Wedding Welcome Bags

Out of all the wedding projects I tackled, this was one of my favorites. I knew that many of our guest would be traveling from out-of-town and would be staying in hotels.  I also knew that our venue (the beautiful Sundara) would be difficult to locate if unfamiliar with the Roanoke Valley. I decided I wanted to put together a little something that welcomed our guests and also provided any logistical information.

I started with green paper bags that were super inexpensive (found with the other gift bags at Wal-Mart). I filled the bags with a variety of candies, a pack of nabs, a bottle of water and a selection of Roanoke postcards.  Also included in each bag was a direction card printed in the same theme as the other paper products included in the wedding (ie: invitations, program fans, etc).

My absolute favorite element of our welcome bags, was the label on the front of the bags. These labels were from my favorite local coffee shop in Roanoke - Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea. The folks at Mill Mountain (downtown location) were nice enough to let me buy a roll of blank coffee labels from them. I felt like this gave the bags a personal touch.

I dropped off the bags at the different hotels where I knew guests were staying, and guests received their goodie-welcome bags upon arrival.

Below are some pictures of the directions cards from beginning to end...

Using the same fonts and diverse font directions, I created direction cards that were individualized according to the different hotel locations. 
(I apologize for the poor quality of the BlackBerry pics).

Using a scrapbook paper cutter, I was able to ensure straight lines as I trimmed the excess card stock. (Thanks to Emily Pitts for letting me use her scrapbook gadgets).

Using a decorative-corner-paper punch, I jazzed up each corner.

Scrapbook gadgets are a huge time saver and super cute!

The final product! (Again, sorry for the poor image quality, but you get the idea).

The welcome bags were an easy and inexpensive project that added a true personalized touch. I think these bags made our guests feel welcome and special; they also provided a great way to get logistical information to our guest in a creative way. This project was too easy to pass up. I highly recommend the welcome bag! Any bride can personalize these bags with regional/state specific items or specific wedding-themed souvenirs. And, depending on a bride's budget, these bags could be as simple or as detailed as she might want.


Quick side note, I heard that a couple of our guests ventured out Saturday morning to the Roanoke City Market, in which they discovered thanks to the postcard in their welcome bag. This news made my heart smile :)

Kelly Anne