Welcome bags for those sailing and those flying

[fairbrot]

We have many guests sailing with us and several who are flying to meet us in St. Thomas. I haven't figured out how to handle welcome gifts/bags for those that will be in St. Thomas and when to give bags to those sailing with us. I don't want to be running around on the first day to try and catch everyone in their cabins.

 

I also noticed that most of the gifts used in bags are really catered to the women vs. the men (candles, tissue packs, etc.) Any thoughts on more neutral gifts?

 

A couple of more questions - are you giving one bag per cabin (couple or family). We have children attending (ages 4-18). Should I do separate bags for the kids or just include something for them in the "family" bag if I do it that way? My teenage son, his best friend, and two cousins are all sharing a cabin. Should I do one bag for them? What ideas do you have for them (they range in age from 14-18). Thanks in advance for all the great ideas I know I will get!

[fungirl76]

I have sailing and non sailing guests as well. I plan on giving my sailing guest their bags the morning of the wedding and bringing the non sailing guest bags with me to the ceremony. I am doing one bag per couple and if their are singles sharing rooms, I am doing a bag for each of them. As for children, I did a separate bag for them too. I only have one coming along and he is 10. I bought him wate balloons, pez, bubbles, a word search and a paddle ball. He will be able to use the item while ashore on the beaches. As for what I am putting in the other bags, I have included wedding bubbles with ribbon, chapstick, candles (I got tropical flower candles for the ladies and hawaiian shirt candles for the men). I also included a frame for a wedding photo, some candies and a small jar of sand b/c we will be having a sand ceremony. I also made up newsletter templates for my sailing guests and will deliver them to their cabins on the first day of sailing. Hope this helps.

 

Melissa

[StlGal]

We are doing bags for sailing & non-sailing guests as well.

 

We are giving one bag per couple, or if single one for them, and we are also giving one gift bag per child/teen.

 

 

For non-sailing guests we have included things such as bottled water, snacks, and a hand written thank you note.

 

For sailing guests we have personalized canvas bags, that include bottled water, snacks, gum & mints, hand writen thank you note, a Welcome Letter/Wedding Program (expanded/customized a template I received from this board), glass coasters w/seashell motif, photo albums w/seashell motif, stationary w/seashell motif, and then the cruise necessities... magnetic white boards, pens & highlighters, Dramamine, Advil, Imodium, Pepcid, night light, hand sanitizer, aloe gel, etc. For the women/girls I have also included handmade Cruise Girl t-shirts... which I will ask all of the women/girls to wear on the Sunday when we board the ship... will make for some fun photo ops.

 

For the children/teens we have included juice boxes, snacks, candy, swim goggles, pool/beach toys, for the girls hair accessories, and some other fun things that I picked up at the Dollar Store & Target.

 

We are having our wedding reception the night before we leave for our cruise. When the guests check into the hotel they will be given their goody bag. For the cruising guests we are going to meet each of them at their room and personally deliver the cruise bags. So we will not have to carry any of the bags onto the ship. :D

 

I am taking photos of the bags, shirts, wedding crafts, etc. that I plan on posting them soon. But the wedding is in 10 days... so may have to wait until after we return... too much going on right now!!! :eek:

[2007CarnivalBride]

Our wedding was prior to the ships departure and we did the same bags for everyone we had 59 guests total of which 14 were non-sailing. Our bags were not gender specific we had: personalized bottles of water, trial sized sunblock, shout wipes, dramamine, anti-bacterial wipes, welcome letters, and a list of everyone's names and cabin numbers. We did buy personalized bags and gave one to each person. We only had 4 little ones w/our guest all under 6 and they got assorted toys, a coloring book, and a bottle of water in their bags. We gave our bags out at the reception, they set up two separtate tables in the back one for the favors and photo signature mats(instead of guest books) and one of the bags. Everyone really enjoyed the personalized OOT bags and the bottles of water were a big hit especially with those who sailed with us since you have to pay for bottle water and it's like $3 per bottle!:)

[fairbrot]

Thanks for the suggestions! This is one of the fun planning tasks that I'm looking forward to doing. I'm still looking for the right bags (that don't cost too much). I read on one board about some cute nautical themed bags from Dollar World, but I wasn't able to find them...I'll keep looking until I find the right one :)

[finn1913]

Fairbrot,

 

Try orientaltrading.com and search 'nautical tote bag'. Last time I looked they were 14.95/dozen.

 

cheers!

[fairbrot]

Fairbrot,

 

Try orientaltrading.com and search 'nautical tote bag'. Last time I looked they were 14.95/dozen.

 

cheers!

 

 

Oh, you're the best! Thanks -they're perfect.

[jkellerfsu]

Everything from the dollar store! 40 guests

 

We purchased:

plain white paper handle bags (2 for $1.00)

large nautical decals (6/1.00)

silver and gold gel pens (4/1.00)

 

We put one decal per bag and wrote our note on the outside of each bag with the gel pens!

 

We included in each bag:

 

tissue packs (9/1.00)

photo album 1.00 ea

silk floral leis (4/1.00)

bubbles in the shape of soda bottles (3/1.00)

we made CDs that included the wedding songs of each married guest + fun songs

disposable camera ($5.00 ea)

water

candy

floppy sun hats for the teenagers ($1.00 ea)

handmade bracelets that match the jewelry of the bridesmaids (One of my friends made all of our jewelry)

Flyer from examples on this board.

 

We spent $120 on all - half of it was the disposable cameras.

[WedCruise7]

I am just getting ready to put my OOT bags together. We are cruising with 12 guests total. I have purchased canvas tote bags to put everything in, I got light aqua blue for most people and grey for the single guys going. I thought these would be perfect for taking stuff with you to the islands too. I am giving out 1 bag per couple and 1 bag per singles. Each bag incluedes the following:

 

Small tube of Suntan Lotion ($1.00 Each target)

Small bottle of tylenol ($1.00 Each walmart)

Small bottle of hand sanitizer (.50 each walmart)

2-Shout wipes each (just in case) ($1.00 for 4 at walmart)

Personilized Camera's (4.98 each @ www.customcameracollection.com)

these turned out great!

2-personalized towels per couple ($7.75 each @ towels4less.com)

1 Cruise ship scrapbook/photo album (found at big lots for $3.00 each)

The bags were $1.00 each at garden ridge so they were a great deal

 

I think it sounds preatty cool, I know if i was a guest i would love all of these items. Suprisingly my favorite is the cameras. I personilized them to say Welcome Aboard on the front and the back says Enjoy your week on the Caribbean Princess. My towels have a cute palm tree emblem and say Cruising the Caribbean. So they are preatty cool too. The towels were a lot thinner than I wanted but, I did order the cheapest ones at a $5.00 starting price too. I hope this helps anyone wanting ideas or looking because i know when i started i was so stressed about these. I am also going to include a nice thank you note for everyone with a wedding schedule and room numbers of all the guests.