Welcome With Open Arms

A wonderful thing to prepare if you have out-of-town guests coming to your wedding is to create a Wedding Welcome Basket, full of local goodies so they can acquaint themselves with the area and feel right at home. After all, your guests are paying a lot of money to attend including airfare, hotel accommodations, pet boarding fees and maybe even more. So, a gracious thing to do is put together a token of your thanks and have it ready for them when the arrive in their hotel room.

Here are some items you may want to include in your welcome baskets...

• A bottle of a local wine or beer
  
• Local candies or gourmet treats
• Maps of the local area
• A book of "Things to do in Seattle" or in your wedding city
• Tickets to a local attraction like the zoo, Space Needle, aquarium, museum, etc.
• Weather related items like an umbrella in the fall or warm socks in the winter
  
• Mini travel accessories like a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, razor, etc.
• Also include a thank you note reminding your guests how honored you are that they came to share in your wedding festivities
  

Here are some samples of charming welcome baskets from Brides Magazine.