No Budget for Welcome Bags

I made these! We have 61 guests and I did them for about $100 total. We put in bottles of water, chips, cookies and gum. I wanted to include little packs of Advil but couldn't find them. Also included was a letter with wedding details, things to do in the area, important numbers (like venue, taxi) and addresses for the one grocery store in the town, liquor store, visitors centre etc. They were fun to make, but take up so much room!

I am not sure how to fill up our welcome bags. We're putting in a tumbler with a lid and straw that we had custom-printed, some little sunscreens, a plastic thingie that you can keep your room key and tip money in to keep it dry at the pool/beach, and......

....I don't know what else. Lots of people have mentioned water and snacks, but it's an all-inclusive resort (and that includes the fully-stocked minibar). :-\

Where in Raleigh? I was just at a wedding in Raleigh at The Grand Ballroom on W. Martin St. I love that city! It is so clean...

I decided to skip welcome bags. I always enjoy getting them, but I just can't imagine the stress of buying and putting together everything for those bags. If everyone on our list said yes, we'd have 75 bags and just the thought of that puts me on edge.

Margaret, we are not getting married on campus, but at the Raleigh Rose Garden that is 2 blocks away.

The reception is downtown in the Raleigh City Club, it use to be called the Cardinal Club, but they renovated and merged with the Raleigh Capital City Club last fall. It is on Fayetteville Street in the Wells Fargo Building. That's a block east and a block north of the Ballroom

NotAllWhoWanderAreLost that is perfect. Thank you so much. Seeing it like that makes it look way affordable. Bless Amazon Prime and Sam's Club.

Ohhh yes I remember seeing the Wells Fargo building! We took pictures at the capital building, and we also hung out at Sitti and The Hive...and took rickshaws from the ceremony to cocktail hour!

Anyway, I don't think that welcome bags are necessary, and they can definitely add up quick.

I think you all might have talked me out of doing welcome bags! And I'm pretty sure that's a good thing!

I agree Lauren. I am questioning I am going to do them. I think I am gonna grab some VisitRaleigh Magazines, write a hand written note, and include a Cheerwine because if they leave North Carolina without a cheerwine, it is a shame.

Welcome! Also what is Cheerwine??

Cheerwine is the nectar of the Carolinas. It is so delicious. I buy a case to take back home with me when I visit.

I have been to OBX many times. I am very disappointed in myself that I have never had it!

What you can do is maybe put a helpful list on your wedding website for the travelers? Kind of a 'Don't forget to bring!' friendly list.

If you want to do welcome bags, you can do bare necessities; small bottles of shampoo/cond, soap bars, throw-away razers, packets of advil, q-tips and bandaids.

@Valerie D can you kindly email me please ***********@*****.*** we have almost the same wedding date I wanted to discuss a little bit on how things are coming along

@Valerie D...can you email me at ***********@*****.*** I wanted to ask you question if you don't mind

I ordered gable boxes from Staples and will be including bottles of water, muffins, granola bars, chocolate chip cookies, 'Oops, Ouch, Eek!' Packets with Tylenol, antacids, band aids, Burt's Bee Lip Balm, alcohol wipes, a hair tie and two bobby pins, three tissues, dental floss sticks and probably going to throw in a Wisp toothbrush and Shout wipes. I had cute little poems typed up and I'm attaching them to the front of the boxes.

So far the welcome bags haven't cost me much. I've been recycling ink cartridges from work, I bring them to Staples and they send vouchers to use in their store. I've purchased everything with those credits. The water will come from Costco and probably will cost less then $6.00, cookies will be about $10.00 and I put out $5.00 for 50 clear pillow boxes for the "Oops" packages and less then $10.00 (pretty much had to pay just for shipping), for labels, stickers and post card thank you notes from Vistaprint.

Where I'm from, they're the norm, but if they're not in the budget then they're not in the budget!

We are planning welcome bags. I'm going to buy kraft bags in our colors from oriental trading and use some white curling ribbon to keep the handles shut. We're going to include 2 water bottles, advil packets (you can buy the travel kind in bulk from amazon for cheap!), gum or mints, and some snacks including UTZ crab chips (its a Maryland thing!). We're going to buy the snack size bags in bulk from UTZ online, its pretty cheap! The water bottles, gum, and any other snacks we'll buy in bulk - my mom and dad have a BJs membership so we'll use their card. Not sure what bulk store is near you but if you don't have a membership, I'm sure you have a family member/friend/coworker that does that and you can borrow their card for one trip! I'm also going to type up a schedule for the shuttle we're hiring and also a list of local attractions for people who are going to make a weekend out of it.

I didn't do them. I think they are a waste of $$

I am in love with my welcome bags! We did gable boxes with ribbon and custom sticker labels. Inside we are putting chips, cookies, waters, mini wine, and a custom do not disturb sign. Honestly, I have had a blast making these, and I figure anything I have this much fun with in wedding planning is staying on the to do list!

I think they're very nice, but I'm skipping them. We'll have guests at multiple different hotels, and I don't want the hassle of dispersing them

OMG I totally didn't think of Cheerwine!! That's all my Ma drinks when we're down in SC, lol. That's more of an NC thing though isn't it..darn.

Anyways, we're doing them! We have 90% OOT guests, about half of which will be traveling internationally for the wedding, so we want to do something extra for them. We're gonna make tote bags with this logo (pic 1) and include:

-Bottle of water

-Aspirin

-Maps and such from the visitors center (which the visitors center will provide for free)

-Weekend itinerary with a list of our fave restaurants

-A palmetto rose (local good)

-Mini bottle of Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka (locally made)

-Charleston Chew Candy

-Benne (Sesame) Seed Wafers (local treat)

-Spanish Fan for a touch of FH (and cuz it's HOT down there)