Top Wedding Welcome Gift Etiquette Questions Answered

As a high end curated gift designer who creates custom wedding welcome gifts for wedding planners and engaged couples to gift to their wedding guests, we often get a lot of questions about the etiquette for out-of-town hotel gift bags.

They want to know what to include, how many to order, when to distribute and so much more. If you have a question about hotel check in gifts or welcome gifts for wedding guests, you are in the right space, as I'll be going behind the scenes and sharing my insider information on how to take the stress out of wedding welcome gifts.

These are the top wedding welcome gift questions asked - and answered!  

Wedding welcome gifts are a great way to greet your out of town wedding guests for your wedding weekend, especially if you are having a destination wedding or have a lot of wedding guests who will be traveling to attend your wedding. These gifts are a creative and memorable way to kick off your wedding celebration as well as help your guests feel comfortable while traveling out of town, especially if you're thinking about custom wedding welcome gifts.

Before we go any further, it is important that I quickly define what an 'out of town' wedding guest is! Sometimes in the gifting and wedding world, we use terms that not everyone knows about! When I talk about 'out of town' wedding guests, I'm referring to your wedding guests who do not live in the city or location where your wedding is taking place. In the case of a destination wedding, where all guests are traveling to the wedding's location, all of your wedding guests would technically be considered 'out of town guests'.

Whether you are crafting your welcome gifts yourself, or outsourcing the burden that sometimes comes with curating, assembling and distributing custom wedding welcome gifts to a gifting company like us over at Marigold & Grey, you might be wondering where to start when it comes to wedding welcome gifts. What should be included in these welcome gifts? And who on your guest list should receive a welcome gift? 

We are diving into all of these questions and more as we share the top, most popular wedding welcome etiquette questions and our answers as expert gifting designers. 

Who gets a wedding welcome gift?

If you're wondering who should receive a wedding welcome gift, let's talk about it! Many couples are wondering if it is every wedding guest, or only a select few guests who receive a wedding welcome gift?

Typically, wedding welcome gifts are reserved for wedding guests coming in to the wedding from out of town. (Please see my note above about who is considered an 'out of town' wedding guest.) 

How many welcome gifts should we account for?

If you're thinking about how many wedding welcome gifts to plan for, we recommend that it's usually one gift per couple or per hotel room.

If a hotel room at a wedding is being shared by two single people without "plus ones", then each of those guests would receive their own wedding welcome gift.

However, at the end of the day, it's up to you who you wish to give a wedding welcome gift to. You may choose to hand out welcome gifts at your wedding rehearsal dinner rather than just to guests staying at the hotel.

Or you may choose to give wedding welcome gifts to all of your guests regardless of where they live in lieu of wedding favors - it's your choice who you gift wedding welcome gifts to!

What info do we include in the welcome letter?

If you're thinking about what information to include in a welcome letter to be included inside of a wedding welcome gift, perhaps you caught our advice on how to craft the perfect wedding welcome letter?

The welcome letters you create and include in your wedding welcome gift baskets or bags are a GREAT way to leave a sincere message thanking your guests for making the effort to attend your wedding weekend.

A welcome letter is also a perfect, low-cost way to lay out the weekend itinerary and offer suggestions for local things to see, eat and do!

For more on this, be sure to read my advice on what to include in your wedding welcome gift letter.

What's the best way to distribute our wedding welcome gifts to our guests?

If you're thinking about how logistically you'll distribute your wedding welcome gifts to your guests - especially if you're DIY-ing your welcome gifts - this is an important question to ask and plan for, especially considering it's your wedding weekend and this is a busy time for you.

Distributing wedding welcome gifts is mainly done in two different ways. The first is to leave the welcome gifts at the front desk of each hotel where you know your guests are staying, and the gifts are presented to each guest upon arrival.

(Pro tip: If there is more than one hotel in your wedding's hotel room block, be sure to ask your wedding guests where they are staying, or get a list from your hotel prior so you know how many gifts to distribute to each hotel.)

Instead of offering your wedding welcome gifts to your guests upon hotel check-in, the second option is for the hotel to distribute the gifts to the guests' rooms.

(Pro tip: Most hotels charge for this room-delivery service, and some don't offer a room delivery service at all, so it's something to definitely ask about ahead of time if you prefer to have the gifts delivered to each room.)

Do the bridesmaids and groomsmen receive wedding welcome gifts too?

If you're wondering if you should give those in your wedding party, such as bridesmaids and groomsmen, a wedding welcome gift too, regardless of if they are traveling from out of town to your wedding, you are not alone in wondering. This is a great question to ask, and one that we get asked a lot.

The answer to this question is tricky because it depends very much on your wedding budget, and whether or not the bridesmaids and groomsmen are staying overnight in a hotel.

It also depends on whether or not you're also gifting your wedding party "thank you for being my bridesmaid" and "thank you for being my groomsmen" gifts during the wedding weekend. If your wedding party gifts are similar to the wedding welcome gifts, then you can forgo doing both sets of gifts for your wedding party.

But if your wedding budget allows (and your wedding party isn't huge!) to gift both a thank you gift and a wedding welcome gift, then we say go for it!

We have wedding guests with food allergies. How do we handle this?

Snacks or a tasty treat of some kind is a popular item to include in wedding welcome gifts. We often get asked about what to do if there are known allergies for your out of town guests who will be receiving wedding welcome gifts.

If the number of wedding guests with the allergy is small, then we recommend creating a few welcome gifts with the problematic item subbed out and then notate this on the gift distribution list for the hotel staff.

However, if the allergy is severe and impacts many guests, or you're at all worried about it, you can choose to eliminate that item from the wedding welcome gifts altogether. 

Should we plan on providing wedding welcome gifts for guests who book outside of our hotel room blocks? 

In theory, yes, you would provide wedding welcome gifts to your guests even if they book a hotel room outside of your room block, or are staying in a rental house, because these guests are coming in to your wedding from out of town. However, it can sometimes be tough to execute this.

Gift distribution is where a custom welcome gift design company like us at M&G can help reduce your wedding stress making it one less thing for you to worry about! 

We recommend for our custom wedding welcome gift design couples to reach out to all guests to inquire about their accommodations. Chances are, some are staying in the same hotels just not in the room block itself. If this is the case, it should be easy to add them to the welcome gift list.

If you have wedding guests staying in private rentals or other hotels not in your hotel room block, you may consider bringing some of the welcome gifts to the wedding rehearsal dinner or welcome party to distribute, if you feel it's appropriate.

Above all, when it comes to your wedding welcome gifts, don't stress about this if you miss some people. Your wedding guests don't expect a welcome gift if they "go rogue" and book outside the hotel blocks without letting you know.

We hope you have found the answers to these frequently asked questions helpful when considering your wedding welcome gift bags. We hope you that you feel less confused and less stressed about your wedding welcome gifts!

Be sure to check out our galleries of custom wedding welcome gifts for inspiration of what to include in your welcome gifts and how to personalize them.

If you are ready to hand off the heavy lifting of designing, assembling and distributing wedding welcome gifts, reach out to our team of gifting experts to talk about custom wedding welcome gifts for your big day.

For more advice on creating wedding welcome gift bags, check out our tips on what to include in your wedding welcome gifts, how to create a wedding welcome gift letter, and how to avoid logistical mistakes with your wedding welcome gifts.

Images: Lissa Ryan Photography