@walkinghome - I’ve been to weddings where we were greeted in our hotel room with a basket or bag of snacks. At a couple of them they included cheese, fruit, crackers and nuts.
@soozievt - what a beautiful description. I love that they were able to use the talents of their friends. The dress sounds beautiful.
My daughter and I have briefly talked about the hotel gift bags, and we’ll probably bite the bullet and do them, but I do like the idea of a hospitality room better. I’ll have to call our hotel and see if that’s an option.
We did welcome gift bags for bridal party and out of town guests. One bag per room with local food and drink items, gum, individual packs of advil and tissues, plus a letter from the bride and groom that included local areas of interest and maps to the wedding and reception.
I also made each nephew and niece a small bag and gave it to them at the rehearsal dinner. I included more snack items since the rehearsal dinner had several courses and I knew they would be hungry.
Last week D & her fiancee booked a block of rooms at the “official” hotel. The hotel manager flat out told D not to bother with gift bags for the guests. He told her the housekeeping staff throws out about 90% of the largely untouched gift bags the next day. I’m not sure what we’ll do. It seems a little unwelcoming (???) not to have a gift bag. Easy to say now, 9 months away from the wedding. I’m sure by then I’ll be running around like a madwoman and I won’t need one more marginal thing to do.
Mansfield, my bet is that the 10% that does not get thrown away is fancy chocolate truffles. 
My extended family would definitely be in the 10% who would make use of those bags.
It makes me wonder if the hotel manager was trying to persuade you not to do them because he doesn’t like dealing with them. In August, we stayed at a hotel and there was a big 500 guest wedding that weekend. The line was quite large at check-in, many of which were wedding guests. The wedding guests were given very nice looking gift bags upon check-in by the front desk staff. People seemed please to receive them. I bet it did slow down the check-in process a little by adding that extra step.
I think it depends on the ages/gender of the guests who get the gift bags at the hotel. My sons will eat anything at just about anytime, so the cookies, chips disappeared. DH is also a snacker so he’d eat them too. There were times we didn’t eat everything in the bag, but took what was left with us for the plane or car ride home.
It’s a super nice touch to have a gift bag, but with all the expenses of a wedding, it is one that could easily be dispensed with. It makes me a little sad that things that were once fun extras slowly start creeping into the “expected” category.
That said, I don’t believe the 90% figure. The hotels probably don’t like them because it cuts down on the mini-bar revenue.
I don’t believe 90% either. The guests gathered in the evening in the lobby/lounge area and many were snacking out of their bags.
We did receive a gift bag when we checked in for my nephew’s wedding. They had directions/map to where we needed to be each day, water bottles, chocolate, everything we could use.
I’ll take a bag of snacks over a favor any day. The last one had a short welcome note from bride and groom and included a map and time table of events. It had small bag of nuts, crackers, cheese, chips, water bottle and a few bananas and of course chocolate. I don’t think the vessel has to be fancy. One wedding I went to the bags were plain brown lunch bags that the MOB had stamped an embossed design.
I helped a good friend with a wedding last year and there were so many things that sounded great but when added up it can add a lot to the total cost. When my time comes I know I’ll have to keep reminding myself that we don’t have to use every great idea.
I got my hair colored today. One young woman was getting a trial run of her wedding hairdo. The stylist kept reminding the bride to be that she should wear her hair how she felt comfortable not how her Mom or attendants wanted it. Another woman was getting her hair colored for the wedding of her S this weekend.
Gift bags not a necessity, but would definitely do some kind of welcome packet with schedule and maps, info on transportation, restaurant recommendations, and ideas for what to do with down time. Also thought it was nice when couple has included emergency numbers for someone involved in wedding, plus numbers and locations for drugstores and doc in box. I can’t tell you how many times my H has ended up at drugstore because he forgot a drug or miscounted pills.
When we attended a wedding a few years ago, most of the guests stayed in an upscale hotel where the reception was held. There was a welcome gift bag in each room which was wonderful. I learned later that the hotel would not distribute them at check-in and charged almost $10 each to put them in the rooms.
“Gift bags not a necessity, but would definitely do some kind of welcome packet with schedule and maps, info on transportation, restaurant recommendations, and ideas for what to do with down time.”
I agree all that info is great to have. Many couples choose to do wedding websites these days which contains all/most of this info. And added benefit is being more environmentally friendly and cheaper as well.
All of these thoughtful responses are making me rethink the ditching the gift bag. Most of the guests will be local, so it won’t be too many bags.
For those of you doing gift bags…are you doing for all of your guests in your room blocks? Or just the wedding party?
I ask…because goskid has 75 rooms blocked…and anticipating it may be more … @-)
and I believe ? there was a charge of $2? $4? to put in every room … $-)
I had 15 bags, 1 per room, plus 5 small ones for niece and nephews. Shopped at Sams Club. Most of the guests were local, friends of B and G.
I should clarify about the bags: room block included bridal party, out of state aunts and uncles, some cousins. I doubt I would have done 75 as that gets to be very costly…no charge at the hotel as they set them out in an area off the check in and asked that I label each bag with B/G wedding. My bags were distinctive and unlikely to be mixed with the other 2 wedding blocks that night.
@abasket, I’m going to tell D about that selfie photo table idea – very clever. And I also love that the reception was in a train station. Sounds fun!
@soozievt, that wedding sounds absolutely amazing! That’s very much the fun atmosphere, infused with the couples’ personalities, that my D wants as well. I hope your D and SIL are having a great time and it’s wonderful that everyone will have such happy memories to treasure.
We did bags. Dollar store bags, snacks from Costco and list of local attractions. We did about a dozen bags. Hotel was fine with it and didn’t charge for the privilege.