Columbia, SC, USA < change city >

Where are you and your guests staying? Usually there are guides to the area that you could add to the bags. For example, if the guests are staying at the Whitney, add brochures of Devine Street. If they are staying downtown, perhaps add some brochures of The Vista and downtown Columbia. Some highlights of Columbia are The Vista, Five Points, Riverbank Zoo, The State Museum, and EdVenture (for kids). There is also the University of South Carolina. These would be good to mention in a welcome bag.

Ask the hotel if they provide pamphlets regarding these locations. If so, then ask if you could add them to your bags.

Also, it would be nice to give a bottle of water and/or a small snack for guests since you are welcoming them. Pecans are southern and would be fitting.

Congrats Faith! Because my reception was in The Vista, I included the small 2-LB bags of Adluh Flour, Small Box of Cromer's P-Nuts, 2 water bottles, Map of the the events...done on the wedding mapper and printed on paper of my choice, a few other snacks and a sweet letter. I found these GREAT rectangle boxes at If Its Paper that had a foil Palmetto Tree and the Crescent Moon (state symbol that we all seem to be so proud of) and coordinating tissue paper and wrapped in celophane and tied with raffia. EVERYONE LOVED THEM and raved about how cute they were all weekend!! They did not take long to make at all!!!

Hope this helps and Best Of LUCK!!

Hey Faith-

My husband and I just got married in July and we did do the welcome bags for our guests. We went to the visitor's bureau (it's located in the convention center) and got some maps and brochures for the state museum, the zoo and Edventure etc. We also did like that last entry and added some local foods and water bottles. We had compliments. They were not expensive and I think out of towners appreciate the hospitality a lot.

Best Wishes!

Hey JULIE! I've never seen someone post something online I know!

All these people have great ideas. We just got married in June and our welcome bag included a welcome book (that gave our guests times and addresses of events along with things they could do around columbia), a bottle of blue moon (with an orange of course, my favorite beer), a bottle of 420 beer (my husband's favorite beer), 2 bottles of water (that i got for free from the Whitney hotel), mine and my husband's favorite candy, Cromer's Roasted Peanuts, popcorn, cd of our favorite songs, and some free brochures that i got from the visitor's bureau downtown. I really wouldn't put more than maybe 2-3 brochures in the bag though. You don't want to overload them with information. Also, I got the bags from If its Paper (which you can get really cheap for about 38cents each) and put a sticker on the front to dress is up a bit.

Looks like you got some good ideas already. I included copies of the maps I made in wedding mapper. I just took screen shots of the map and included directions to and from the hotel to the wedding and the reception that I copied from google. I also made a second map of downtown Columbia including places that guests might like to know about like the zoo, children's museum, and good running trails. There is an option to print on wedding mapper so I just used that. As far as items for the bags, I included bottled water, microwave popcorn (check with the hotel to see if microwaves are in the rooms), coffee, nuts and snack-size packages of cookies. For those families with kids, I included a coloring book and a small package of crayons that I got from the dollar store. We got solid red bags from Dollar Tree and printed out large stickers for the front. The hotel where we reserved rooms were very helpful. We provided them with a list of people who were staying there and they were able to put it in their computer to remind them that they are with the group. Have a great time on your special day! Hope this helps Robin - Mother of the Groom