Since my wedding was really a destination wedding (I don’t know anyone that came that was actually from Cashiers, NC!) and most of the guests were staying at High Hampton, I decided to give each guest an in-room favor instead of favors at the actual ceremony.

When planning the favors, we decided we wanted everything to be consumable, so that guests could enjoy them throughout the wedding weekend.  After lots of ideas were thrown out we decided to include a jar of honey (fewer that three ounces to make sure people could take them on the plane!), biscuits, apples and a bottle of wine.  We felt this mixture had a Southern feel and was seasonally appropriate.

The next step was to slowly, but surely, start organizing the pieces.  First I reached out to The Bradford Store, which is a Huntersville, NC gem that sells all sorts of local produce, baked goods, etc. to see if they sold honey in small jars.  The wonderful owner said she’d check with her honey man and get back to me.  She came back with good news and bad news.  The bad news was that her honey man didn’t have honey in small jars.  Boo.  But!  The good news was that if I could get jars that he could run through his machine, he’d fill them up for me!  Yea!  So, I found jars at Specialty Bottle (they had several options to choose from) and got them over to the honey man.  He filled them and got them back to me in no time, which just let the decorating part.  Brian and I made cute labels to put on the jars and decided to use the scrap fabric from the table runners my mom made (amazing, right?!) to tie (with extra baker’s twine from my invitation – more on those later!) onto the lids.

{guest photo}

Here they are at the reception – we had extras, so we set them up in case anyone wanted more than one!

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I really like the idea of out of town welcome baskets and the like but they were never really an option in my mind due to the cost & organization they require (knowing who is staying where, knowing who is coming –the rsvps were giving me enough trouble as it was). Garrett’s parents decided to get a block of rooms at the Embassy Suites solving part of that problem and Garrett’s mom wanted to make welcome baskets, so I lucked out. She used a “taste of Alabama” theme and the bags included goodies only to be found in the yellowhammer state. Here’s what they included:

Golden Flake Chips (in a variety of dill pickle, original, bbq, and cheese puffs).

(image from country living, they have a list of the best local chips in a lot of different states so if you are stuck for an idea check here! Zapps from Louisiana, Cape Cod from Massachusetts, and Kettle chips from Oregon are all ones I recognize)

Priesters Pecans (in little mini bags, divinity and pralines I believe, but they have a really tasty key lime pecan there as well)

(from Priester’s Pecans)

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Tina from With This Ring, I Thee Obsess is so crafty.  For her sister-in-law’s wedding, she used iron-on transfer paper to transform Cheap Totes tote bags into gorgeous out of town welcome bags!

{Tutorial found here}

These perfectly-branded paint can out of town baskets are just darling.  They are also budget-friendly and easy to DIY!   You can buy empty paint cans at most hardware or home improvement stores, and even some scrapbook stores. 

{Adrienne Page via Snippet & Ink}

One scrapbooking tutorial for decorating empty paint cans can be found here.  Use your imagination – these can be as simple or complex as you make them!

I always knew I wanted personalized bags (cuz that’s how I roll), and definitely wanted reusable ones to suit our Eco-Green endeavors… but being broke-ass doesn’t really suit either of those desires. So, when my sister and bro-in-law came through town on their way to Bali, and mentioned they could get bags made for a fraction of American prices, we were all about it. I sent the file to their contact in Bali, and the bags were ready within a week! My sis was generous enough to carry all 50 home with her, to save us shipping costs. We couldn’t believe how beautifully they turned out! They were even better than we dreamt they’d be.

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It seems that some of readers out there were interested in how I created the Out of Town Guest Boxes for my own wedding, and I’m more than happy to share a little how-to with everyone.

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It’s a crazy day in the real world everyone!

I’ve been doing some searching for out of town basket photos, because it’s definitely a project I’m going to undertake.  These are such a great idea and so easy and inexpensive to DIY.  Anne did her own gorgeous baskets for around $2.50 each and they were a hit!

Here are my favorite little baskets that I have found – I love the coordination of the green ribbon with the contents and the simple but elegant presentation.

Image via Mimi and Karl

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