To OOT or not to OOT??

I say not to, looking at your pro vs con list it may not be the best move. I did OOT bags, and they were nice and guests were surprised, but their experience wouldn't have been cheapened without them. Honestly until I came here I'd never heard of them and my guests weren't on wedding forums so they'd never heard of them either. I say save the money

You don't have to do OOT bags, but it will be nice if you give your guests something as a thank you for coming so far.

You don't even have to fill the totes. Susan just did a travel mug with stuff packed inside.

I just did the math on mine. I spent $180 total. That was with 16 bags in mind, but I have a lot of stuff left over. Some of it will be at our AHR & some I'll sell after my wedding. A lot of the things I bought came as 24 packs so there is excess. I also bought a ton of those cups because they were so cheap I just couldn't pass them up. I'll have them at my AHR & use them for other things. The biggest splurge were the luggage combo locks at $2.50 each.

You can probably tell from my thread I had a lot of fun making my OOT bags. I'm so excited to pass them out too. But, I still do not think it's a requirement. You could always just make a nice welcome/ thank you note.

Here is a copy from my budget. More details are on my thread about my bags. I hope each thing in there is stuff people will actually use. I'll report back after June.

OOT bag postcards10
OOT bag cups 152 cups (for AHR too), 2 paint pens, 4 pages rub ons30
OOT bag first aid kits (14)15
OOT bag 96 immodium (made pouches)10
OOT bags advil (made pouches)5
OOT bag SPF chapstick (30) (ebay)7.57
OOT bag misc printing10
OOT bags master locks (16) ebay36
OOT bag chapstick label vista print3
OOT bag stuff from oriental trading (24 coin purses, 24 totes, 50 carabeaners)40
OOT bags glasses wipes sam's club 8
OOT stuff from lauren7
OOT bag total (16 bags with stuff left over & stuff for AHR)181.57

I am going to give out mugs but I may just fill them with some stuff instead of using bags but I have a long way to go so I am not sure yet.

I would say most of the stuff I put in my OOT bags went unused. A few people used the aloe vera though. The mugs all went unused since there was very good drink service on the beach, and the drinks always cake in nice tall glasses with a fruit garnish (not disposable beach cups like I've seen at other resorts). I really wouldn't bother with sunscreen as everybody will already bring them own (that's why I did aloe vera instead). I gave travel size bottles of body wash (I knew they'd likely have brought their own but oh well) and mesh sponges (figure most people would forget to bring one, and they are really good for washing off sunscreen after a day at the beach). I also had the mini little air freshner spray things, and I know I found mine really handy, we used it several times for the washroom after somebody took a smelly poop

 

Overall, I would probably recommend doing t-shirts for your guests instead, and get them all to wear it the first day. My guests really loved the shirts. I read on another thread here on BDW that somebody wrote on their shirts "I went to X and X's wedding in mexico and all I got was this lousy shirt". I think that's an awesome idea, and I could see some of the people wearing them again, even if it's just as weekend/stay at home clothes, workout gear or something like that. Also t-shirts take up less suitcase space than OOT bags. And you can hand them out at the airport and people can throw them over the clothes they are wearing.

I had this debate for like 2 seconds with myself, but then I decided to do it. I had actually heard of the OOT bags before I had gone to this forum too.

 

We are going to carry all the stuff down with us, because my sisters are only coming down for a week, so they have offered room in their suitcases for eveything.

 

I'm not putting that much stuff in the bags, mainly things that I think that I would use myself. I keep finding awesome deals at the Dollarama here, such as body lotion and body wash, mainly because whenever I travel, I always forget to bring that stuff. Plus, I have heard rumors that hotel soup dries the skin out.

 

Plus, one of the local parks close to our hotel is an eco-system protected thingy, so inorder to go swimming there, you need to be wearing bio-degradable sun screen, so I'm going to put some of that in the bags for my guests.

 

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HAHAHAHA!!!

I have two months to go and have contemplated doing them but I don't think I'm going to.

It's an added expense and we're already giving out two wedding favors at our wedding, as well as cigars and flowers for each of the women that come. We anticipate about 80 guests. So far, 40 have booked and I ust mailed out half of my invitations yesterday.

I may just do something like a "welcome letter" with a mug or suntan lotion but probably nothing beyond that.

LMAO on you laughing at the word "poop"!!!!

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I'm on the fence about this too... added money, added time to make them perfect, added baggage, added stress... Although a very nice gesture, I think I'm going to pass and maybe just do mugs or a t-shirt. This way it's a little less money but still a welcoming gift and thank you for being here gift.