Final OOT Bags

So, after a myriad of posts about our Out of Town Bags (OOT Bags), I never actually got to post about completing them. Largely because it happened about 2 days before the wedding, and I immediately moved on to another project (like rehearsal dinner centerpieces, ribbon wands, etc). But I can say that at least I took some good pictures of a completed box, and my Matron of Honor's husband declared them to be the best welcome gifts EVER!

I tried to include a few items from Wayne's home state, my home state, the state where we now live, and few extra fun items. I got a little bit crazy; however, and I kept adding and kept adding and got to the point where Wayne was starting to think I had gone straight up bananas.

The whole idea started with homemade snowflake marshmallows from an Etsy vendor (Deidre Woods). I packaged up 4 per bag, with several packets of hot cocoa mix:

From there, I wanted to include something to represent Georgia. I decided to include honey butter biscuit mix and peach preserves. I found the preserves for such a good price that I ultimately included a jar of blueberry preserves as well:

Coconut and key lime cookies were chosen to represent Florida:

I couldn't resist these chocolate snowflakes that I found at the dollar store. I also included some Moon Pies to represent Tennessee. Did you know they were developed in a Chattanooga bakery?

I also found a wonderful Etsy vendor that makes soaps and lip balms and she created some custom winter-themed scents for my guests. I included 2 soaps and 2 lip balms in an organza bag:

The kookoo-bananas part came about the time I couldn't resist adding a bunch of extra snacks, like Georgia peanuts, saltwater taffy, fruit and nut mix, and chocolate mint kisses:

A bunch of fun extras included "Love" playing cards with custom labels, rum or tequila and mixers, a flamingo Christmas ornament, trusty Jack Daniels, Florida tourism brochures and postcards, and custom-labeled sunscreen (the wedding was in Florida, after all):

Just add water (or a couple bottles of custom-labeled waters) and voila!

The whole kit and caboodle was gathered in a large kraft gable box, tied with a red satin ribbon, and labelled with a welcome message! I also tucked a welcome booklet into each box to thank everyone that traveled for our wedding. To see the welcome booklet, click here.

I know a lot of people think welcome bags are unnecessary, and they might be, but everyone that received one went out of their way to thank me for the effort and tell me how much they enjoyed the gift. By the time the wedding started, most of them had already chosen their favorite item and couldn't wait to tell me about it!