Our Newport Wedding Weekend Welcome Boxes
For our wedding, we opted for a semi-destination wedding to Newport, Rhode Island. I say semi-destination because most of our friends and family are from the tri-state area and were about a three hour drive away. Even though they didn't have to fly to our wedding, we still recognized that guests had to travel fairly far and get a hotel for the occasion. It was important to us that we make our guests feel welcome and appreciated after all of their travel. We wound up making a big three day weekend of events for our guests to make it worth the trip (another blog post on that soon!), but one way we accomplished a warm welcome was by presenting them all with beautiful welcome boxes upon their hotel arrival.
Below you'll see how I created my welcome boxes and some tips and tricks for getting them together. This ordeal was not for the feint of heart and was definitely a labor of love. I tried to make as many things as I could myself on my Cricut and succeeded in personalizing almost every item with our crest or initials (we are both JMKs!). I got my first bout of inspiration after seeing blogger Mackenzie Horan's Nantucket welcome bags. I wanted something that felt coastal and allowed me to incorporate some blues into my wedding weekend as our wedding colors were primarily blush and gold. Our wedding itself was black tie and very formal, but I felt I was able to loosen things up and indulge in the nautical feel of Newport through my welcome bags.
What are Welcome Boxes &
Why Did We Chose to Have Them?
Welcome bags are a fun and personalized greeting for your guests, especially at an out of town wedding. If you are asking your wedding guests to travel a few hours and stay in a hotel, a welcome bag is the perfect gesture to greet them when they arrive. Welcome bags also allow the couple to share pieces of the local vibe and set the tone for their wedding. Although they are definitely not a necessity, they have begun to take the place of the traditional wedding favors at a wedding. We opted for some fairly hefty welcome boxes given our semi-destination wedding. The welcome bag had all of the information guests would need for their stay.
What We Included in our Welcome Bags
There are so many fun items you can include in your welcome bags. From local food and beverages to the couples favorite things, welcome bags allow you to express all sorts of creativity. Below is a list of everything I included in our Newport wedding weekend welcome bag.
A Weekend Itinerary: I created custom itinerary pamphlets on my computer along with a map and suggested activities for our guests as well as a heartfelt thank you note. Even though the timelines were listed on the website, the paper copy was easier to access for guests.
A Custom Crest: I had a formal custom crest created for our wedding stationary, but I had really wanted a beautiful watercolor crest with blues, hydrangeas and hidden meaningful symbols for my husband and I. I used the welcome bag as an opportunity to incorporate a second crest (yes, I'm a little extra) and it really made the bag and contents pop!
A Local Map and a Postcard: We included a map of Newport with our itinerary in case guests wanted to adventure out on their own and explore the area. We also gave them a Newport postcard in case they wanted to send a note home to friends or keep it as a souvenir. We were able to secure these two items for free through the Newport visitor center. They were super accommodating in sharing their amazing resources!
Water Bottles: You can never go wrong with providing your guests with some water upon arrival. If they don't drink it when they arrive, they will definitely need a little hydration after your wedding festivities. Adding a hydration pouch like a 'Liquid IV' is also a nice touch!
His & Hers Favorite Snacks: We gave our guests a sample of our favorite treats in custom baggies. My favorite candy are Reese's and John loves Sour Patch Kids. We bought these in bulk and I sorted them into clear bags for a more aesthetic look in lieu of the normal neon Reese's and Sour Patch packaging. I bought the baggies and candy on Amazon and made the stickers on my Cricut.
'In Sickness and In Health' Kit aka The Hangover Kit - Within our boxes we had little baggies filled with overnight wedding essentials - mints, Bandaids, Advil, mini toothbrushes, nail files, gum, Purell, Shout wipes, etc. I ordered the canvas bags in bulk on Amazon and hand ironed every single red piece of custom vinyl using my Cricut, but you can also buy these premade for a decent price on Etsy.
A Token Representing us as a Couple: Ours happened to be a rubber duck with our wedding hashtag. My husband has a weird rubber duck obsession which is a story for another time, but this could be any small memento that represents you and your spouse. Both of our initials before and after marriage are JMK, so our initials were tied into many details throughout the weekend.
A Box, Bag, or Tote: We opted for a cardboard gable box since we hadn't seen them used at other weddings we'd been to. As I mentioned earlier, I was also inspired by Mackenzie Horan's gable boxes. Many times couples will also use a gift bag or a custom tote bag to hold all of their welcome items. The tote bag acts as a cute piece of memorabilia from the wedding weekend that can be reused again and again.
Where to Get Welcome Boxes & Items
When it comes to creating 70+ welcome bags, you need to think in bulk! We bought many of our items from Costco and Amazon (water bottles, Advil, mints, etc). I also hand made a lot of the personalized details on my Cricut (the crest stickers, hangover kits, his & her favorite stickers, duck hashtag, etc.). There are definitely ways to save money on welcome bags and tons of ways to splurge on fun ideas. Etsy is always a great stop when looking for personalized items for your welcome bags. I personally decided to make a lot of the items myself since I enjoy a good craft session. Here were some of my favorite finds from creating our boxes:
Gable boxes in bulk: ULINE
Nautical ribbon: Amazon
Where to print color itineraries: Walgreens or Staples
Blank hangover kit bags: Amazon
All hangover kit essentials and water: Costco and Amazon
Rubber duckies in bulk: Amazon
Maps: Consider your local town visitor center
Bulk candy: Amazon and Costco
Putting Together Our Welcome Bags
Assembling our welcome bags was no easy feat since we had a three hour car ride and limited space in the car. We actually opted to transport all of the goods up unassembled and spent a few hours putting them together in our hotel room. I should probably note that we went up a few days early so we wouldn't be crunched for time. If you have the space, assembling them ahead of time is probably the better move!
I had everything very organized and once we got settled, we set up an assembly line in our hotel room. My husband helped me pack the bags and my mom and grandma helped us tie the ribbons. You could always enlist your bridal party to help out with this, but I found so much joy in creating the welcome bags myself that I was invested in seeing out the entire process. I'm also a huge control freak so there was no way I was delegating this task.
Distributing Our Welcome Bags
When guests RSVP'd to our wedding, I had them write in where they were staying in Newport. Although we had three main hotel blocks booked, many guests stayed in AirBnbs and boutique hotels since those are very prevalent in Newport. With this information, I created a little 'drop off route' so that we could quickly and easily distribute all of our boxes.
The easiest welcome bag drop off was to our three main hotel blocks. I had coordinated with the front desks of each hotel prior to drop off, since each hotel has it's own rules (and some even charge you a fee). We dropped off the bulk of our boxes this way. Then, since we had the time, I hand delivered each welcome box to the smaller hotels guests had listed on their RSVPs. If someone was staying at an Airbnb or didn't list their location, we brought their box to our welcome party and kept a little list of guests that still needed a box. I'd say we had about a 95% success rate of getting everyone at our wedding a welcome box by the end of the weekend.
In Conclusion
It was very important to me to go out of the way to show our guests that we cared that they traveled far and wide to attend our wedding. With this in mind, the process of creating the welcome boxes became a really fun task. I could definitely see it being a huge burden if it isn't something you're into, and in that case, I'd recommend outsourcing to your bridal party or other family members.