Wedding Wednesday: Welcome Bags!

Happy Wedding Wednesday loveys!  Today we're going to be talking about welcome bags.  While welcome bags are not necessarily a must, they are a really nice way to thank your guests that are traveling in from out of town for your wedding.  Plus, they are a fun project to work on and put together!  These are the steps to follow for an awesome welcome bag:

1.  Find a bag.  Tote bags are a great way to go because your guests will be able to use them over and over again.  Plus, they are just adorable!  These are some darling options from my Etsy store, The Bees Times Three. 

2.  Once you have your bag, time for the necessities to go in it!  First, printed materials.  Give your guests a map with the important locations like ceremony, reception, and any kind of welcome event.  You also want to put any favorite restaurants or activities in the area so your guests have some ideas of things to do when they aren't at wedding stuff.  These are some adorable maps (click pic for original source).

You also want to give your guests a schedule of the events for the trip, including all wedding times and locations.  This one is super cute:

3.  Once you have given your guests the pertinent wedding info they need, it is time for the fun stuff!  Start with food and drink.  Water is always a good idea, especially since most hotels don't provide water bottles for their guests.  You can put personalized water bottle labels like these on them for an added touch:

4.  Then give your guests something small to snack on.  A little salty and a little sweet is always a good combo.  You could do pretzels and cookies, crackers and chocolate, whatever you think would be a tasty snack.  These cookies are cute and personalized:

5.  Okay, so you've given your guests the important info for the wedding, cute water bottles, and tasty treats.  If you want, you can stop there.  Or you can add in some items that would be relevant to your wedding location.  For a beach wedding, sunscreen, sunglasses and flip flops.  For a New England wedding, a lobster bib.  For a winter wedding, earmuffs.  If you're music lovers, a mix CD with your favorite songs.  If you're having an open bar, a hangover kit.  Get creative and have some fun!  A few more images to inspire you:

Don't you feel welcomed now?  BTW, it was totally unintentional that the majority of the items I pictured in this post were food/alcohol related, but that's just how I roll!