How to Create an Affordable Welcome Package

I love arriving at a wedding to find a care package waiting for me at the front desk or in my hotel room.  It is such a nice touch after a long trip to get there.  It shows your guests just how much you appreciate the time they took to make it in for your wedding.  I knew I wanted to provide a welcome package to my guests as well.  However, we ran into a few issues:  1. Our guests were spread across 10 different hotels, so tracking down their accommodations was quite an undertaking.  2. Our welcome package budget was super small, so I had to keep this in mind when gathering items.  I was pleased with what we were able to put together in a short period of time.

Contents of Welcome Package:
2 water bottles - $.20
Granola Bar - $.30
Bag of chips - $.20
Assorted Candy - $.50
Brochures - Free (local tourism office)
Kraft Bags - $.34
Map & Ribbon - $.05 (Jo-Ann Fabrics) 

Total cost of each bag was $1.59.

Accommodations Information:
On our RSVP card, we asked our guests to provide us with their hotel information, so that we knew where they were staying for welcome packages and transportation.  I was able to get all but 10% of our guests lodging information this way.  For the rest, I had my mom, my mother-in-law and myself follow-up.  Once I had this information, I created a quick word document that included:
Hotel Name
Hotel Address and Phone Number
List of all guests staying at the property
Number of care packages

This helped in making sure we dropped off the right number of care packages to each destination and also helped the hotel make sure all guests received their welcome package.  Prior to dropping off the packages, I called each of the hotels to let them know when we would be dropping them off and explain how I would like them distributed.

Assembly:
Since my venue was 2 hours away from my house, we decided to assembly the welcome packages when we arrived on property.  It made transporting them a lot easier!  I had all of the bags prestamped, maps cutout and ribbon cutout to make assembly a few days before our wedding a lot easier.  My mom and sister helped me assemble the welcome packages and we were done within an hour.  Once you get an assembly line going, it is easy to get into a rhythm.

My guests were happy to have them!  I know they all needed the water by the end of the night.  :)