If you’ve ever traveled for a wedding, chances are good that when you arrived at your hotel, you were handed a wedding welcome bag put together for you by the couple. But if you’ve never experienced this, you might be wondering what a welcome bag is and what should go in it.
The wedding welcome bag is exactly what it sounds like—a little bag of goodies to welcome your guests to your wedding weekend. It’s a little way of saying, “Hi, we’re glad you’re here. Here are a few things to make your stay more enjoyable!”
What to include in the wedding welcome bag
Bottled water (one bottle per person); you can have custom labels made, but it’s perfectly fine not to.
“Hangover remedy” kit, including ibuprofen, antacids, maybe Gatorade. You can buy these kits pre-made.
Snacks—chips, granola bars, chocolate bars. If the city where you’re getting married is known or famous for a particular food item, it’s a nice touch to include that.
List of things to do in the area. This doesn’t have to be elaborate (like some of the crazy things I’ve seen on Martha Stewart Weddings!). Items to include: favorite restaurants and bars, museums, the zoo, wine-tasting, other popular activities.
Schedule of events for the weekend, if there’s more happening than just the wedding ceremony and reception. If you’ve arranged any group outings or tours, include them here.
A hand-drawn map of the property and the various locations of events taking place, if this applies to your wedding. You can have an artist draw the map and then reproduce it in bulk.
Sunscreen, lip balm, inexpensive sunglasses, or flip-flops for weddings taking place during summer or near the beach.
A bottle of wine.
Tea sachets or fancy coffee.
What to put it all in
You can get as elaborate as you want to with this. Typically, you would just use a small paper shopping bag with handles. You can buy them in a color to complement your wedding, or just go with white. You can have a custom stamp made (your initials, your wedding date, your wedding hashtag) and stamp each bag for a personalized touch. Put a bit of tissue paper in the top to jazz it up a bit.
You can also buy canvas tote bags if you have a larger amount of items that you want to include. The advantage of canvas tote bags is that they’re re-useable. But your guests may not want to re-use them if they have your names on them, so limit your personalization if you go this route.
If you want to take your welcome to the next level, you can prepare a basket or box for your guests. But this will start to get expensive fast, so you may only want to go this route if you have a very small guest list or have an unlimited budget.
How to distribute the welcome bags
If all of your out-of-town guests are staying in the same one or two hotels, you can ask the hotel to distribute the bags. Most of them will do this for a fee of several dollars per bag. They usually keep all the bags at the front desk and pass them out as guests check in. (Why they think this is worth charging several dollars per bag is beyond me.)
If you don’t want to pay the hotel to do this, you can pass the bags out at a welcome party or the rehearsal dinner, but that’s awkward if not everyone is getting a welcome bag. You could also ask a friend to individually take them to people’s hotel rooms, but then they would have to know which room everyone is staying in, and there’s a chance the guests would not be in the room to accept delivery.
If many of your guests are making their own arrangements and staying in Airbnbs, you may wish to forego the welcome bag because distribution would be very challenging in that case.
Remember the golden rule of wedding planning: don’t take anything on if it’s just going to cause you more stress than it’s worth. Wedding welcome bags are a nice touch and will be appreciated by your guests. But if you can’t make the logistics work, then skip it!