Welcome bags

[soxgirl]

Not sure I mentioned this before, but we put Aruba postcards in our welcome bags pre-addressed and pre-stamped. We reminded our guests throughout the week that they were in the bags and asked them to mail them back to us. When we arrived home after our honeymoon they were all accounted for. It was great to come home to!

We then put these in an album and are using them as our guest book as with the small amount of guests there was no need for anything formal. We put a picture with the postcard with us and the people who signed the postcard.

It's truly a great keepsake for us!

[jingle96]

Here's pictures of what we put in our OOT bags!

http://allaboutjingnjeff.weebly.com/...ds-family.html

[cukiecutr]

Suzanne....great idea on the post cards. I think I read that someone else had done that as well. Did you get stamps there or can you use our stamps. Jingle, thanks for sharing your bags contents. I received my koozies..........they are awesome!

[jingle96]

@ cukiecutr: I did the same thing, the hubby took a picture of the natural bridge the last time we were there and got the postcard printed through vista print. We self address them and put US stamps on them. We informed the guests to send them back to us when they got back home.

[soxgirl]

We got the postcards of different parts of the island there for cheap, and we got the stamps there as well. There was a post office downtown that we got the stamps from. We told our guests to drop them at the front desk before they left. It was nice to have the aruba postal stamps on them.

The other most used item in our bags were water bottles that we ordered online. Because you can drink the water on the island our guests took them everywhere they went. It was fun to see.

jingle96- I love your bags! We never took a picture of everything, that would have been a good idea.

Cathy- make sure you take a picture!

Suzanne

[Sheree10]

We're actually doing a postcard guestbook. I will pick up cards on the island and have guests write a message to us and place in a book. The idea of having them mailed to your home is a great one but I don't trust that all of my guests will do this.

As far as the welcome bags I wasn't planning on giving out one but just ordered personalized ones from www.discountmugs.com. They have a great variety and I especially love the jute bags. I haven't purchased anything to put in them yet. Space may be an issue so I will wait until 2 weeks before to decide what to stuff them with. Some ideas I have so far are: welcome booklet,gum, candy, 1-2 snacks(granola bars, fruit snacks, peanuts, cookies- anything that will pack easily and not get crushed) and add a bottle of water when we arrive.

[cukiecutr]

Kudos to Christene......I ordereg my bags from the link below. They are perfect as they come folded and are easy to pack....mind you I only have a small amount of bags to do....family only. The big party is 3 weeks after we got back and I already have an idea for that favor. I ordered that largest available and a smaller one for my niece.

http://www.ailanakai.com/

I have been picking up little things here and there to put in the bags. I want to get some literature at the hotels for things to do.

I am making custom paint brushes for people to brush the sand off there feet at the beach ceremony. I was working on a template today. I will let you all know how it works out. I found some on line but the thought of spending $200+ for something I think I can do myself seemed a bit crazy. The koozies I ordered are great! We are getting so excited to get down to Aruba and celebrate.

[hat0112]

We are doing OOT bag and we got our bags from Vistaprint. I bought them when they were buy 1 free so I got all 12 bags free and just paid shipping.

We got puzzle books (from PennyDell), playing cards with our names on the cover, liquor bottles (each bag will get one of each different of liquor: Bacardi, Jack Daniels, Bailey's, Absolut, and Tanqueray), mints, M&Ms, chips, Advil, Aleve, mini sunscreen bottles, and bug repellant wipes. We got everything on the list except for the sunscreen bottles and the food.

[Arubalisa]

Gifts Made in Aruba

[Karen Lutzker]

A friend of ours that is getting married soon purchased some items for her gift bags via a supposed to be secure wedding website recently. To make a long story short, her credit card via her wedding bank account was comprimised on the same day that she made the purchase. Be careful where you order from on wedding sites and make sure the site has a https://www. Our friend just found out that someone made a purchase on her wedding account and is worried that she was hacked! The bank straightened out and issued new cards, but what an inconvenience as her wedding day is in another week.