My OOT Bags~ the big hits and the things that weren't used

This is awesome...thanks for the ideas!

big hits:

the actual bag (i only gave the beach bags to my girls, the moms, & gmom, and they all used them all week long. i had some of my guests--whom i just gave paper gift bags--asking me where everyone had gotten their beach bags. really made me wish i had been able to do them for everyone).

 

same thing with the underwater disposable cameras ... HUGE hit, but i only gave them to the wedding party. they were such a hit i almost wish i had skipped the other stuff and just given these to all our guests.

 

a card that had all the guests listed by room where they could write in everyone's room numbers. really helped our guests find each other throughout the week without having to memorize rooms.

 

other big hits for everyone were rolaids, shout wipes, bandaids, bottle opener maraca keychains, bookmarks (saw everyone using them), postcards, and puzzle books.

 

just ok:

everyone commented on how much they loved the idea of the spanish/english dictionary, but i only saw one of the kids use his all week.

 

hand sanitizer--everyone laughed when they saw it because of the swine flu, but i'm not sure anyone used it.

 

playing cards--the guys all attempted to play drinking games one night, but other than that, these remained unused by everyone.

 

big misses:

koozies. they may be great at other resorts, but at dreams cancun everyone drank mostly blended drinks in huge fancy glasses. no one in our group really drank beer, and beers were the smaller bottles anyway so they wouldn't have fit. total waste.

 

beach balls. no one used these. maybe they didn't realize what they were when they weren't inflated?

 

wish i would have included:

sunblock! yes, everyone packed their own, but pretty much everyone ran out and had to purchase more (at ridiculous prices).

I haven't purchased any yet, but I really want the paper fans so that I match them with my color scheme. I think I'll wait a little while to purchase so that I know what our guest list count is and I don't over purchase!

Hi GoCubs: I personally made personalized decks of playing cards for my OOT bags as well. I looked having each individual card personalized but it was more money than I wanted to spend. I think the lowest price per deck I could find was like $9.95. I will say that I was only looking for 15 decks so I didn't get any bulk pricing. I just googled looking for those. I made a sticker that was personalized to our wedding and stuck it on the card box.
I used mariesam's template and just made it my own. I used my own colors and made it fix my card box. I got my cards at Michael's for $1 each and they were cute. They had a travel theme to them.

Here is the thread the template is at: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t39885
Hi Tina:Yes, it is the Oriental Trading Company but they don't show up with you search "raffia" or "raffia fan" for some reason. You have to search for "refreshing fans". weird, I know. Here's the direct link: Refreshing Fans

Lol thanks Kits.. I found them when I was looking for palm tree ink pens. OTC's funny like that. Speaking of they don't have the palm tree pens anymore. Does anyone know where I could find them... I've been searching online for weeks.

Krissy - I bought the decks of cards from Wedding Dresses - Wedding Cakes - Wedding Planning - Unique Wedding Ideas - By TheKnot.com. I think they were $2.50 a deck. They allow you to choose your own bridal logo on the cards with your initials, etc. The only drawback is that the box to the decks of cards comes blank...plain white. So I purhased these 2x3 stickers and placed them on the covers. They look great. ONLY 20 MORE DAYS BEFORE WE LEAVE FOR JAMAICA!!! YAYYYY!!!!

Go to ArtsCow.com | Digital Photo Prints, Photo Books & Custom Gifts. they personalize just about anything with your pic or logo, and the stuff ends up being free with the online coupons, you just pay for shipping (which is a little pricey, but overall better than the pricing you would get at kodak.com or elsewhere). Also, they send tons of coupons to your email that are like personalized decks of cards for 3.99 including shipping and stuff like that. You will be able to get a lot of photo books for after too, but I think their photo book creator is confusing and hard to use.

 

good luck!

Used

 

The actual bags ~ A lot of couples brought just one bag to share so the guys mostly used the bags I gave out when the couple did things separately.

Bandaids ~ For some reason several people cut themselves (usually falling drunkenly)

Hairbands ~ For the ladies.

Cups ~ we had customized cups and several people used them at the pool as they were bigger then the resort's cups, people also liked them as favors to take home.

Hand Sanitizer ~ yes, most people brought their own but with the swine flu scare they were carrying two or three bottles each!

Shout Wipes ~ drunken spillage

Playing Cards ~ seemed to be nighttime poker if we weren't on the beach

Advil!!!! ~ several people thanked us for the advil as almost everyone ran out of their own supply (fortunately it is really cheap at MP too).

Pepto Bismol ~ Same as the Advil, everyone said they used it.

Welcome Booklet ~ they loved the pictures of the wedding party so they knew them when they saw them, also the itinerary and page for room numbers were big hits.

 

 

Didn't Use

Spanish/English Dictionary ~ Like Lisa a lot of people thought they were neat but I don't know that anyone actually used them.

Fanny Packs ~ My mom wanted to include them, she got them really cheap. One of her friends used it a lot but no one else did.

 

I think that mostly people just appreciated the thought behind the bags. Everyone thanked us over and over again for thinking of them and for their little surprises.

i agree with this wholeheartedly ... people kept mentioning to me how sweet it was for us to give out gift bags, how cool the stuff was that we chose to include, how some of items were "absolute lifesavers" (i.e. rolaids, bandages), etc. i was glad we went through the trouble. no one was expecting ANYTHING, so it was a nice surprise.

I purchased sandlewood fans from Micheal's.I going to put ribbons on them with our name and date.They are gonna need them LOL