In the spirit of all-things-wedding, I thought I'd continue blogging about some of the details of our big day (which was over 3 months ago now!)
Out of Town (OOT) bags or boxes are small gifts that many brides put together to leave at the hotel for guests who are traveling to attend the wedding. I knew that I wanted to put together a token of appreciation for those people who went (literally) out of their way to attend our wedding on a holiday weekend. I also wanted to include some information about the area and things to do just in case people had some extra time to kill. :)
I used gable boxes I bought in bulk to package up the gifts. I decorated them to reflect the colors and feel of our wedding.
To start my collection of items to fill the boxes, I made a trip to a rest stop along the highway and the visitor's center in the town where we were getting married. When I explained the boxes I was making, I was given many different brochures and maps to help our guests get to know the area. I was even able to get a brochure about the history of the Concord Point Lighthouse (which is where we got married!)
I also put together a small booklet with a note of thanks, a list of wedding weekend events with driving directions, things to do and restaurants we like in the area, and important phone numbers in case guests had any questions or needed help.
I knew I wanted to include a couple of miniature bottles of water in each box. So, while I was labeling over 200 water bottles with our monogram for our outdoor ceremony, I also did fifty smaller ones. It was incredibly time consuming, but one of my favorite details!
The last thing that needed to go in the boxes was, of course, food! I picked out several things that represented Baltimore and Havre de Grace: Utz Crab Chips, individual packages of Berger cookies, and Bomboy Havre de Mints. I also threw in some generic snack foods, like nuts, trail mix, and granola bars.
Because Brian was living in Savannah already, he was staying at one of the hotels with his groomsmen prior to the wedding. I knew I had to make an Out of Town box especially for the groom!
I added a couple of extra snacks that I know Brian likes, some travel books about St. Lucia, and a very important pair of socks.
Brian and his best man, Pat, came to pick up the boxes from me the week of the wedding and delivered them to the two hotels where guests were staying.
This was one of my favorite wedding projects and my first opportunity to let guests know how much we appreciated them sharing in the joy of our wedding day!
