Welcome Bags

[BrideToBe82]

We are going to put together welcome bags for our guests. If you did (or are going to) them... what did you include in your welcome bags?

We will be having 80+ guests at our wedding so what are some good ways to cut costs with this?

 

[Cinderella16]

I know a lot of people like to put things in the bag that the guests can use while visiting, such as bottled water (with your own labels on them), snacks, lotion, sunscreen, candy, disposal cameras (those waterproof ones are great if guests go in the pool or water park) pretty basic stuff...I have heard of giving disney dollars if you have the money, but for eighty people that would get quite pricey. For kids I have heard putting inflatable beach balls for the pool, mickey ears, disney stickers and things like that. Also, check your local dollar store for goodies which will help you keep the cost down. Oh yeah and Target has a great dollar section with really really cute stuff and if you are lucky they have some stuff in the dollar section for half off so everything is 50 cents. In addition, I know people like to add guide maps of the parks & resorts, a list of things to see and do, and itineraries for the festivities,. And of course, dont forget to thank your guests
I hope this helps you out! Good luck!

 

[SRUAlmn]

Hi I am interested in seeing the responses you get because we would like to do this too! Actually, thanks to the DIS, I did these for the guests at my sister's wedding in NC and they were a HUGE hit. People were still complimenting her on them weeks after the wedding. However, I did one per family (which still ended up being about 30-40) and it cost me about $250-$300!!!!! Even getting stuff at the dollar store is too much! Here is what I included (if I can remember )

Small bags of pretzels, cookies, crackers, gum (bulk from BJs)
Post it notes
Pens
Highlighters
Maps of the area
Scroll rolled pretty paper tied with ribbon with list of events
Decks of cards
Crystal Light pocket packs
Assorted candy
Breakfast bars/Granola bars
Books from the welcome center in her town since all guests were from out of town (I called the welcome center and they were awesome and gave us TONS of stuff to put in the bags.)
Mini packs of tissues

Darn, there was more, but I can't remember.

 

[ALittleDisneyFan]

Remember, Ebay is your friend! With that said, we tried buying in bulk as much as possible.

For adult bags we bought ceramic Disney mugs from Disney's Ebay site. For the kids bags, we bought them Mickey Mouse plastic mugs. Keychains, notepads, pencils, pens, post-its, T-shirts, white chocolate, dark chocolate, chocolate covered pretzels, and chips. In the kids bags, I also added a special pen for autographs, along with an autograph book. Lastly, we also stuck in jumbo lollipops, and postcards.

The vendors we used (On Ebay) are:

candymolds4u
favirs4all

The rest no longer sell things.

 

[ItGirl753]

Anyone have suggestions for inexpensive sunblock? I was wondering if Target etc would do a clearance at the end of the season since I live up north, but I don't remember ever seeing that before.

 

[JennyandMike03]

Anyone have suggestions for inexpensive sunblock? I was wondering if Target etc would do a clearance at the end of the season since I live up north, but I don't remember ever seeing that before.

You can probably get some at the travel sections, where they have the mini bottles of sunscreen (that'd be cheaper than buying the big bottles).

I'm not sure about up north, but in FL the sunscreen never seems to go on sale...

 

[Moonpie]

I know a lot of people like to put things in the bag that the guests can use while visiting, such as bottled water (with your own labels on them), snacks, lotion, sunscreen, candy, disposal cameras (those waterproof ones are great if guests go in the pool or water park) pretty basic stuff...I have heard of giving disney dollars if you have the money, but for eighty people that would get quite pricey. For kids I have heard putting inflatable beach balls for the pool, mickey ears, disney stickers and things like that. Also, check your local dollar store for goodies which will help you keep the cost down. Oh yeah and Target has a great dollar section with really really cute stuff and if you are lucky they have some stuff in the dollar section for half off so everything is 50 cents. In addition, I know people like to add guide maps of the parks & resorts, a list of things to see and do, and itineraries for the festivities,. And of course, dont forget to thank your guests
I hope this helps you out! Good luck!

Those are great ideas! I love Target's dollar section!

I'm packing a little gift box with snacks for folks coming in from out of town (my wedding is near home not Disney ). I'm packing it with local yummies... Napa shallot and champagne mustard, pretzels, Italian soda, and chocolate chip cookies from our local bakery. I'll also put in a local map, and a list of phone numbers they might need.

 

[ItGirl753]

You can probably get some at the travel sections, where they have the mini bottles of sunscreen (that'd be cheaper than buying the big bottles).

I'm not sure about up north, but in FL the sunscreen never seems to go on sale...

Don't laugh, but I don't think I have ever seen travel sized sunblock! And no, I don't think it ever really goes on "sale!" But I am thinking that full size would be better for families, if I do one bag per room.

 

[ButterflyBride]

This is an incredible thread!! You are all so creative & have soo many ideas! I must admit I am going to steal a few of them! Even though our wedidng isn't for over a year I am def saving this thread as a word file!!

 

[disprincessatheart]

I'm working on my list of things for our welcome bags in April. I'm trying to stick with things that will be useful while they're there. I'm actually skipping sunblock because I'm assuming that most of them will remember to bring that on their own and I did think it would be pretty expensive.

Does anyone know if you can buy the resort mugs for other people? I was thinking that might be really nice and save me packing heavy bottled water and things.

So far I'm planning on snacks, gum, ponchos, coloring books or something else for the kids, itineraries for the wedding events, park maps supplied by Disney, lists of what hotels all the other guests are at so they can call each other, cell phone numbers for me, my mom and DF, and any other cute dollar store stuff i can find.

 

[happylalagirl]

HI there... we are thinking about what to put in our bags as well. We will be having around 75 guests so keeping the cost down is important. We are thinking of putting in each bag:

itinerary
park maps
bottled water
pretzels, chips (small snack bags)
autograph books and pens for the 4 children coming

I am going to go with my mom to Costco and see what else we can get. We live in NJ and we are trying buy stuff that doesn't weigh much while we are here and get the rest while in FL. We love Walmart!!

I am listening for other ideas though.

 

[Codie]

Anyone have suggestions for inexpensive sunblock? I was wondering if Target etc would do a clearance at the end of the season since I live up north, but I don't remember ever seeing that before.

I used Panamajack.com. I bought 4 oz bottles...they were good sized. I bought 25 of them...I think it cost me $100? The sale was free shipping over $50 and a free lipsunscreen with each purchase. In the notes section I put that I was using the sunscreen for gift bags and was it possible that I might get a few extra lipscreens? I offered to include advertisement as well for them. They sent me 25 lipscreens and a postcard that said Congratulations on your wedding! I thought that was really cool...now I try to buy all my sunscreen from them.

Also, my Mary Kay lady gave me samples of the Hand cream they sell and she put her name and contact information on there. I asked the Longaberger sales rep I know for the same, but she couldn't think of anything to do like that. I sell Pampered Chef, so I got samples of Pampered Chef coffee for all rooms that had coffee makers and included those in the bags.

everyone got kleenex and mini hand sanitizers--target sells like 3 for $1 at the checkout counter--and a door hanger to put on their door that identified them as being part of the wedding group. the rest of the items were all varied and somewhat personalized or at least genderized. I collected them for over a year from Ebay sales. I tried not to keep track of the cost because I didn't want to know!

 

[SRUAlmn]

I used Panamajack.com. I bought 4 oz bottles...they were good sized. I bought 25 of them...I think it cost me $100? The sale was free shipping over $50 and a free lipsunscreen with each purchase. In the notes section I put that I was using the sunscreen for gift bags and was it possible that I might get a few extra lipscreens? I offered to include advertisement as well for them. They sent me 25 lipscreens and a postcard that said Congratulations on your wedding! I thought that was really cool...now I try to buy all my sunscreen from them.

Also, my Mary Kay lady gave me samples of the Hand cream they sell and she put her name and contact information on there. I asked the Longaberger sales rep I know for the same, but she couldn't think of anything to do like that. I sell Pampered Chef, so I got samples of Pampered Chef coffee for all rooms that had coffee makers and included those in the bags.

everyone got kleenex and mini hand sanitizers--target sells like 3 for $1 at the checkout counter--and a door hanger to put on their door that identified them as being part of the wedding group. the rest of the items were all varied and somewhat personalized or at least genderized. I collected them for over a year from Ebay sales. I tried not to keep track of the cost because I didn't want to know!

LOVE the door hanger idea!!!!!!!!!!

 

[twojo21]

dont forget the local dollar store. we bought name brand sunscreen & disney playing cards for the kids there for our guests welcome bags.

 

[sajetto]

These are the actual bags we are using and they will have the following inside:

Park Maps
Door Hangers with a castle and the name of the wedding on them
Water bottles with our wedding logo
A bottle of champagne that also has our logo
A castle shaped bottle stopper
Different baged snacks
Castle shaped soaps and chocolates
A towel
An unoffical Disney guide
One disposable camera
Tea bags and coffee bags
Playing cards
Score pad

 

[Cinderella16]

sajetto, I LOVE those bags where did you get them made?? That is such a great idea. They are so cute.

 

[sajetto]

I had them made from a woman on ebay. I'm pretty sure that her name is Suzanne. Here's a link to an auction for a bag that looks just like mine, she can do a lot of other stuff though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CINDERELLA-RESO...hZ016QQcategoryZ63852QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

 

[SRUAlmn]

$19 each + $7 shipping for 1 bag!! YIKES!!!!! They are WAY cute, but that's totally out of my budget

 

[cheeks605]

and a door hanger to put on their door that identified them as being part of the wedding group.

Where did you find the door hangers? I've been wanting to do this but I can only find companies that want to sell me 1,000! That's slightly more than our guest count!

 

[disneybridetobe]

I'm making doorhangers, too! I found great foam ones at AC Moore...or was it Michaels. Anyway, they come in packs of 8 and in really cute colors!