Out of Town Goodies
January 5, 2009 · Posted in e's vow renewal, logistics, stationery, atlanta by ami elizabeth
Our vow renewal was essentially a destination event. Only two of our guests lived in Atlanta, so the remainder were situated in three hotels in Midtown/Downtown - the Four Seasons, the Marriott Midtown Suites, and the Ellis Hotel. To welcome our friends and family, we created out of town baskets full of bottled water, snacks, a DIY welcome/do not disturb sign (more on that later today!), and a folder containing all of the information that they would need for the three days of events.
{Image courtesy of Jenna}
The folder not only had some beautiful Gocco’d Laura Hooper calligraphy on it (love that Gocco hand stamp kit) but it also contained one of my absolute favorite things from the whole vow renewal - my custom created LH map of Atlanta.
{Image courtesy of Jenna}
Laura worked very closely with me during the design process to determine the icons we would use for the map - she even drew Charlie for the dog park icon! We decided to print them in full color in 7×9 format.
{Author’s personal collection / map ©Laura Hooper}
It so perfectly characterizes Atlanta and our event - we got so many compliments about how adorable they were!
The folder also contained a reprint of the area information booklet from our RSVP packets, each guest’s ticket to the welcome party, a Lightscribe printed CD and mailer for the guest to return their pictures to me, and a welcome letter.
{Images courtesy of Jenna}
Just a note about the baskets themselves - we purchased all of the baskets from Ross, Home Goods, and Marshall’s. There was a big assortment of types, but most of them ranged from $3.99 to $7.99 and were decorative tin or cardboard baskets. Here is a picture of all of the baskets at my mother’s house to give you an idea of what we ended up with:
{Author’s personal collection}
We purchased some gift basket filler from the local dollar store, and some shrink wrap from Lowes to package the baskets and keep them safe in transit. The hotels then cut off the shrink wrap before delivering to the rooms.
What did you include in your OOT baskets? Did you search high and low like I did for the perfect containers?
E.
I love these. Due to the Mr’s keen budgeting eye, I was given the option of making out of town baskets or toiletry baskets to spruce up the very public bathroom-esque facilities at our reception site. The bathrooms drive me nuts, so I opted for those, but I still have a special place in my heart for the little welcoming baskets.
Did you find that people took the baskets with them? I worry about doing something so hard to travel with like that for people flying in.
Those look soo cool! Great job!!
These are adorable! I love the idea of including a CD for them to mail you their pictures!
Your map is so adorable! I’m in Atlanta and I love all the fanciful touches.
I am really looking forward to my baskets also. Yours are absolutely beautiful. Our wedding will be pretty much destination too because it is in Dallas, TX and we live in Atlanta. Due to cost, I bought the baskets (see recent blog) online for $1.50 each but they are very plain so I have a couple of months to spruce them up. I needed about 150 so I couldn’t afford the beautiful ones. Anyway, i figure something out :-)
Thanks for the inspiration. The only thing that I am sure we will include would be granola bars (b/c they are our favorite) and rice krispy treats, along with bottle water and discount coupons to Six Flags.
@tameka - i couldn’t have afforded these if i had more guests! we only had about 20 rooms to provide for, so it definitely made for less of a budget constraint. our snacks were rice krispy treats and nutrigrain bars, purchased from costco.
@jess @adrienne @maggie thank you! i loved our maps too and here’s hoping that all of the CDs make their way back to me. :)
@amy tough choice - i love bathroom baskets too, i’m sure you made the right call.
@V. yep - it seems like most everyone was able to take theirs home. we asked the hotels to send us any that people were not able to take, and i made sure that the ones each person got were something that suited their personality or their homes in the hopes that they would get some use out of it!
I love the map –the little Georgia peaches in the corner are too cute! Looking forward to seeing and hearing about the rest of the event!
What font is that for “Bienvenue a Atlanta”? It’s gorgeous!
hi jenny! that font is some AMAZING Laura Hooper calligraphy in her Elegance script. http://www.lhcalligraphy.com
it’s gocco’d onto the folder from Paper Source in black ink.
That map is the cutest. It’s really lovely.
Everything is amazing. Such personal, unexpected touches. I absolutely love the idea of the cds with mailers!
Elizabeth! I love the map!!! How do I create a similar one for my wedding coming up in April?
