welcome bags vs. wedding favors or both

[ElleBren]

I'm doing the chocolate favor that is also a place card. I usually don't like to do food as a favor, but it is just too cute. If you can't afford the ones from disney pm me. I like the idea of the welcome bag and I am lucky that my mom lives in FL so I will have access to a car while there to deliver them all. For me if one person really enjoys them I will be happy.

Padisneyfour- I got the dollar disney pens too. I think I might get the winnie the pooh note pads. They were like 3 for a dollar. So excited.

 

[nelsonclassic]

Hello friend,
I had my wedding last month but we married on beach theme...as I wanted to do my wedding at beach from always..
So it was like my dream came true when I finally got married on this theme...
So we have selected our Wedding Welcome Bags according to theme..they were nice I liked them..
In fact some of them are my favorite like canvas bag tote..that I gifted to my special guests...and the best part of the story is that they also liked it.

Regards,
Nelson
beachthemeweddingshop.com/

 

[disprincessatheart]

That's totally why I brainstormed until I think I found something that they will keep. I hope the ornaments will be used by my guests on their tree... People always use ornaments, right? Everyone just agree with me to make me feel better.... JK!

I LOVE the ide aof the ornaments..mainly b/c when we go to wdw i spend soo much money on xmas ornaments.. my only prob is, idk who would use them.. everyone i know seems to be int the very classy xmas trees with white lights and very classy ornaments.. barf

great idea though seriosuly!

and lurky, i sooo wanna steal your mickey mouse ears favor but they are expensive as *$#@

We did ornaments for our wedding last year. They were the small size glass ball ornaments in the shape of a mickey head and all silver - one of our wedding colors. I think they were only a couple dollars a piece with the gift boxes I got for them - silver with purple ribbons to match our colors. I figured they'd blend in with fancier trees and be fine on not fancy trees. I'm not sure if everyone used them, but I figured most of our guests would so that was good enough for me.

 

[girli565]

We're planning on doing both. The welcome bags will be per couple so I'll only need 10 which isn't too bad.

 

[rebecca_boo]

Hmmm since my wedding is so close to Christmas I kind of want to do an ornament now but my wedding is so soon I don't know if thats possible

 

[tommymomo]

MY DF and I have had fights over the welcome bags because as she put it" everyone else did it". We aren't doing for 3 main reasons 1- I am not bringing all this stuff from NY, 2- it gets $$, and 3- we would have to have the bags at 3 different hotels and hope everyone gets them. Besides the bottle of water and candy bar isnt that big of a deal in my opinion.

in regards to the favors, our main take was not to do the cheap favor route. How many times have you gone to a wedding and threw the favor out the following week. What we did was make sure our guests gets their Disney souvenir. We did mickey head picture frames. Now these weren't cheap at $13 a pop, but we did 1 per couple. I think the extra money spent is worth it knowing that everyone has something nice to bring home with them.

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[jspahn]

we did both favors and welcome bags. In retrospect, I might have done less than I did - it was a lot of work.

Favors - 1 per person, 56 people:
-1 small gel candle per person (had seashells in it, fit our theme)
-1 heart container with 1.75oz of custom M&Ms - these doubled as our escort cards with peoples names and table assignments

Welcome Bags - we did these per couple basically (single people got their own). Ended up doing 30 bags I think. Here is what we had:

• Welcome folder - this contained welcome letter, Hidden Mickey Doc, "did you know" doc of fun facts, Itinerary of events, business card size page of important phone numbers, maps for all the parks, 2 post cards, a note card that matched the welcome bag, and a window cling. (bridal party got extra window clings that had thier name in a mickey head)
• snack bag of goldfish crackers - 1 per person
• princess fruit snack pouch - 1 per person
• granola bar - 1 per person
• water bottle with custom label - 1 per person
• single bottle drink mix (ie crystal light to go) - 1 per person
• ariel magic towels (from disney store) - 1 per person
• ariel pens - ebay - 1 per person
• purell travel size bottle - 1 per person
• travel toothpaste - 1 per bag i think (maybe one per person?)
• travel sunscreen - 1 per bag i think
• first aid kit - $1.25 at target - 1 per bag
• travel size tissue packs - 1 per person
• disposable rain ponchos- 1 per person, but i gave people who were staying longer more i think.

I feel like i am forgetting something... but you get the idea. It was a lot of work, and it did add up. I dont think i realized how much I had spent on the welcome bags because we did it slowly over 6 months...

In the end, I did have some guests say how they couldnt get over all the work i did and the special details, but most people I wonder if it really mattered.
Same with the favors. Will people really save the gel candle, or use it? we probably could have skipped it, but it fit so nicely with our theme and our venue (living seas)...

 

[girli565]

we did both favors and welcome bags. In retrospect, I might have done less than I did - it was a lot of work.

Favors - 1 per person, 56 people:
-1 small gel candle per person (had seashells in it, fit our theme)
-1 heart container with 1.75oz of custom M&Ms - these doubled as our escort cards with peoples names and table assignments

Welcome Bags - we did these per couple basically (single people got their own). Ended up doing 30 bags I think. Here is what we had:

• Welcome folder - this contained welcome letter, Hidden Mickey Doc, "did you know" doc of fun facts, Itinerary of events, business card size page of important phone numbers, maps for all the parks, 2 post cards, a note card that matched the welcome bag, and a window cling. (bridal party got extra window clings that had thier name in a mickey head)
• snack bag of goldfish crackers - 1 per person
• princess fruit snack pouch - 1 per person
• granola bar - 1 per person
• water bottle with custom label - 1 per person
• single bottle drink mix (ie crystal light to go) - 1 per person
• ariel magic towels (from disney store) - 1 per person
• ariel pens - ebay - 1 per person
• purell travel size bottle - 1 per person
• travel toothpaste - 1 per bag i think (maybe one per person?)
• travel sunscreen - 1 per bag i think
• first aid kit - $1.25 at target - 1 per bag
• travel size tissue packs - 1 per person
• disposable rain ponchos- 1 per person, but i gave people who were staying longer more i think.

I feel like i am forgetting something... but you get the idea. It was a lot of work, and it did add up. I dont think i realized how much I had spent on the welcome bags because we did it slowly over 6 months...

In the end, I did have some guests say how they couldnt get over all the work i did and the special details, but most people I wonder if it really mattered.
Same with the favors. Will people really save the gel candle, or use it? we probably could have skipped it, but it fit so nicely with our theme and our venue (living seas)...

I've seen that hidden Mickey pamphlet before. It's adorable! Would you possibly mind sharing it?

 

[jspahn]

I've seen that hidden Mickey pamphlet before. It's adorable! Would you possibly mind sharing it?

I dont mind at all. I have a version close to what we used in a Word doc format if you like.
We also have the final version but its in Adobe InDesign, which not many people have. The word doc really is fine - minor spacing changes thats all. I dont have it here at work, but I can send it when I get home.
PM me your email address and I will send it.

 

[pezaddict231]

MY DF and I have had fights over the welcome bags because as she put it" everyone else did it". We aren't doing for 3 main reasons 1- I am not bringing all this stuff from NY, 2- it gets $$, and 3- we would have to have the bags at 3 different hotels and hope everyone gets them. Besides the bottle of water and candy bar isnt that big of a deal in my opinion.[/IMG][/URL]

Totally agree. It was a tough decision for me but I decided not to do the bags, and my DF agreed. It just didn't make sense for us, how would we get it there? Not so keen on schlepping it on the plane from NY. How would we get it to the hotels? We won't have a rental car and Disney charges like $2-$5 PER BAG to deliver them for you. Yes it's nice and all but would people really appreciate it? I'm thinking probably no, although I have seen some pretty awesome welcome bags that Disbrides have put together.

If we do end up having the money I'd rather put it towards some type of welcome party.

 

[rebecca_boo]

Did any escape brides do favors if they weren't having a reception and just a dinner?

 

[Boston Disney Bride]

I love all the ideas and ingredients to the bags everyone is using. I was wondering what people used for bags...I am trying to make custom bags through like LL Bean but I cant find them cheap enough..I want to spend around $10/bag..this seems to be getting more pricey everyday I buy stuff for them....what did everyone spend on their bags?

 

[Skylersmommy5]

My sister for her wedding did both. Her Welcome Bags were simple in a paper bag with a pic of her and DBil on outside with a ribbon and had 1 snack size of Cape Cod Chips, 2 mini bottles of water, brochures for tours and things to do, a schedule of events for the weekend, and directions. In lieu of a favor she had a scroll tied in a ribbon telling each guest that instead of a favor they donated money in the guests names to a Charity to help children with Diabetes.

We are also planning on doing both and haven't fully decided on the contents of the Welcome Bags but I think our favors may be the Disney mints in tulle at each place setting and for place cards doing the Cinderella Slippers with scrolls inside also doing a donation to a charity. We also are doing possibly Mickey ears for the kids as their favor.

 

[2010_Bride]

DF and I are going to combine the ideas and give a gift bag per couple at the reception.
We can't afford to do both, so we bought cute canvas Disney tote bags during the Boxing Week sales and will fill with different things - including personalized t-shirts with our wedding date on them. We haven't really decided what all will go into them, (although I did pick up some cute 2 for 1 stuffed animal Disney Characters for the kids).
We also didn't want to do welcome bags as we have guests staying all over the place. Only one is on the property and the others are in houses/condos/hotels all over Orlando so we couldn't be running around delevering them. Plus some of our guests are arriving before us and a welcome bag we would want to be a surprise when everyone arrives. We don't live in the States so this would be difficult.
Therefore the gift at the wedding will be a welcome bag, but with some more personal items rather than kleenex, sunscreen etc... mainly because people will already have packed these items.

 

[alwaysdisney]

We are doing wedding favors. Most of our guest will be flying in so therefore, we don't want to give them anything that they need to lug back home into a suit case. We went on line to oriental trading and ordered some customized labels to put over bottled water, and we ordered some white small mesh bags with pull strings and we're going to place everyone ticket for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party ticket (we're getting married in December) inside the white mesh bag and tie this onto the top of the water bottle. We're going to order some cusomized M&M's and distribute them as well. Everything will be able to fit into our luggage as it is all flat and easy to transport.

 

[tinkandonaldfans]

I'm debating whether or not to do a Welcome Bag but I will do a favour. I know everyone says that they would like their guests to keep them forever but i think food is the way to people's hearts.

What I am hoping to do is a get list of the toppings from Goofy's Candy and ask all my guests in the most top secret way which is their favourite. Then I will get a mickey rice krispie head dipped in their own topping. I saw Raspberry Bubbles do them and fell in love with the idea. As we are staying in the same hotel as our wedding day dinner i will make sure they place them at the seat before we get there.

i like the idea of welcome bags especially as I would only need to do 7ish (one for every couple/family etc) but I have a feeling it will end up costing a lot and getting them to everyone will be tricky.

 

[Skylersmommy5]

Our welcome bags we're going to buy canvas tote bags and decorate the front with our logo on it. We're doing 1 per couple/single guest/kid. I know Im doing about 50 bags so far, so they may not be hugely packed, but at least be an unexpected way to welcome our guests. We are planning to hand them out at our welcome party.

 

[Puffpatty]

We tried to do multipurpose in everything we did, including our favors. We did the chocolate mickey ears place cards (about $5) for everyone to eat and bring home, etc. We also did welcome bags and I spent several months gathering up materials for that.

I don't remember doing a complete price breakdown for it but it was something like this.

We ordered about 70-100 red nylon drawstring backs (can't remember the price but it was less than $2 each)

-a disney washcloth that we got at disney outlets for about 50 cents each

- purell hand sanitizer that I got at staples for a penny each (great sale)

- disney beach towel (off Disney.com during a clearance sale with a coupon so they came out to about $3 each)

- bottled water (purchased down there at costco)

- a bag of either famous amos chocolate chip cookies or oreos (costco)

- attached to the bags were I'm celebrating pins, along with whatever else pins were appropriate to each guest (birthday, 1st visit, etc.) (free)

- folders (bought during back to school sale for a penny each) that included a welcome letter with Wed info, DP info, hidden mickey pamplet, a custom Disney crossword that we created online, a Disney word search we did, and personalized label on front (purchased labels using rewards $$ from office depot). Spent nothing on ink and paper as I didn't print at home. (where else do we print stuff??? I'm not saying cuz I don't want to get in trouble)

 

[tinkerbell 766]

I have heard several times about this hidden mickey pamphlet. Can anybody PM me or e-mail me it?
Thanks very much

 

[kirstyc822]

We will also be coming from the UK so will most likely give favors at the reception, welcome bags seem such a lovely idea, especially since our guests have made that extra effort and expense to join us!

Nice idea to give a wee gift bag to our guests before the wedding at home so they dont need to travel with any extras