Welcome Bags for Guests

Hi all! I am getting married in Cozumel during our cruise on the Carnival Conquest in May. I'd love to do welcome bags for the guests that do choose to cruise with us because it's a huge chunk of time and money they're spending to celebrate with us. What are some of the items that you've seen guests really appreciate? Also, if anyone has suggestions on inexpensive totes that can be personalized, let me know!

Thank you!

I'm getting married in february! One item I would definitely recommend for the bags are lanyards with the plastic holders to hold room keys. I ordered drawstring bags from totallypromotional.com! Good luck!!

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I'm not getting married until September, so hopefully once you figure out what you want, and you get feedback from your guests, you can give us some pointers here 😄

I'm not sure how many people you have cruising with you, but I found this guy on Etsy and we're planning on getting koozies and bags from him once we have a better idea on guest count (we have over 130 invited. So far there are 18 rooms with a total of 38 people booked to cruise with us and we haven't even sent out formal invitations yet).

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MyWeddingStore

I liked that you could coordinate your favors and have a couple matching items.

The only other thing we know for sure is going in the bag are hangover kits.

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Thanks Mailgirl183! This site looks like it's actually affordable, even for the tote bags. I will have to bookmark the website for sure!

MindyMarie, we are not going to have very many people attending. We booked just a few days ago, and so a lot of people that we would normally expect to try to make the trip just aren't able with the short notice. I definitely know that I want to do tote bags, and the koozies are a good idea. I'll have to check out that Etsy shop. i'm struggling with trying to keep costs down while still providing something nice for the guests that are taking so much time and spending so much money to be with us. And, unfortunately, with a small number attending, I'm running into higher costs of items such as the bags. I will certainly try to update this as it gets closer and I'm finding things to include!

Update...

I've found a couple of things on Etsy to adorn/include in our welcome bags. Pics are attached.

Bag Tags:

They are a super price! Just a nice little touch if you don't want to spend the $ to personalize the bags themselves. Also, I think people would be more likely to use the bags if they are not personalized.

Welcome Cards:

I think the welcome cards allow you to leave a nice, personal note of appreciation with everyone. The nice thing about those is that it's a digital file for a single amount, and you can print as many as you need. I've been in touch with the store owner, and she is willing to work with you to customize - I'm just going to do a welcome card with a note on front and map of the islands on back. She also adjusted the price accordingly!

Update...

 

I've found a couple of things on Etsy to adorn/include in our welcome bags. Pics are attached.

 

Bag Tags:

They are a super price! Just a nice little touch if you don't want to spend the $ to personalize the bags themselves. Also, I think people would be more likely to use the bags if they are not personalized.

 

Welcome Cards:

I think the welcome cards allow you to leave a nice, personal note of appreciation with everyone. The nice thing about those is that it's a digital file for a single amount, and you can print as many as you need. I've been in touch with the store owner, and she is willing to work with you to customize - I'm just going to do a welcome card with a note on front and map of the islands on back. She also adjusted the price accordingly!

Another idea for digital files is a file for a door hanger. You know like the cruising and snoozing ones? You can buy a pack of pre-cut door tags and then buy a file from etsy to print.

I definitely understand your struggle of doing something nice without blowing the bank. 4 of rooms booked already are people we were sure wouldn't be coming at all because it's just a quick 3 day cruise and they're from far enough away that they will have to fly out. We're so excited they're coming, but it definitely made us realize that we might not be able to predict our guest list as well as we thought...

Luckily we have enough time that I'm trying to just buy what I can when I can ahead of time with stuff like credit card rewards points and I've been using ebates lately. It's stressful though because you want to make sure it's something nice, but I also don't want to waste money we don't really have on things that won't get used again...

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I am planning to do welcome bags as well. I'm starting to get stuff together. I ordered personalized plastic sunglasses that say me & FH's Wedding Cruise. I ordered beach themed gift bags from Oriental Trading. I plan to do a welcome letter with all the guests room numbers and the wedding timeline.

This is what I have so far:

-Personalized plastic sunglasses that say me & FH's Wedding Cruise.

-Little Sunblock bottles that I personalized with my own labels.

-Lanyards for the Room Keys

-Waterproof containers for cell phones/etc when going on excursions

-A door magnet that says "wedding Cruise" guests

-Water bottles to use on the ship

-Mint Lifesaver Rolls that I wrapped in my own paper and a tag that says "Minto to be"

-Playing Cards

Then I'll probably add like Dramamine, advil, tums.. things of that nature.

I'm also getting married on the Conquest in May! We are doing koozies, personalized sunglasses, and anchor bottle openers. I'm also adding some sunscreen, tylenol, motion sickness pills, and other stuff guests might need on their cruise. Everything is nautical themed.

I am planning to do welcome bags as well. I'm starting to get stuff together. I ordered personalized plastic sunglasses that say me & FH's Wedding Cruise. I ordered beach themed gift bags from Oriental Trading. I plan to do a welcome letter with all the guests room numbers and the wedding timeline.

This is what I have so far:

-Personalized plastic sunglasses that say me & FH's Wedding Cruise.

-Little Sunblock bottles that I personalized with my own labels.

-Lanyards for the Room Keys

-Waterproof containers for cell phones/etc when going on excursions

-A door magnet that says "wedding Cruise" guests

-Water bottles to use on the ship

-Mint Lifesaver Rolls that I wrapped in my own paper and a tag that says "Minto to be"

-Playing Cards

 

Then I'll probably add like Dramamine, advil, tums.. things of that nature.

Where did you get your plastic sunglasses and sunblock? I'm looking for the same thing for my gift bags!

The sunglasses I got from etsy: DealCardinal (https://www.etsy.com/listing/234319692/beach-wedding-favors-10-sunglasses-beach)

And the pre-personalized sunscreen were all crazy expensive, so i bought plain bottles of sunscreen off amazon (search for Perfectly Plain Collection Sunscreen with Spf30)and made my own labels. I used Avery 80502 Oval labels and they fit nicely. I designed them myself with a cruise ship background. Avery also offers free designs for you to customize and print yourself at home with their product.

I'm so glad I found this thread. I need all the ideas I can get. I'm waiting to see how many guests book their cruises to see what my budget per welcome bag will be.

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I'm so glad I found this thread. I need all the ideas I can get. I'm waiting to see how many guests book their cruises to see what my budget per welcome bag will be.

 

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I'm in the same boat. I have so many ideas, but I need a better idea on the guest count. We have only sent out Save the Dates (official invitations will go out in the next few weeks) and we already have 18 cabins booked. 3 of those cabins are people we were 90% sure wouldn't make the wedding let alone the cruise... soooo now I'm waiting to see where the RSVPs fall before I order anything else! 😂

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When is your wedding?

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My wedding is on September 25, 2017. I just mailed out the Save The Dates yesterday. Only 4 cabins booked so far.

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