The Ultimate Destination Wedding Welcome Bag Guide

One of the things you may be considering for your destination wedding is gifting welcome bags for all your guests. It’s a nice way of thanking all your guests for joining you on your destination wedding trip and welcoming them to the resort. But where to start? What products will your guests actually use? Here’s a destination wedding welcome bag guide to get you started.

The Bag Itself

Consider getting a bag that your guests can use as a beach bag around the beach and pool. A lot of people don’t consider bringing their own bag so they’re pleasantly surprised when they walk into their room and see one that they can use for all their beach accessories.

This is then used to put all your gifts and items in, and the guest can then use it for their whole trip.

Here are a few that may be a good option:

If you’ll have children at your destination wedding as well, here’s a kids option:

What to Include – Toiletry Items

You’ve probably seen countless welcome bags all over Pinterest, but you can’t include every single item and aren’t sure which ones are actually worth getting your guests.

Here are the most common items you should include that your guests will actually use on their trip. Most of these you can find in the toiletry aisle at Target, Walmart or Bed Bath and Beyond (biggest travel sized section I’ve ever seen). Others I’ve linked directly.

Other Fun Items to Include

These next items aren’t as essential, but are fun and can add personalization to your welcome bags. Some of these will add up so you may want to consider gifting them only to your wedding party, or only adding one of these items for your guests.

1. Drink tumblers
   • These were a huge hit for our wedding. We only got them for our wedding party because they were a little more pricey. We ended up giving them to everyone at our bachelor/bachelorette parties so we saved on shipping and luggage space.
2. Key card holder and wrist band
3. Inflatable drink holder

How/When to Gift Them

Beforehand

If you don’t want to worry about fitting everything in your luggage, consider gifting your welcome bags before your trip. You’ll have two options here.

1. Ship them
   • You’ll have to do the math on this one. Shipping them individually before the wedding may be a cheaper option then having to check an additional bag at the airport and deal with handing them out at the resort.
2. Hand them out
   • Having a bachelor and bachelorette party? Seeing most of your guests at your bridal shower? Consider gifting them their bags at those events. Don’t worry – you can still hand out the ones who didn’t attend and are still coming to your destination wedding. That way you can save on shipping, extra luggage, and space.

At the resort

If you prefer to hand them all out at the resort there are a few things you should consider.

1. Double check that the resort won’t charge you a fee per guest for handing them out for you
2. Hand them out during a welcome cocktail hour or as they’re checking in
3. Ask your wedding planner to help

Unfortunately, some resorts will charge you to hand anything out to guests for you. This will usually be a flat fee per gift and can add up quickly if you have a lot of guests. As an alternative, consider handing them out yourself if you’re planning on having a cocktail hour where you’ll be seeing all your guests. Another option would be to ask your onsite wedding planner help distribute them as well. They can get each guest’s room number from check in and deliver them for you.

I hope this ultimate destination wedding welcome bag guide has been helpful and provided some ideas for you to get started. Think I’m missing anything that should be on the list? Comment below or contact me here! I’d love to hear from you.