.
For example, If you and your partner love tea, you can include a sachet of tea that you both love.
Bottle Openers
Give your guests custom bottles or wine openers with your and your partner’s name or wedding date stylishly inscribed on them.
A Simple Tote or Pretty Box to Package All the Goodies
Package the goodies you have for your guests into a simple, pretty, and quality bag, box, tote, or basket. There is no strict rule on what to use as your guest welcome bag. It’s all your choice!
Some couples use throwaway packaging, while others use reusable packaging materials. Here are a few tips below to help you decide the best package product for you.
- Tote bags are beautiful and classy bags that come in varieties. They are reusable but can be expensive.
- Paper bags are low-cost materials and are easy to find but are not reusable.
- Boxes are relatively cheap but are difficult to travel with.
- Baskets are reusable and spacious, but they may be harder to travel with.
Things you must consider before you put your Guests’ Welcome Bags together.
Are Your Guests Familiar With Your Wedding Venue?
If your guests are not familiar with your wedding venue and the surroundings, you must provide some useful information about the area. Therefore, you must include a map or a guide in the welcome bag.
You wouldn’t want your guests to miss their ways. You can also include a few tips on interesting things to do and beautiful places to visit while they’re in town too.
Where Are Your Guests Staying?
If you’re providing welcome bags for all your guests, put in mind that guests who traveled from another city or town have different needs from someone who lives nearby. Include travel basics like toothpaste, toothbrush, and body lotion for such guests.
Tips for Putting Together Welcome Bags for Your Guests
- You can tell your bridal train, friends, or family members to help you pack and distribute welcome bags to your wedding venue or hotel. It’s a great idea if your guests find their welcome bags in their rooms when they arrive.
- Keep it simple and stylish. Also, remember that you don’t have to fill the whole bag.
- Fill the welcome bags with gifts that are suitable for traveling guests to take home with them.
- Consider each guest while packing welcome bags for them. For example, some guests may be allergic to some snacks.
- Customize the goodies and also the welcome bag. A little touch makes everything unique. Therefore, you can add your wedding hashtag, handwritten note, name, or your wedding venue.
Reasons You Should Give Your Guests Welcome Bags?
No rule says you must give welcome bags to your guests. However, welcome bags are superb! Here are a few reasons you should give your guests welcome bags.
It’s a Great Way to Appreciate Your Guests
Nothing says thank you better than a customized welcome bag filled with goodies. All your guests have made great efforts to make it your wedding celebration. It’s nice to welcome them and show an act of gratitude by giving them memorable goodies packed in a welcome bag.
They Serve as a Great Reminder of Your Wedding Day
Welcome bags offer guests quality things to take home with them which in turn serve as a reminder of how grateful you are. They also will serve as a great reminder of your big day, especially if they are gifts that they can use repeatedly.
They Help Your Guests to Have a Pleasant Stay
Welcome bags filled with needful items will help your guests have a pleasant stay, especially if they are out-of-town guests.
Grooming products, mints, fruits, and other items will help your guests have a comfortable stay. They would be happy you made their stay pleasant.
Before We Wrap It Up…
Who Gets a Wedding Welcome Bag?
Welcome bags are given to guests, especially guests that traveled from a far destination. However, make sure that all guests get welcome bags, whether they traveled from far or they live close.
Who Pays for Wedding Welcome Bags?
There’s no strict rule that states that a particular person must cover the cost of wedding guest welcome bags. You and your partner can pay for the welcome bags and the goodies yourselves.
Your parents can also help to cover the costs. However, to avoid confusion, sit down with your partners and parents (if necessary) to discuss your budget and how you want to plan it.
How Do You Deliver Wedding Welcome Bags?
There are two main ways you can deliver welcome bags to your guests.
- You can send the package to your guests before they leave home.
- You can give it to them when they arrive at their hotel or the wedding venue.
If you would deliver the welcome bags to your guests when they arrive, here are the four ways to do it.
- When They Arrive at Their Hotel
Some hotels help to deliver welcome bags to wedding guests for free, while others charge a token.
You can deliver the welcome bags to your guests through the hotel they are lodged in. However, check out the hotel policies to know if their delivery service is free, affordable, or expensive.
Some hotels will give the bags out to your guests during check-in and some will put the bags in each room before they check in. Either way, just monitor them to know how it’s going on.
- You Can Deliver the Bags in Person
If you know when most guests will arrive at the hotel, you can hang out in the hotel lobby. As most guests are arriving, you welcome them personally with the welcome bags.
You can ask a friend or family member that personally knows the guests arriving, to help you out as well. However, this process requires a lot of proper planning.
- Organize a Welcome Reception
If many guests are not staying at the hotel, then you can organize a welcome reception in a mini hall or open venue on the evening that most of your guests would be arriving. Then you’ll give out the welcome bags to each guest.
- At the Wedding
For guests that are late not to be left out. You can give out their welcome bags to them at the wedding venue. However, this is not an ideal way.
Conclusion
Welcome bags help you to welcome your guests warmly to your wedding ceremony. It took them a great deal to show up for your event. Therefore, you need to show them appreciation and make them feel welcome with bags of goodies.
However, ensure that the welcome bags are filled with usable and exciting items. Also, make sure that each guest gets a welcome bag. Note that the welcome bag content of out-of-town guests differs from guests that live close by.
Don’t forget to add a touch of uniqueness to the welcome bags and the goodies by customizing them with your name, hashtag, or wedding venue.