Having a destination wedding means that your guests might have to travel to a destination they’ve never been before. A beautiful way to thank them and to help them discover the area is by having a destination wedding welcome bag. This welcome bag is a great way to give your guests some important and useful information and to treat them with some special gifts!
So, this blog post will be divided into 3 parts:
- Tips for your destination wedding welcome bag
- What you should include in your welcome bag
- Some examples of welcome bags for different destinations like a Paris destination wedding, a Tuscany destination wedding, and much more!
Tips for your destination wedding welcome bag
- Try to keep it personalized: For example, not every guest has the same needs for beauty products. Some of your guests might not drink alcohol. So, try to at least have 2 variations.
- Travel adapted gifts: If the products won’t be consumed during your destination wedding, make sure your guests will be able to bring them back home. If your guests will have to take a flight to get back home, think about airport security. Also, don’t choose really big gifts because people want your welcome bag to fit in their luggage.
- You don’t have to put everything: We will list different things to add to your destination wedding welcome bag. But do know that not everything is necessary. Some are but some are optional. The necessary ones are the ones that will help the organization of your wedding to stay smooth (ex: map of the area, detailed timeline, and contact info).
- Keep it local: If you have a destination wedding, a lot of your guests will be traveling from far away. Maybe some of them will travel to this destination for the first time. So, it’s always great to keep your welcome bag really local to make your guests discover the area you chose for your wedding and maybe it will help them understand more why you chose this place for your special day.
- Don’t add things the hotel will already provide: People will already have shampoo, towels, bathrobe in their hotel room. So, these are not things you should include in your welcome bag otherwise they would be wasted.
So, here is the list!
A map of the area
You want your guests to move easily from your ceremony to the wedding party and maybe to the activities you planned. So, it is important to include a map of the area to make sure your guests will have all the necessary information.
If you want to have a beautiful personalized map to show your guests where are the points they are interested in (venue, hotel, and local points of interest), have a look at the custom wedding maps of WildflowerEstudio.
Contact information
It is maybe the first thing you should include in your destination wedding welcome bag. Your guests will have questions and will need to ask them. As you don’t want the bride and the groom to be on their phone during their special day, it is important to provide guests a contact list. Maybe you can also indicate who should be called for what purpose. For example, if the maid of honor is the one in charge of guests transportation it is great to write it down so that people don’t call everyone for anything.
If you want to have a design contact list, have a look at the ones of HeyLovelyCo. They are absolutely lovely.
Welcome letter and detailed timeline
Your guests might have traveled from far away for your destination wedding. That is why a welcome letter telling them how happy you are that they are here with you for this special day is always a nice gesture.
Also, you want your wedding timeline to be clear and that is why it is important to print it so that your guests precisely know where they have to go and when.
For a clear and beautiful timeline you can have a look at the ones from LightSourceEvent
Local snacks
This is, most of the time, one of the guests’ favorite parts of the welcome bag: snacks!
If you have a destination wedding in an exotic destination, try to find some local snacks to make your guests discover some local specialties!
Weather essentials
Really useful! Great things to add to your destination wedding welcome bags are weather essentials. This has to be adapted to the location of your wedding. For example:
For a beach wedding
– Sunscreen
– Flip flops
– Hand fans
– Aloe vera gel for sunburn
– Sunglasses
– Bug spray
For a winter wedding
– Hand warmers
– Knit hats
– Hot socks
– Wool scarf
– Lip balm
– Umbrella in case of rain
Bottled water
You want your guests to stay hydrated during your wedding. That is why it is always great to include some water bottles in your welcome bags.
If you want to personalize them for your wedding, you can add some personalized water bottle labels like the ones from LabelsRus.
Necessary to feel good
You don’t want a headache to prevent your guests from enjoying your wedding day. So, planning to add some pain killers, vitamins, blister plaster is a really nice gesture that can be a lifesaver for them!
Also, after spending the night dancing and drinking at your wedding party, these items will be a great hungover kit!
You can also provide a little first aid kit just in case.
Local gifts or souvenirs
This is the gift you want your guests to bring back home that will leave them a great memory of your wedding. It can be a postcard of the destination or a typical item from the destination like maracas for a Mexican wedding or a beret for a French wedding.
For some maracas ideas, check out the FiestaFancies Etsy shop.
Some local guidance
Your guests might not know the area of your wedding or even the local language of the destination. So, it is a great idea to help them get some useful information with for example:
– Transportation map
– Some local keywords or sentences if you are in another country
– Ideas for local activities
– Restaurant suggestions
Beauty products
You want your guests to fully enjoy your destination wedding. So, giving them some beauty products to help them get in the holiday mood is a great idea. Some beauty products ideas are:
– A hydrating face mask
– Nourishing body cream
– Relaxing bath salt
– Aftershave balm
– A beautiful nail polish
You can have one selection of beauty products for men and one for women.
A little bottle of local alcohol
This type of gift really depends on the guests at your wedding. But if they love to celebrate with some alcohol, it can be a great idea to give them a little bottle of local alcohol to help them get in the holiday and celebration mood!
Something to entertain kids
Maybe you decided to have a kid-friendly wedding. In this case, kids will be really happy if you provide some goodies to entertain them like coloring books for example.
These goodies will also help the parents to be more relaxed and to fully enjoy your wedding.
If you’re looking for some kids activity books, have a look at PaperBallards personalized wedding activity books.
And that’s the end of this list! We are now going to give you some welcome bag ideas for some specific destinations!
Paris destination wedding welcome bag
- Box of macarons
- Book with essential French words
- A little bottle of Champagne
- Rose bath salt
- A beautiful beret
- A guide about the best museums in Paris
- Angelina bottled hot chocolate
Provence destination wedding welcome bag
- Calissons d’Aix (great snack!)
- A guide about the roads of lavender
- Small olive oil bottle
- Berlingots candies
- Lavender bath salt
- A little bottle of Pastis
- Sunscreen and sunglasses
Tuscany destination wedding welcome bag
- Notebook with a Tuscan leather cover
- Some truffle salt
- A small bottle of Chianti wine
- Balsamico di modena
- A Tuscany countryside postcard
- Cantucci biscuits
- A guide about the Chianti wine trail
French Riviera destination wedding welcome bag
- A guide about the best beaches of the French Riviera
- A small rosé wine bottle
- Some tapenade
- Lemon body scrub
- Socca chips
- Lip balm and sunscreen
- A postcard with the landscape of Porquerolles island
This is the end of this blog post! I hope it helped you create the perfect welcome bag for your destination wedding.
If you have any questions about welcome bags, don’t hesitate to ask them in the comments section!
Also, if you’re planning your destination wedding, you might be interested in knowing what to include in your destination wedding invitations.
