Cost Effective Ideas??

[sensdncr86]

Hi Brides (and grooms) I was hoping for some help on gift bags. We are getting married in 3 months in st. thomas and have about 40 guest cruising with us. My fiance and I are paying for the entire wedding (trip, invites, Ceremony, gift bags) ourselves. I have seen BEAUTIFUL and creative gift bags and favors, but as we near out big day the costs are constantly popping up! We are having a ceremony on shore and travel for our group has already topped $500 just for a taxi ride for everyone. So what i was hoping, was that i could get some cost effective suggestions on a few things:

1.I want to put together gift bags/favor bags for each of the 15 families coming. Does anyone have any inexpensive or DIY ideas? I AM Crafty luckilly! I was hoping to spend less than $15-20 per favor/bag. But i dont want it to look or seem "cheap":( . Afterall they are also spending lots to join us.

 

2. I have 10 Bridemaides (Yes a lot) What is everyone planning on gifting to thier bridemaides? The same issues apply so i was hoping to give them something personal-yet affordable for us.

 

I am assuming the best way to conform to these budget restrictions is to try to purchase wholesale or find items as a lot-but i am open to ANY suggestions!! Thanks:o

[MOLUVSCO]

I found big bright beach towels (they will take up space in the bag) for $2.99 at Big Lots. Big Lots also had Sunblock for $3.00. How about some cheap flip flops? Try the dollar store for some ideas too. Our wedding is not till October, but we already have started to get some of the items when we see good (cheap) prices. Good luck!

[nikerunner4fun]

Congrats! We just got married on the Legend of the Seas 3 weeks ago, we only had 10 sailing with us. I also did the gift bags for our guests, they were a huge hit. A month before the wedding I sent out a card to guests that were coming with us. . .just saying how excited we were that they would be with us, etc. I included a DVD of the Western Caribbean (the ports that we would be traveling to) and luggage tags that I personalized for them. I had my husband burn copies. Go to your local library or Blockbuster, etc. The tags I got at Michaels for $1 apiece. I personalized them on the computer with little palm trees. See the thread for wedding crafts, I got the idea from there. Pink for the ladies and black for the guys. Everyone loved this as it got them excited for the trip and to see the places that we would travel to. The gift bags included all kinds of things- a water camera (bought in a lot on Ebay, paid about $3 per camera), a disposable camera, and tons of other stuff. I only had to do 5 bags so I spent a little more. I scoured the dollar stores and the dollar area at Target and found all kinds of fun stuff. Just remember, that you will have to bring it all with you when you pack! Something I neglected to think about!

[Illinoisgal]

Right now I am making bags for everyone who is traveling with us. I got hawaiin style shirt shaped gift bags, and flip flop shaped bags from the dollar tree. Next I bought all sorts of travel goodies. You can do a search on Ebay for great coupons IE I bought 20 1.00 off any size skintiment shave gel ( for the gals) Edge for the guys. 20 coupons were only .65cents . because they are for any size I went to travel sized products and got them for .99 each, so I got them for -.1 after I paid the .65 cents. I did that for toothpaste,deodorant,shave gel,shamppo and conditioner, shower gel,roliads,hand sanitizer, listerine strips, spot remover shout wipes, tylenol etc, just make sure coupon says any size. I also went to Kroger and when they had the small wine bottles on sale ( comes in a 4 pack) they are about the size of 1.5x the size of a wine cooler. They were on sale for 2.00 per 4. You can bring wine, so I put 2 in each bag. I plan on getting shell/tropical openers from Ebay.

I have them so full and have only spent about 2.00 on each bag ( that is per couple!!) Since we are getting married in Nov, I am waiting on sunscreen to buy on clearance.I am havine a dinner at my house a few weeks before so they know what they willl have, so they dont have to buy it!

[sensdncr86]

Wow these are some really great ideas! I never even thought about copuons from the bay-im going to search them now. I did go to joann fabrics today and found 8x10 black fabric frames. I am going to try to find little crystals and write "Greg & Amanda's Wedding St. Thomas" I only paid 1.69 for each and they were originally 12.99 each so I am really excited. I will definitely let everyone know if I find anymore good deals as I shop and start to put bags together. Any more suggestions would be great too!

[scottishflower]

orientaltrading.com was a great help to me

[MOLUVSCO]

We are thinking about shipping all the gift bags down to the hotel we are staying at. Then we will assemble them when we get down there the night before we cruise.. We have 25 bags to do! Couples get one bag to share, but single guys and girls will get their own.

[sensdncr86]

Another good deal: I have to thanks illinoisgal for! I went to the bay and searched for coupons. Found a coupon lot for 12 free venus razors! I paid about 12.00 but these are normally 10 dollars a peice so it is a great deal! Now i have a nice razor to fill my bridemaides bags with-still searchng for a good skintimate coupon. But its nice to have found these. Thanks again

[Illinoisgal]

yeah!!!! I love those coupons. I got these http://cgi.ebay.com/10-Coupons-1-1-Any-Skintimate-Shave-Gel-5164_W0QQitemZ4453690220QQcategoryZ57742QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

for the shave gel and worked just fine. The travel size is raspberry rain (kinda tropical) they are .99 each. I have seen them at walgreens, Walmart, and target. I also got http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9505449588&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1 for the bags as well, you get 1.0 off any 2 , which includes the travle size for .99, so it is like getting them for .50 each, they are quite large. For the men I got these http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4453554776&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1 same deal. I also bought a lot of burts bees chapstick with spf in it. I got 10 for 10.00 which is a steal. I also have been searching at garage sales, found some with brand new travel sized goodies. Walmart here is having a close out of some travle size items, got soft soap body wash for .25 each, and 2pc of hand sanitizers for 1.00 per pack.

We paid for our 16 sailing guest to go, but wanted to do someting too. I thought this would save them a bit of money and stress. I also got the tylenol packets, shampoo and conditioner and toothpastes off of ebay. Under health and beauty they have a sample/travel sized section. Im glad I could help out !!

.

[Illinoisgal]

Ps thanks for the Venus info, I'm bidding on some right now!

[2007CarnivalBride]

If you're looking for a bunch of great little travel items www.minimus.biz is the site I've been using. So far I've picked out about 10 travel items for each of our bags and the total's only like $5.00/bag. The site's great with lots of stuff under a dollar!:D

[WinterEscape]

I was married in January. My now husband and I were worried about getting everything to our guests and with traveling. So, we had shirts screen printed for all of our guests. My mother in law also made a directory of everyone's cabins and a door hanger (magnetic) with peoples names and post-it notes. It worked great because everyone was able to leave notes for each other throughout the trip. It was very easy to pack the shirts and we used the lugage to bring home souveniers. I had planned to buy beach totes to put the shirts in, but I was trying to keep down costs. All in all, we spent about $5 per guest.

[stuscott]

Amanda,

 

Talk to Janelle about your OOT bags she works at a store downtown and she can get some goodies wholesale for you. I know in the past she has done the items I listed below, but you'll have to double check with her on prices because I'm guessing based on my horrible memory. Also, she is way more creative than me and probably has some other great ideas.

 

Mini Palm leaf fans: $1 each http://www.blissweddingsmarket.com/store/000049.htm

 

Mini Cruzan rum bottles $2 each

Island spices $2 a bottle.

Golf Balls for groomsmen I think $1 or so for 3 balls

Dramamine :-) $1 I think per package of 2 pills.

Postcards of ceremony location: .50 each

Suntan lotion pack like .50 each

St Thomas playing cards: $1 each

 

Also, never hesitate to contact us, for even the little things. And now that I have your wedding website, I'm going to toss a few things in the ceremony about how you two met the proposal etc if thats ok with you.

 

See you soon.

 

Stu

http://www.usviservices.com

[Slippinx12]

I have been thinking about putting the following in a gift bag for my guests but haven't decided yet. Do people actually use these things on a cruise?

 

- Personalized bottles of water

- Tylenol (1 packet of 2)

- Immodium (1 packet of 2)

- Sparking cider

- Sewing kits

- Shout wipes

- Playing Cards

- Chocolate

- tissues

- Chips

- Cookies

- Hand Sanitizer

- sunscreen

- first aid kit

- tums

- wedding cd

- mints

- flip flops

- Chapstix

[fungirl76]

For our wedding I ran over to the dollar store and found the most perfect bags. The bags came in blue, white and red and had cruise theme symbols on them. Then again at the dollar store I found caribbean themed candles such as flip flops and hawaiian shirts. I also bought some chapstick, leis and picture frames. Then I went to Michaels crafts and bought small glass message in a bottles and filled them with 2 different color sands to represent our wedding colors. I had made about 25 bags and everyone loved them.. Each bag cost me about $7 - $8.

[merocket59]

Staples has penny deals every once in a while, during the last deal they had mini hand sanitizers for a penny so I stocked up. Now I keep my eye open for things they have. I also love Vistaprint, sign up for their emails and you will get coupons all the time for free stuff you just have to pay for shipping. They have great postcards and you can upload your own pictures and make them into postcards, they have deals for 1/2 off the upload fee every once and a while too. And there is a great website that I love that has seperate forums just for OOT bags and one for DIY ideas, I'm always finding great stuff on there! Here is a link to it: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/index.php?referrerid=5658