My sample welcome bags have arrived and I love them! The one concern is that they are a little small but that means it should cost less to fill them! I plan to ask the hotel to put the bottled water right into the guests’ refrigerators which will leave me plenty of room for the other things I plan to put in the bags. At the moment we are planning one bag per couple (as well as a bag for guests that will attend alone). I plan to use the large bag for the welcome bag, the small handled bag for the candy buffet and small boxes for treats. I will dress the bags up with a little ribbon and maybe a silk flower in the wedding colors.

Here is what I plan to put in them:

• Welcome letter and itinerary
• Local map and bus schedule
• Stamped Postcards (I plan to have one of each of the postcards pre-addressed to us with a note asking the guests to please share their favorite memory of the weekend and drop it in the mail – we’ll have fun receiving these and will put them into a scrapbook)
• Bottled water (put into the fridge instead of packed in the bag)
• Freshly baked dutch cookies that our independent wedding planner will get for us from a local baker. I plan to purchase 4 per person then package them in cellophane bags with a ribbon and a personalized sticker
• Dutch wafers
• Mackinac Island Fudge (need to have my home, Michigan, represented!)
• Salty snack like chips
• Lip Balm with SPF
• Aruba Aloe After Sun cream purchased directly from the Aruba Aloe factory or a local grocery store
• Can koozie
• Straw visor for the ladies (scavenging them off of eBay now that its end of summer)
• Maybe cuban cigars for the men?
• Some libations for my party buddies (a bottle of rum or some local beer)
• Travel size medicine packets (Tylenol and Advil)