Kim Forrest the editor at Brides Magazine contacted me about an opportunity to take part in an article she was writing about Welcome Bags for Out-of-Town Guests. She said she was contacting the most talented planners in the area to tell them their most favorite Boston-themed welcome bags, and basket components. I jumped at the chance to add my favorite things to a Boston Welcome Bag! Take a look at my favorites! First entry pg178
This was a great little piece on welcome bags- Boston is so full of rich tradition and history, that giving my contribution to this article was not only fun, but I hope very informative to couples hosting their wedding in Bean Town, or if your just a die hard Bostonian!!!
I had such a great time doing this- that I took it to the next level and wrote all about the different types of bags and baskets you can put together, and where to find all of the components. You can use this information to make your bags, or baskets whether you are doing a beach wedding, or a Boston Red Sox themed one- Everything you will need to know is right here for you.
Welcome Bags
Treating your traveling wedding guests to something special when they arrive in Boston and welcoming them to a town that is filled with history, great food, and the best shopping around can be a wonderful gesture. When compiling many different components to make the perfect welcome bags, I advise my brides that they should first think about a few factors: consider your budget, theme, personalized items, and the season you are getting married in? These factors may change with every couple and your choices for products may vary.
When I think about what to put in to a welcome bag, I consider the season of the wedding. Boston can be very cold in the winter months, so if the wedding is in January I would include but not limit to: Chap Stick, hand warmers, hot coco mix, and maybe even a soft pair of mittens. Most of these products are inexpensive and you can get at most supermarkets, and dollar stores. For the hot coco and coffee mix you can use these on-line sources like www.theknot.com, www.eleganceandgraceweddings.com, www.beaucoup.com if the couple was getting married in July, I would include products that would suit the guests for that time of year. Items like travel size sun screen, lip balm, flip flops, and visors. A great place to purchase inexpensive flip flops in most colors is at your local Old Navy or www.oldnavy.com
When making up your gift boxes or bag you should think about your theme, wedding colors, or a Boston team that is your favorite it might add a nice thematic element to your bag. For example you can add green monster bites, dipping pretzels and a must have for any visiting Bostonian gourmet popcorn. You can get most of these items at some of my favorite on-line stores www. bostonbasketcases.com and www.massbaytrading.com another fun thing I like to add is apparel such a baseball cap or a t-shirt. Now if budget is factor than adding these items could be costly. A team base ball cap can run you anywhere between $15.00 and $ 20.00 and most team t-shirts can cost $20.00 + dollars. I find these items at any local sports stores: Modells, Dicks Sporting Good, and on-line stores like Amazon.com which might be more cost effective.
I always like to include candy, candy and more candy. This is not only inexpensive, but it is a great way to fill up the bag and anyone with a sweet tooth will appreciate it. Coming to Boston you can give them the famous Gummy lobsters or the Lobster Lolli pop, chocolate covered Boston baked beans are some of my favorites to add. But the other great thing about candy is you can color coordinate to your heart’s content. Some great local, and on-line candy stores I shop at include, Phillips Candy House, www.phillipschocolate.com, Sugar Heaven located in Boston on Boylston Street, and Carnival Candy at www.carnivalcandy.com when considering using chocolate in your bags you must ship overnight and store them in a cool place during the hotter months.
Other items I would include are maps, wedding itineraries, attraction sites, restaurant recommendations and shopping areas. Many guests that have traveled far and wide to come to your wedding spend more than 1 day at your destination, so it’s always wise and helpful to them to be able to locate all the different attractions. When visiting Boston, I include some of special and well known attractions such as The Duck Tours, The Museum of Fine Arts, and The Boston Aquarium. And for those sports fans I include game schedules for our very own World Series champions The Boston Red Sox. For down time they can take a stroll through Boston Common, and shop till they drop on Newbury Street. I suggest utilizing your local Chamber of Commerce to gather all this information. Another great source I almost always use is the venue. If you are getting married at a hotel in Boston, asks your sales director or wedding planner for a promotional package for the hotel. If they are generous they may even include some extra maps of the area for your bags. The promotional packages could possibly include materials such as attraction sites, restaurants, other hotels and transportation.
Now that I explained what to include in your bags and where to find the items. Let’s explore what to put all these great components in. You can use almost anything you want bags, baskets, boxes and you can be fun and creative to match a color, or theme. I am going to give you examples of all of these, and then tell you what is most popular, and cost effective and why. Packaging this is the fun part, and picking what all your little gifts will go into is essential. The next step is to determine how many items will be in the bags, or whatever you have decided to use. I suggest to my brides making a list and checking it twice. If I am the one designing the welcome gifts I take in consideration how many things and their weights that are being included in the bag. For example: I always like to include bottled water with a custom label in my bags these can be heavy, so I only pack 2 20 oz bottles per bag. You can find these water bottles and the labels on www.the knot.com and www.eventbloosom.com. These are two great on-line sources, and they come in cases of 24 for about $30.00 with personalized labels.
I like to use something that is easy to transport and has a nice presentation. Canvas totes are great; the items fit in nicely and the presentation is perfect. Not only are they good for the guest bags, but when the wedding is over they can be used to carry back home all of their souvenirs. When deciding to go with the canvas bag I suggest looking around and comparing prices for different bags. Thinking about your style and color can determine what bag you choose. If you look around on the Internet you can find the same bags for different prices. Some of my favorite on-line wholesalers to use include: www.conventiontotes.com www.myweddingfavors.com, www.landsend.com Totes are great because they distribute the weight very well. They can take up to 50lbs, they come in all colors and you can get one and print something on the front or back. You have about 6x9 for print area. The best part about the totes is the handles are sturdy. Another bag that is great and cost effective is the non canvas bag in color, or plain. I like to include a monogram, or logo stitched on the front. This will add color and dimension to any plain bag. The cost of these will be around $1.00-$1.25 not including the stitching. Canvas non color bags are also inexpensive, but when picking a canvas or non canvas bag you want to go with heavy kind for both.
Baskets, are fine too if you are going to have something left in the room for your guests, but I don’t recommend baskets because they are not easily transported and your guest will have a hard time packing them. You also can not include has much in a basket as you can in a bag.
When I make the guest bags I use one of the most popular forms of packaging and that is the Gable boxes. They come in 3 sizes mini, small, and large. For a wedding favor you would want to go with the mini, but for a wedding out-of town gift your best choice would be the Large. These boxes are great for many reasons they have a sturdy handle and they are strong enough to carry a wide variety of products. You can buy them on most on-line packaging wholesale stores such as www.bayleysboxes.com, www.boxandwrap.com and locally you can find them at most craft stores for example: Michaels. They can come in patterns and many different colors. You can add your own personal embellishments by adorning the box with ribbon and flowers. You can include a nice custom label to the front or back of the box. I always love using monogrammed labels for the front. The Large box is 41/2 x3x3 they can run in price about 1-50 -$1.30 50-100 $1.17 100 or more $1.04 they will be shipped flat and will include assembly directions. Prices may vary depending on your patterns, personalization, and colors.
As you can read in this article there are many different ways to design a welcome gift for your guests. You can be creative and make something yourself, or if budget is no factor there are so many great already made welcome baskets to purchase. I enjoy making up these bags myself because you can include all your own personal touches with little messages or sentiments on the items. Shopping around is key for making up the bags using resources like the Internet will help you find the best items for the best price.
Resources
http://www.ourweddinginnewport.com/WelcomeBoxes.htm-contents
http://www.bayleysboxes.com/small%20gable%20box.html- great online source to find gable boxes
boxeshttp://www.mrtakeoutbags.com/store/gable-boxes.html
http://www.phillipschocolate.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NELT – creative gift bag lobster gift case
http://www.boxandwrap.com/collectiongableboxes.html- source for gable boxes
http://www.creativegiftpackaging.com/BOXCO_Gable_boxes_s/120.htm
http://www.conventiontotes.com/canvas-bags/Designer-Deck-Tote.asp- source for canvas bags
http://www.myweddingfavors.com/welcome-canvas-tote-bag.html-personalized tote
http://boston.citysearch.com/profile/4738267/boston_ma/old_town_trolley_tour_boston.html-
Source for everything in the city
www.beaucoup.com – labels
www.eleganceandgraceweddings.com –favors and small gifts
http://weddingshop.theknot.com-watter bottles, coffee and coco bags
Local Retailers
Boston Stone gift shop in Faneuil Hall
New England Country Store
Back Bay
Phillips Candy House
www.phillipschocolate.com
Treating your traveling wedding guests to something special when they arrive in Boston and welcoming them to a town that is filled with history, great food, and the best shopping around can be a wonderful gesture. When compiling many different components to make the perfect welcome bags, I advise my brides that they should first think about a few factors: consider your budget, theme, personalized items, and the season you are getting married in? These factors may change with every couple and your choices for products may vary.
When I think about what to put in to a welcome bag, I consider the season of the wedding. Boston can be very cold in the winter months, so if the wedding is in January I would include but not limit to: Chap Stick, hand warmers, hot coco mix, and maybe even a soft pair of mittens. Most of these products are inexpensive and you can get at most supermarkets, and dollar stores. For the hot coco and coffee mix you can use these on-line sources like www.theknot.com, www.eleganceandgraceweddings.com, www.beaucoup.com if the couple was getting married in July, I would include products that would suit the guests for that time of year. Items like travel size sun screen, lip balm, flip flops, and visors. A great place to purchase inexpensive flip flops in most colors is at your local Old Navy or www.oldnavy.com
When making up your gift boxes or bag you should think about your theme, wedding colors, or a Boston team that is your favorite it might add a nice thematic element to your bag. For example you can add green monster bites, dipping pretzels and a must have for any visiting Bostonian gourmet popcorn. You can get most of these items at some of my favorite on-line stores www. bostonbasketcases.com and www.massbaytrading.com another fun thing I like to add is apparel such a baseball cap or a t-shirt. Now if budget is factor than adding these items could be costly. A team base ball cap can run you anywhere between $15.00 and $ 20.00 and most team t-shirts can cost $20.00 + dollars. I find these items at any local sports stores: Modells, Dicks Sporting Good, and on-line stores like Amazon.com which might be more cost effective.
I always like to include candy, candy and more candy. This is not only inexpensive, but it is a great way to fill up the bag and anyone with a sweet tooth will appreciate it. Coming to Boston you can give them the famous Gummy lobsters or the Lobster Lolli pop, chocolate covered Boston baked beans are some of my favorites to add. But the other great thing about candy is you can color coordinate to your heart’s content. Some great local, and on-line candy stores I shop at include, Phillips Candy House, www.phillipschocolate.com, Sugar Heaven located in Boston on Boylston Street, and Carnival Candy at www.carnivalcandy.com when considering using chocolate in your bags you must ship overnight and store them in a cool place during the hotter months.
Other items I would include are maps, wedding itineraries, attraction sites, restaurant recommendations and shopping areas. Many guests that have traveled far and wide to come to your wedding spend more than 1 day at your destination, so it’s always wise and helpful to them to be able to locate all the different attractions. When visiting Boston, I include some of special and well known attractions such as The Duck Tours, The Museum of Fine Arts, and The Boston Aquarium. And for those sports fans I include game schedules for our very own World Series champions The Boston Red Sox. For down time they can take a stroll through Boston Common, and shop till they drop on Newbury Street. I suggest utilizing your local Chamber of Commerce to gather all this information. Another great source I almost always use is the venue. If you are getting married at a hotel in Boston, asks your sales director or wedding planner for a promotional package for the hotel. If they are generous they may even include some extra maps of the area for your bags. The promotional packages could possibly include materials such as attraction sites, restaurants, other hotels and transportation.
Now that I explained what to include in your bags and where to find the items. Let’s explore what to put all these great components in. You can use almost anything you want bags, baskets, boxes and you can be fun and creative to match a color, or theme. I am going to give you examples of all of these, and then tell you what is most popular, and cost effective and why. Packaging this is the fun part, and picking what all your little gifts will go into is essential. The next step is to determine how many items will be in the bags, or whatever you have decided to use. I suggest to my brides making a list and checking it twice. If I am the one designing the welcome gifts I take in consideration how many things and their weights that are being included in the bag. For example: I always like to include bottled water with a custom label in my bags these can be heavy, so I only pack 2 20 oz bottles per bag. You can find these water bottles and the labels on www.the knot.com and www.eventbloosom.com. These are two great on-line sources, and they come in cases of 24 for about $30.00 with personalized labels.
I like to use something that is easy to transport and has a nice presentation. Canvas totes are great; the items fit in nicely and the presentation is perfect. Not only are they good for the guest bags, but when the wedding is over they can be used to carry back home all of their souvenirs. When deciding to go with the canvas bag I suggest looking around and comparing prices for different bags. Thinking about your style and color can determine what bag you choose. If you look around on the Internet you can find the same bags for different prices. Some of my favorite on-line wholesalers to use include: www.conventiontotes.com www.myweddingfavors.com, www.landsend.com Totes are great because they distribute the weight very well. They can take up to 50lbs, they come in all colors and you can get one and print something on the front or back. You have about 6x9 for print area. The best part about the totes is the handles are sturdy. Another bag that is great and cost effective is the non canvas bag in color, or plain. I like to include a monogram, or logo stitched on the front. This will add color and dimension to any plain bag. The cost of these will be around $1.00-$1.25 not including the stitching. Canvas non color bags are also inexpensive, but when picking a canvas or non canvas bag you want to go with heavy kind for both.
Baskets, are fine too if you are going to have something left in the room for your guests, but I don’t recommend baskets because they are not easily transported and your guest will have a hard time packing them. You also can not include has much in a basket as you can in a bag.
When I make the guest bags I use one of the most popular forms of packaging and that is the Gable boxes. They come in 3 sizes mini, small, and large. For a wedding favor you would want to go with the mini, but for a wedding out-of town gift your best choice would be the Large. These boxes are great for many reasons they have a sturdy handle and they are strong enough to carry a wide variety of products. You can buy them on most on-line packaging wholesale stores such as www.bayleysboxes.com, www.boxandwrap.com and locally you can find them at most craft stores for example: Michaels. They can come in patterns and many different colors. You can add your own personal embellishments by adorning the box with ribbon and flowers. You can include a nice custom label to the front or back of the box. I always love using monogrammed labels for the front. The Large box is 41/2 x3x3 they can run in price about 1-50 -$1.30 50-100 $1.17 100 or more $1.04 they will be shipped flat and will include assembly directions. Prices may vary depending on your patterns, personalization, and colors.
As you can read in this article there are many different ways to design a welcome gift for your guests. You can be creative and make something yourself, or if budget is no factor there are so many great already made welcome baskets to purchase. I enjoy making up these bags myself because you can include all your own personal touches with little messages or sentiments on the items. Shopping around is key for making up the bags using resources like the Internet will help you find the best items for the best price.
Resources
http://www.ourweddinginnewport.com/WelcomeBoxes.htm-contents
http://www.bayleysboxes.com/small%20gable%20box.html- great online source to find gable boxes
boxeshttp://www.mrtakeoutbags.com/store/gable-boxes.html
http://www.phillipschocolate.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NELT – creative gift bag lobster gift case
http://www.boxandwrap.com/collectiongableboxes.html- source for gable boxes
http://www.creativegiftpackaging.com/BOXCO_Gable_boxes_s/120.htm
http://www.conventiontotes.com/canvas-bags/Designer-Deck-Tote.asp- source for canvas bags
http://www.myweddingfavors.com/welcome-canvas-tote-bag.html-personalized tote
http://boston.citysearch.com/profile/4738267/boston_ma/old_town_trolley_tour_boston.html-
Source for everything in the city
www.beaucoup.com – labels
www.eleganceandgraceweddings.com –favors and small gifts
http://weddingshop.theknot.com-watter bottles, coffee and coco bags
Local Retailers
Boston Stone gift shop in Faneuil Hall
New England Country Store
Back Bay
Phillips Candy House
www.phillipschocolate.com
