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!

Table Numbers?

So I struggled and struggled over table numbers. Originally we wanted to do photos of us at each age. Finding cute pictures for each age; however, proved problematic. I couldn't find any photos of me at age 2 and Wayne was apparently non-existent from ages 5-8. Alas.

Ultimately we decided to do table names instead, naming each table after our favorite places. We then added pictures of us at that place and voila! cute table names. Luckily we only have 7 tables. It would be difficult to use names if you have a really large wedding because folks might get frustrated trying to locate their table in a huge sea of options.

I have most of our photos uploaded to Walgreens.com, so I went on their website to review pictures and get ideas for place names. While there, I stumbled on their photo holiday cards and took my inspiration from them. I used a little digital scrapbooking magic and added our photos and I'm very pleased with the results!

Not traditional? So what else is new? It's a little fun and different and I'd like to think that describes us a couple, too. Perfect! If anyone reading this happens to be coming to the wedding, can you guess what table you'll be visiting?

Our Shower

So the wonderful people at work generously threw us a wedding shower, and it was a blast! In addition to a TON of delicious food, we were entertained by a rousing game of bridal pictionary, the newlywed game, and even wedding trivia (in which I disappointingly placed 2nd- darn you, Peg!)

Our gift was an amazing pair of binoculars that far surpassed the pair we had on our registry. It was such a warm and wonderful gesture and we were so touched by the outpouring of support from the Ijams team!

Flower Girl Gift

We struggled with fun ideas for gifts for our flower girl and junior groomsman. They are 6 and 10, respectively and I just wasn't thrilled with any of the gift ideas that I found online.

After some discussion, we ultimately decided to get them personalized totes, filled with fun little presents that fit each of their personalities (Barbie and princess for her and Star Wars for him). I did some searches for personalized totes and they are expensive! And typically the only personalization is names and/or initials. Then I took a trip to JoAnn Fabric and Crafts...

Cue sunlight through parting clouds and a heavenly choir-of-angels-ish sound. I found cute tote bags that were a complete bargain at $3.99 each. I got a white tote with pink trim for Caroline and a blue tote for Carson. To personalize them, I purchased iron-on sheets designed for dark fabrics. They are pretty genius because you don't have to create the design in mirror image for printing.

A few minutes with some graphics software and a couple minutes in the ink jet printer and voila! personalized totes for less than $6 each!

I matched the pink of the handles and trim with my handy-dandy Pantone swatches, just to nerd up the project. It worked well; however, and gave the final product a professional look (if I do say so myself...)It's uber-girly and filled with Barbie and princess goodies like make-up, stickers, and craft supplies. And I found a cute Flower Girl teddy bear from Oriental Trading to top it all off.

Label love

I know... I get it... Address labels are supposed to be handwritten. It's in all the etiquette books. It's everywhere online. It shows that I'm a good hostess, right? And that I pay special attention to the details. It's warm and personal. But? No buts, that's the end of it. But, wouldn't it look charming and lovely to use a delightful font and print it on clear labels that basically disappear, giving the illusion of hand calligraphy? Nope. No dice. Old school here.

I can't; however, rationalize shelling out oodles of money for a professional calligrapher and I haven't used a calligraphy pen since middle school. My handwriting is so-so, but I wanted something a little more special than just an address on a lovely white pearly envelope. Enter Martha Stewart, goddess of all "good things" and weddings. I found her version of address labels here. And although she says that it's an appropriate option, I was still yearning for old school handwriting.

So I modified her idea so that the address block allowed space for my own handwriting. I found a high quality black pen and got to work. The other advantage was that I could print the labels on my ink jet. If I messed up, it was a simple matter of printing a few extras. A MUCH more cost effective solution than purchasing extra, expensive white pearly envelopes.

The labels wrap around and have the return address printed in the same font that I used on the Save the Dates and the actual invitations. A nice compromise, right? Oh, and how cute are my personalized Zazzle stamps?