Welcome Bags

[DISNEY*lover]

Are they really neccessary? What would you normally put in them?

 

[Mama of Indybride]

I think they are a way of showing appreciation for the fact your guests made the effort to come to your destination wedding.

We (My DD and myself) are putting (tentatively) in her welcome bags the following:

Care Pack (ie...pain relief, lip balm, sunscreen, bandaids, gauze, antiseptic, etc.)

Personalized champagne bottles.

Bath Salts (amazing how your legs and feel feel better after a day in the parks and a soak with some salts)

Snacks (pretzels, candies, etc.)

Hidden Mickey Info and Word Search or Crossword Info (Thanks Vanessa, aka figment fan!) and detailed itinerary of things to do during the week of the nuptials.

Enjoy, and have a fabulous time planning your day!

 

[lurkyloo]

Call me Scrooge, but I don't think they're necessary. From all the trip reports I've read, beyond all the time and effort and money it takes to make them, you then have to spend hours driving all over WDW delivering them to the front desk at every resort. And invariably, one or more guests don't get them when they check in. Then you have guests who don't even appreciate all the effort you put into them and just toss out all the trinkets and personalized stuff you spent so much time on.

We showed our guests our appreciation by thanking them personally on numerous occasions and giving them mouse ear favors that they'll never wear again.

 

[DISNEY*lover]

Call me Scrooge, but I don't think they're necessary. From all the trip reports I've read, beyond all the time and effort and money it takes to make them, you then have to spend hours driving all over WDW delivering them to the front desk at every resort. And invariably, one or more guests don't get them when they check in. Then you have guests who don't even appreciate all the effort you put into them and just toss out all the trinkets and personalized stuff you spent so much time on.

We showed our guests our appreciation by thanking them personally on numerous occasions and giving them mouse ear favors that they'll never wear again.

I agree with you. I'm just afraid of spending all that time and money on them and then have my guest not appreciate them.

I'm still considering it though. I just need the opinions of other people I guess besides my own thoughts.

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

Call me Scrooge, but I don't think they're necessary. From all the trip reports I've read, beyond all the time and effort and money it takes to make them, you then have to spend hours driving all over WDW delivering them to the front desk at every resort. And invariably, one or more guests don't get them when they check in. Then you have guests who don't even appreciate all the effort you put into them and just toss out all the trinkets and personalized stuff you spent so much time on.

We showed our guests our appreciation by thanking them personally on numerous occasions and giving them mouse ear favors that they'll never wear again.

I second that one! I would really be irritated if I spent all that time and $$$ and they didn't make it to my guests...

 

[DecemberBride]

That's the dilemma I'm dealing with... to Do Welcome bags or to not do welcome bags, that is the question. I think I'm going to do a welcome folder... itinerary, hidden mickey stuff, maps, welcome note etc...

Hopefully, they will appreciate the info, but it won't go wasted... I don't know

 

[IndyBride]

I think if you need to think that much about whether or not to do something just don't do it. Better to spend your time on things you are excited about than something that causes you stress. I'm really excited about mine.

 

[WithDisneySpirit]

I didn't quite pull myself together for it or maybe I couldn't get too excited about the scope of it. We made MP3 discs of our favorite love/Disney songs and I decided not to hand those out at the wedding. I also had Hersheys Treasures all different kinds of chocolates with personalized wrappers on them. So, yesterday, I went and bought lots of gum and mentos too. My plan is to get little party favor bags like kids give out at parties and put the chocolates, mentos, gum and CD's into them and hand them out as a favor at our Welcome poolside party we are doing

 

[IndyBride]

I forgot to say we are giving them out at a welcome dessert party we are going to do. I'm not interested in traveling from hotel to hotel.

 

[shezfrombermuda]

I am not going to make welcome bags either, just welcome folders for adults and I think I will make something for the kids that are coming. I just don't think I have the time to go out and buy things and deliver the bags to the resorts.

 

[Keira1387]

I am making welcome bags for my guest. For me it's been fun organizing the things I want to put in them. We are doing one per family/couple. I think alot of people will appreciate the attention to detail. We have bought everything slowly, so the cost didn't really add up either.

 

[tink774]

Then you have guests who don't even appreciate all the effort you put into them and just toss out all the trinkets and personalized stuff you spent so much time on.

This same reason is why I will want to try and stay away from any favors that aren't edible (besides disposable cameras, perhaps). I know most of my family and friends probably wouldn't keep any personalized favors because they would just view them as clutter, unfortunately.

I do love the idea of welcome bags for your guests. They're a sweet expression of gratitude on your part, but should be done only if you think they will genuinely appreciate the gift and the thought. If not, the time, energy, and money might be better utilized on something else.

Good luck with your planning!!

 

[Lisacope]

I am doing welcome bags, but I am going to either email or phone every guest and tell them to look for the welcome bag on check in, and probably also email them the crucial info (like pickup times) before the trip.

 

[DisneyBride41108]

I agree with you. I'm just afraid of spending all that time and money on them and then have my guest not appreciate them.

I'm still considering it though. I just need the opinions of other people I guess besides my own thoughts.

It was really worth it! We made up welcome baskets in our guest rooms and they loved them!!!!!!!!!!! they were very greatful

So yes I think it's worth it

Lauren

 

[ElleBren]

I am planning on doing welcome bags only after we got back from a cousins wedding. On the drive home we were a bit hungry, we had nothing in the car and far from an exit/rest area, thank goodness we had the welcome bag they had given us. We really appreciated it and I hope that my guests will too.

It is a little extra work, but I think in the end it will be worth it.

 

[inkedupmomma]

ahhh.. i'm on the fence about this!!!! I kinda sorta want to do them, because i love crap like that..but i dont want to spendthe money.. i am def doing welcome folders. cause i love the idea of a nice letter and info. I also like the idea of cameras in the welcome bag.. i love seeing peoples views of my events.. sometimes they catch stuff i couldnt... well sorry that wasnt very helpful at all to you and ive got myself more confused lol

 

[OceanGdss]

we're doing 'welcome folders' much easier and cheaper!

 

[PrincessBride010103]

we're doing 'welcome folders' much easier and cheaper!

Arent you on a cruise, meg??????/

 

[hope1826]

I don't think they are worth it either...

I spent more money than I should have on the welcome bags and ended up not giving them out.

We only had 16 bags. But because I was concerned that they would get crushed, I couldn't pack all of the bags up prior to flying down. So I packed up two boxes of stuff (including candy, gum, wipes, fairytale character finger puppets, disney pop up books, and more.

I was planning to spend a few hours on our first night at Disney putting the bags together and adding the Welcome Letter. I had previously emailed our schedule to many of our guests. It was a short letter explaining that no one should feel pressured to hang out with us but I listed many of the places DH and I were going to be in the four days prior to the wedding. And let everyone know that they were welcome to join us.

Well, from day one, our schedule was ignored. Few people read it and those who did begged us to go other places with them and were constantly pressuring US to forget about our schedule and follow theirs.

That would have been fine, if only one or two couples were doing that, but it was almost 20 people ALL trying to pull us in different directions, while we were trying to fit in hair trials, tux fittings, a Costco run, etc. So I gave up on the Welcome Bags when I realized how little our schedule meant. And NO ONE missed the bags in the end. Even those who knew I was planning to hand them out didn't miss them.

 

[figmentfan814]

I agree with you. I'm just afraid of spending all that time and money on them and then have my guest not appreciate them.

I'm still considering it though. I just need the opinions of other people I guess besides my own thoughts.

I thought our guests wouldn't appreciate the welcome bags, but boy was I wrong! Everyone thanked us over and over for them and it was great to see everyone using their items during the week of the wedding. We tried to include things like snacks, water bottles, and Disney related travel info. I'll post some pictures tonight. Despite the cost and time I would do them all over again. These were nice little touches for our guests who had just spent thousands of dollars traveling several hundred miles to celebrate our day with us.

Here's a quote out of my TR:
"The bridal party and immediate family got more items as well as people with kids.

Some samples of the bags:

Plus, the folders that were given out didn’t all include the same things because some people obviously didn’t get an invitation to the tea and people who weren’t coming to the Welcome Party didn’t get one of those invites either. Also, I had other inserts such as the pressed penny sheet that only went to certain people. I will post all the things that were inserted into the folders, but here is a basic rundown:
 Welcome Newsletter
 Welcome Party Invitation
 Hidden Mickey document
 Scavenger Hunt
 Customized Crossword Puzzle
 Tea Party invitation
 Park Maps
 Contact Cards (my dad spent a lot of time on these, so I’ll have to post these)
 Pressed Penny guide (and some shiny pennies!)
 Postcards with stamps

My dad working tirelessly on the water bottles:

We also assembled the “bear necessities” bags that night and had to customize those too because not everyone got a sunblock in their bags. We also added some Aleve tablets from Sam’s.

We even had small personalized sewing kits that were a must-have for my mom:

I had small round containers that I had bought for Mickey mints. After discovering that the shipping for a 5 lb bag was $20 I decided to wait to see what I could find down there instead. I ended up buying these mints at the POR gift shop and everyone loved them.

The small round purple containers contained the mints:

Needless to say, we didn’t finish until around 3:30 a.m. We had reservations to eat breakfast at Kona Café the next morning at 10 a.m. before meeting Marion at 11:30 a.m. and we decided to skip breakfast!

The bags all lined up:

I had wanted to make some fancy Mickey tags, but ended up buying some gift tags marked down at the Disney store after Christmas that worked out just as well.

Here Kris and I are delivering the bags up to the front desk at POR. They were great about making sure that our guest s got them when they checked in over the next couple days. We only had a few minor delays with people who had multiple bags left for one room, but overall I was really pleased with their help.

We also delivered a few to some relatives that had checked in that morning; it was fun to see them opening everything up:

"

Almost everything I bought was on clearance from disneyshopping.com or the Disney Store. On the regular guest bags I spent around $8 each including the snacks.