Budget Friendly Wedding Weekend Welcome Bags

We wanted to keep the cost of our welcome bags as low as possible, but still provide our out of town guests with some snacks and essentials for their stay.  Here are some ideas:

Small gift bags (I'll post about how to save on the welcome gift bags as well as a little bit more expensive gift bag ideas...check back soon)
Tags (We used business cards that we typed Welcome to our Wedding Weekend on and then just whole punched them and tied them on with twine to go with our beach theme - you can use ribbon that matches your color scheme or gift bags)
Bottled Waters (we included two in each bag and skipped the personalization to save money - purchase in bulk from a wholesale club or if you are unable to buy from a wholesale club look for sales at your grocery store)
Snack Size Chip Packs (again we purchased in bulk, but should be able to find on sale - we did a variety pack and put one of chips in each welcome bag)
Snack Size Cracker Sandwiches (again purchased in bulk, but again look for sales if a wholesale club isn't an option - we put one pack in each bag)
Mints (individually wrapped - we put several in each bag)
Tylenol (we found these travel size packets on Amazon and put two in each bag)
Map of the area (you should be able to obtain from the local visitors center or even the hotel your guests are staying at)
Coupons for the nearby restaurants (I called the restaurants and told them I had a large group of guests staying at the X hotel and asked if they could offer anything for my guests.  They were very pleased with the opportunity some offered percentage off coupons other offered free apetizer coupons and included their menu which was great because people could check out the menu before deciding where to go)

We also included a couple of homemade items that we love (that I will share with you in the next few posts and explain how to make them)...Check back soon and happy wedding planning!

More Centerpieces

A friend of mine had a fall wedding and I absolutely loved her centerpieces.  What she did was purchased various shapes and sizes of glass jars and vases (large - one for each table).  You can find these at stores like Michaels, WalMart, Home Goods or even various places online.  Then what you do is fill them...for fall fillers (depending on your colors) you can use red apples, or green apples, or golden apple, gourds, acorns, etc, for summer (again depending on your colors) limes, or oranges, lemons, etc.  Other ideas that I love, but might be a bit more expensive are filling these glass centerpieces with candies that go with your color scheme, but to get all one color you may have to secial order...for instance if your color scheme had red in it you could use Swedish Fish, red Skittles, red M&Ms, Twizzlers, etc.  What I love about this idea for the centerpieces is they are edible so at the end of the night people can help themselves to an after party snack.  You could actually double the centerpieces as the favors and provide spoon at each centerpeice and leave treat bags at everyseat and invite your guests to create their own favor but filling their bag with their favorite treats from around the room and that could also serve as a way to get people to mingle.  Love, Love, Love it!

Next post will be about thank you gifts for guests.  Happy wedding planning to all :)

Centerpieces

Centerpieces can be very expensive, but if you're on a budget like my husband and I were you have to prioritize and for us we decided to allocate just a small portion on our budget.  We agreed we didn't want a large centerpiece as we wanted people to be able to socialize across the table without having to look around a large centerpiece to see the person you were talking to.  We decided to do a low candle centerpiece and didn't mind spending the time putting them together ourselves.  Our wedding was a beach setting which we were able to incorporate into the centerpieces.  We found a set at Michaels that was perfect for us.  We substituted the rocks that came with the set for some sand and sea shells (which was a very inexpensive addition).  I made several trips to Michaels so that I could use 40% off coupons each time I purchased one and we actually had our family make a couple trips for us as well to different Michael's locations so we could collect enough of them and just paid them back...we NEVER paid full price.  You could do this same idea for a wedding in the mountains or at the lake and use the rocks.  I've included a couple of pictures of our centerpiece for your viewing.  My next post will be another centerpiece idea for fall...

Please contact me if there you are in need of an idea for a centerpiece, bridesmaid/groomsman gift, favors, welcome bags, etc.  Obviously I won't be able to respond to everyone, but if there are several requests for something similar I will try to come up with something that you'll either love or will maybe inspire you...happy wedding planning to all!