Our Welcome Bags! Everyone LOVED them :)

[venus909]

I LOVE THIS IDEA!!!!  If you don't mind me asking... approx how much sand did each couple put in? 

 

I would love to do this, but not sure if it would be too much...I already bought that same frame and was going to have the ceremony done with me, my kids and my FI... but I like the idea of having our guests as our foundation and involved after making the trip to support and see us get married. 

 

If I do it I want to make sure all the sand fits..lol..

Originally Posted by MsBlissMpls 

Yes we brought the containers from home. I bought makeup containers - what I think they use to give samples of makeup, etc. on EBay and then my fiance and I went together to gather sand on the beach (in a bag so that we didn't have to bring each container to the beach). Back on our deck at the resort we filled up the containers before putting the finished product in the welcome bags. I bought some double sided clear adhesive things at Michael's to stick the container to the card. The heart rhinestones are from Michael's in the bridal section. I didn't have the 40% off coupon I'd suggest printing off a coupon if you go to get the hearts they are $6.99 for 20 of them.

 

However now Michael's has theses cute bottles with cork toppers I would have bought these instead, if they would have been available when I was looking. If we would have bought these bottles we would have only filled them up 1/4th of the way (we had 16 guests adding sand).... and then we would have asked everyone to re-fill the bottle with sand to take home while we were all on the beach as a memento of our ceremony. Instead we brought home extra beach sand and we will be sending everyone a printed photo of our ceremony (with them in it) and a small container of sand from "our" beach in Mexico.

 

[MsBlissMpls]

Here's a link to the ebay seller that I bought the containers from. The site says it is 3 ml per container. If you look to buy a similar container make sure you are getting ones with lids and not the stackable ones (they do not have lids but screw into the next container).

 

At 3 ml each we had 16 guests add sand - so you can see from our photo that it didn't fill it up very far for 16 people. I'd be comfortable having 40-50 guests fill the frame with the 3 ml. containers (for this specific frame). It would probably fill the frame about 1/4-1/3 of the way and would make a GREAT foundation before you and your family added thier sand.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200704509458&ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:US:1123

 

 

We also did a little meditation ahead of time explaining why it was so important to us  to have them to participate in our ceremony. It was really beautiful and totally from the heart in the moment.

 

 

Originally Posted by venus909 

I LOVE THIS IDEA!!!!  If you don't mind me asking... approx how much sand did each couple put in? 

 

I would love to do this, but not sure if it would be too much...I already bought that same frame and was going to have the ceremony done with me, my kids and my FI... but I like the idea of having our guests as our foundation and involved after making the trip to support and see us get married. 

 

If I do it I want to make sure all the sand fits..lol..

[Dazeydawl]

Originally Posted by nursebrooke 

 

Hi Dazeydawl, what type of stamping supplies did you get that do not wash off? That is a great idea. I suppose someone at Michaels could help me too

I just got the large acrylic block then the clear number stamps and i just picked out a love themed stamp that i liked. then you just assmble the stamps on the acrylic block how you want them to be, i bought Versamagic ink because from what i could find online about ink for fabric it is supposed to be one of the best (versacraft is actually the best but my michaels didnt have it) then after you stamp your bags and the ink dries you have to heat set it with an iron... then it should be permanent

[AllieH]

Miss Bliss - these are awesome! I love the idea of the mugs with the sticker on them. how did the stickers hold up? 

 

[MsBlissMpls]

Originally Posted by AllieH 

 

Miss Bliss - these are awesome! I love the idea of the mugs with the sticker on them. how did the stickers hold up? 

 

Thanks! The stickers are staying put and the color has not lightened or run. I'll let you know if anything changes, but we've washed them quite a few times already. 

[melcrna80]

Love te sand frame! Thanks for sharing the bottles you saw at micheals...very cute!

[nursebrooke]

Originally Posted by MsBlissMpls 

 

Yes we brought the containers from home. I bought makeup containers - what I think they use to give samples of makeup, etc. on EBay and then my fiance and I went together to gather sand on the beach (in a bag so that we didn't have to bring each container to the beach). Back on our deck at the resort we filled up the containers before putting the finished product in the welcome bags. I bought some double sided clear adhesive things at Michael's to stick the container to the card. The heart rhinestones are from Michael's in the bridal section. I didn't have the 40% off coupon I'd suggest printing off a coupon if you go to get the hearts they are $6.99 for 20 of them.

 

However now Michael's has theses cute bottles with cork toppers I would have bought these instead, if they would have been available when I was looking. If we would have bought these bottles we would have only filled them up 1/4th of the way (we had 16 guests adding sand).... and then we would have asked everyone to re-fill the bottle with sand to take home while we were all on the beach as a memento of our ceremony. Instead we brought home extra beach sand and we will be sending everyone a printed photo of our ceremony (with them in it) and a small container of sand from "our" beach in Mexico.

 

Another question....how does the sand look like two different colors?? If you gathered it all from the same place? Thank you for all these great details

[MsBlissMpls]

The sand that the guests poured was from the beach. The sand that we poured was purchased from Michaels (the fine decorative sand, not the big grains usually used for sand ceremonies). We picked white and green sand to represent opening of the heart and the light of the Divine. I poured green and he poured white. 

[balibride]

I love the bit about not putting pics on facebook - I want to do the same. Was anyone offended by this? I wouldn't imagine so as you phrased it so nicely, but am interested to know!

[MsBlissMpls]

Originally Posted by balibride 

 

I love the bit about not putting pics on facebook - I want to do the same. Was anyone offended by this? I wouldn't imagine so as you phrased it so nicely, but am interested to know!

I knew I was going to do this and I ran across the wording from another BDW bride YEAY for this site!

 

If anyone was offended they did not act like it at all. I had one family memeber that didn't understand right away (I mentioned it to this person at a lunch we had pre-trip), but when I said that we were having an AHR and wanted the photos to be a surprise for At Home Reception she totally understood. We also offered a WikiAlbums site for everone to share their photots with other Mexico wedding guests. WikiAlbums is great because the photos do not show up in a Google search like those for Flicker or other photo sharing sites. They all loved the WikiAlbums option and everyone has shared all of their trip photos on that site with no problems.

 

We only had 16 guests and at the dinner the night before my father-in-law actually went around and gently reminded people to not bring their cameras to the ceremony. This was REALLY great because everone was in the moment on our big day and not worrying about telling everyone else to "WAIT.. stay there, No, that did't turn out... One more time..." so that they could all get photos. We had a photographer for the whole day (8 hrs) and we trusted him to get all the good moments. Of course now we are DYING to see the photos. Maybe the anticipation is part of the fun? That's what I'm telling myself

 

Either way it worked well for us because we are not on Facebook.