Although this post is going to be pretty location specific, (I'm looking at you Pennsylvania and Michigan!) I figured that OBT member AndreaJ‘s welcome/OOT bags could be a wealth of inspiration for putting together your own location specific welcome bags. Check 'em out…
I am from Pennsylvania and he is from Michigan so we thought it would be a cute idea to make everything in our welcome bags specific to how/where we grew up.
These are tokens from the amazing arcade, Marvelous Marvin's, that Mike grew up going to. Marvin sold us the bulk of the tokens that he had saved for himself.
These are packs of Teaberry gum. Though not exclusive to Pennsylvania, we seem to be one of the few places where you can find it in most any deli or convenience store.
Some cool vintage style Pennsylvania postcards.
Red wings Christmas ornaments.
Some pins that we designed. Pins are great, and are a throwback to all the band pins that I wore all over every messenger bag I had as a teenager.
This is the whole package, also including Middleswarth potato chips, Tastykake Kandy Kakes, and postcard from Marvin's.
Way back when I had my first wedding I made up “out of town” folders that had all kinds of stuff in them, flyers and maps (gotten for FREE at the local welcome center) for local attractions, coupons and advertisements for great local food, a page with local phone numbers and addresses needed, etc. It didn’t cost very much to make them, and the out of towners really really appreciated the effort and thought that went into them.
Middlesworth <3 !!! I'm from central PA. If and when I ever move away I will bring suitcases full of them. Also Deer Park is my favorite water.
Too bad all my guests are from around here so I won't be able to steal it. =]
This is great! I’m from PA and The Man is from MI, both living in MI. Genius! Definitely some inspiration. 🙂
How timely as I just finished our welcome bags last night. I live in LA and all of my family is from the East Coast and a lot have never been to LA before. So I used Trader Joe’s reusable shopping bags (since they started as a west coast thing) and filled them with snacks from Trader Joe’s, local Oranges, a packet with maps and suggestions of restaurant and tourist stuff to see and do, sunblock, and a CD of California inspired songs. For the kids that were coming I added beach buckets and cheap sunglasses. I’m very pleased with how they turned out!
I’m American but my husband is English and we got married over there. My mother asked if I minded if she made welcome bags. Go ahead, Mom! I hit up the tourist information shops and bought tea and cookies to go inside. Then my mother emailed again. It wasn’t really fair for the out-of-town people to get nice gift bags but nothing for the locals, so did I mind if she made up bags about our hometown to give to all the guests from England? Everyone loved their goodie bags, and it was confirmed how awesome my mother is.
ZOMG TASTYKAKES!
Okay, freakout is done, but being from Philly, I always get excited when I see Tastykakes. Way to represent PA in a totally awesome way!
My mom made something similar to this for our out of town guests. Note for all you Kansas people – Kansas Sampler has a lot of options for Kansas-oriented stuff! My mom got these Kansas emblem flour sacks for the bag, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, and sunflower pencils there. She also got a bunch of pamphlets about things around KC from the tourism office.
What do you do with these? Would you find out where everyone is staying and visit them at their hotels? Or post them before they leave?
If you know where the out of towners are staying you can leave them at the front desk of their hotel to be delivered upon checkin.
Ohh! If you are doing Michigan (or detroit really) you can include Faygo pop! it’s the best! https://www.faygo.com/
or also Sanders hot fudge or better made potato chips: http://www.sanderscandy.com, http://bmchips.com/