MrsHK

Originally Posted by ironman 

 

Approximately how much does a real touch bridal bouquet end up costing?

I think it depends on the size and amount of flowers you want. Ours was $135 plus $18 shipping to Canada. It came with a complimentary bout for Mikee as well made with an ivory rose, but we ended up getting our florist here to make a baby's breath one for him and used that one instead. That was only because we liked the baby's breath better in the end, not  Our seller was Kim from Alexis Grace Designs: http://www.etsy.com/shop/alexisgracedesigns

Remember to ask for it next to a ruler so you can see the size! I had to get mine redone because the one I ordered that was supposed to be 10"-12" in diameter ended up being 15", way too big for me. I'm 5'4" and 115lbs, and it was bigger than my head when it arrived! I guess she got carried away with all the different flowers and it ended up bigger than expected. Kim was great about starting a new one for me right away. Give yourself lots of time as most of the companies are quite busy and book up quickly!

Originally Posted by alexisinjamaica 

 

 

So pretty and romantic looking!!

Thank you! I'm so happy we get to keep it forever. I'm using it as decor in our home now and everytime I look at it, it makes me so happy! 

This was our cake topper. The ship in a bottle was purchased, but I did the letters myself. I bought the wooden letters from Michael's, painted them and glued them to sticks.

I had a cute little cut out heart that I glued to a matchstick to put between the letters but it looks like our wedding planners missed it, or perhaps it was too short behind the ship. Who knows! 

I thought I'd include a photo of our what our table assignment frame and table frames looked like on the tables at our wedding.

The table assignment display frame was handmade and I purchased it from another bride. I printed out everyone's names, tea stained the paper and glued them to paper bags that I had trimmed with craft scissors. We had it set up on our guestbook table next to a globe and a birdcage for our cards.

For the table frames, we used names of places that we have travelled to together and had significant meaning to us. The frames are from the dollar store, the hangtags (which i soaked in tea) are from Staples, and the background is wrapping paper I ordered from Paper Source. I did the lettering on the tags myself!

Originally Posted by hezmshaw 

 

 

Haha while I appreciate the suggestion, I am NOOOTTTT making my own cake. But I will contact this Zaida person

 

Too much hassle to make my own, and stressful.. Plus I would no idea how to deal with the heat/climate etc, best for the pros down there.

Originally Posted by normas09 

 

Love the cakes, ladies!!! I hope you don't mind me asking...what is the price range for something like this? Trying to figure out my budget.

Originally Posted by Carlota1981 

 

The same to me! I have sent 2 mails and I am still waiting their answer...after 2 weeks

Hey ladies! I also used Zaida of Dolcet for the desserts at our wedding a month ago. I'll admit it sometimes took her a little while to get back to me, but that seems to be the norm down here in the Riviera Maya. She was always very friendly, helpful and delivered exactly what I asked her to do. I was very specific about what I wanted and I was blown away by the cupcakes she made for us!

We asked for a small cake for our cutting ceremony (it fed 10 people and was $40 USD) and 60 fondant cupcakes ($5 USD each) for our guests. Our wedding was in Tulum and the delivery from Cancun was $120 USD. People were raving about the cupcakes all night! I unfortunately didn't get a chance to eat anything more than the cake my (now) husband smooshed into my face, but that piece was great!  She included the cupcake tower for free.

I provided the cupcake wrappers, the ship in a bottle cake topper and the teal letters, so those are not included with her services. The cotton candy was from a different vendor as well.

Originally Posted by Sehausle 

 

@ Mrs HK - Our resort charges $120 for outside vendors, can you recommend a lower priced florist and/or musician (looking for violinist or guitarist). By the way were at Dreams Tulum October 2013

 

Thank you!

 

Shauna

 

Hi Shauna,

I used Floreria Jardin in Playa Del Carmen for our flowers. Could you tell me a bit more about what types of arrangements you are looking for and the types of flowers? Which florists have you been looking at so far and what have their prices been?

I'm sorry, I don't know of any violinists or guitarists. I had a mariachi trio and they were $250 plus tip for 45 mins. Our hotel didn't have any restrictions on outside vendors at all. I booked them through my wedding planner so I don't have their contact info.

Originally Posted by vicfanti 

 

Anyone have any ideas for oot bags!?

Originally Posted by Steitzer23 

 

ashofswed,

 

I've been putting some thought into OOT bags. I'm not going bonkers like some brides who spend $50 per bag and fill it with stuff people don't need or want, but I do want to do a mini bag with a few things folks might forget and one signature item.

 

On discountmugs.com, they sell the knock-off Tervis tumblers. I'm going to order those and then use a friend's cricut machine to put everybody's name on them. Dual purpose: Acts as a name tag so when guests who don't know each other see another guest with a matching cup, they will know they are part of our group, plus, it's a great way to keep either water or your drinks cool while at the pool or beach. And, of course, it is something they can take home and use.

 

I'll probably go to the dollar store and throw some other things in there like chapstick (even if you brought one, who can't use another), a packet of aspirin, etc.

Originally Posted by KorenAnn 

 

Steitzer23,

 

We gave our guests mugs in their OOT bags from discount mugs as well, and they were great! Remember to confirm that the ones you are ordering don't say "made in china" on them, or they will be confiscated at the border (if you get searched).

 

Cheers,

Koren

Originally Posted by Steitzer23 

 

Koren,

 

Thanks for that heads up. Did you have that problem? It says on discountmugs.com that they have a USA manufacturing and printing plant ...?

 

Also, I'm curious what else you put in your OOT bags?

 

Stephenie

Hey ladies! I just had my wedding down here in Mexico, where I happen to live. On multiple trips back home to Canada as well as one trip to the States, I was able to put some nice OOT bags together. Here's what we did for our Welcome Kits and Oh Shit! Kits:

16 oz Tumbler Mug with wedding logo - $3.75ea from DiscountMugs.com

Tote bag with wedding logo - Discount Mugs - $3.60ea from DiscountMugs.com

Notebook - handmade on brother-in-law's letterpress, took a very long time to make 80 of these but totally worth it! Check out our blog post on how we made them: http://loveandrum.com/blog/2013/6/2/weddingpress-handmade-notebooks

Beer coozies with wedding logo and "Drink Up Me Hearties" - $1.10 ea  from DiscountMugs.com

Cooler bag with ziploc liner for leaks (our energy conscience hotel in Tulum didn't have fridges) - $3.70ea

Snack pack with bag of chips, Japones nuts and Winis candies (similar to Starburst) all purchased at Sam's Club in Mexico - $1.50ea

We did one bag per couple and one bag per single guest. For everything from Discount Mugs, I had it all sent to my Dad's place in the States to save on shipping. On a visit to him I grabbed half the stuff and he brought the rest. We both got the "red" light and they looked in our bags, but neither of us had real issues at customs. They just looked through, I kept saying "por nuestras boda!" and smiling and all was fine. I can't speak for what another customs agent might do for someone else though! 

For all you Canadian girls, you can have everything sent to a shipping place near the border and pick it up for much cheaper than the shipping costs to Canada. 

I used round circle stickers and alphabet stickers from Dollar Tree to label all the mugs with everyone's initials, and used hang tags from Staples to label everyone's bags. I tea stained the hang tags and used alphabet stamps from Michael's to personalize the bags for everyone. For the couples I did their first names on the hang tags, like "J & C" or "M & K". For the single guests I did their full initials like "DL" or "NC".

We included a little Welcome Booklet with information about the area, things to do, restaurant recommendations, helpful Spanish phrases, etc. 

A note about the hang tags: The little circle at the top comes off when you tea stain it. I had to glue all mine back on. You can either put some glue ahead of time so they don't fall off, or be ok without having the circle be on the tag once it comes off.

We used paper lunch bags to put our Oh Shit! Kits together. I again used hangtags from Staples and tea stained all of them. I used the alphabet stamps for the "Oh Shit! Kit" part and a potato stamp to make the red cross. I then used a sticker on the back (vintage travel themed) to close the bag and tied them closed with twine, and hung the tag on the twine.

We decided to buy our meds in bulk and divy them up ourselves once we were in Mexico. It saved a TON of money and didn't take that long to do. No one seemed to mind that the ibuprofens weren't in a sealed package. We made a little piece of paper with instructions for the diarrhea relief and ibuprofen. 

Here's the list of contents:

1L Gatorade packs - purchased in Mexico at local grocery store - $0.65ea (1 per person)

Diarrhea relief - Costco in Canada - 168 tablets for $23, gave 2 per person for a cost of $0.30 per person

Ibuprofen - purchased from Costco in Canada - pack of 500 for $10, gave 6 per person for a cost of $0.12 per person

Tums - purchased from Walmart - packs of 3 for $2 which is $0.70 per roll (1 roll per bag)

Aloe Vera purchased from Avon.ca - $1.89ea (1 per bag)

Band Aids - on sale at Shopper's, 320 bandaids for $12, gave 6 per person at a cost of $0.25 per person

Gum - purchased at Sam's Club in Mexico - $0.40ea (1 pack per person)

Oh Shit! Kit cost:

per single person - $4.31

per couple - $6.03

Welcome Kit cost:

per single person - $13.65

per couple - $20.00

Total Cost of Entire Bag:

per single person - $17.96

per couple - $26.03

We had 70 guests total, half couples and half single people. In the end we spent just over $1000 on our Welcome Bags, but I think it was totally worth it. Everyone came from so far and it was the least we could do to show our appreciation for spending their time and money to come celebrate with us.

We received a ton of thank you's from everyone and I think mostly everything was used, especially the Oh Shit! Kits. People kept commenting on how useful and thoughtful everything was, which was nice! We saw lots of people using the tote bags, beer coozies and tumbler mugs. The best thing is that I'm sure people will use some of these things at home, such as the tote bag and the drink tumbler (coffee mug). We chose to not put our name and date on most items so that people would keep them for their everyday lives.

I hope this helps some of you for inspiration! Another idea is to hand as many Welcome Kits out before hand as you can. That way you don't have to pack them and people will know what extra things they have to pack!

Originally Posted by BeachBride0422 

 

Does anyone know if you bring your own decorations do they charge you some kind of fee to have a person set everything up for you?

I think it depends on your resort. We rented out all the rooms at a small hotel in Tulum, and we had almost all of our own decor. We live down here so it was easy to collect stuff without worrying about baggage fees. The only things we rented were chairs, the gazebo, two speakers, a mic and a couple of tables for cocktail hour. Everything else was ours! In order to have someone set up our string lighting and paper lanterns we decided to rent some tall pilar candles from Artevelas and paid them an extra $100 to hang our stuff. Our WC, Leanne Marie, tried to say we should pay them $500 but I said that was far too much to hang 15 strings of lights and 25 paper lanterns.

I had to struggle with her so much in regards to pricing! I think it's because she got paid a percentage of the things she coordintaed at the end of the wedding, so trying to get me the best price possible was a conflict of interest for her. I stuck to my guns and insisted on fair pricing and did a TON of things myself to save money. For example, she quoted $1000 for a few strands of exposed lighting from Planner 1! I said "No way", and ordered my own, had it shipped to the US, asked my Mom to pick it up, drop it at friends' houses, and everyone brought down boxes for us. We saved lots of money that way!

We also wanted them to hang our 10 strands of papel picado that I spent lots of time sourcing out, found the best price and the perfect kind, ordered it to my Dad's place, and had him bring to Mexico. When we came to dinner, I saw it wasn't there. Leanne "forgot" to put it up, after a year of me telling her and her assistant in emails and in person that I was dead set on having papel picado. So disappointing, but what can you do? She also complained to my sister that she "normally doesn't have to do this much work" as they were setting up. Because I brought my own decorations? Whether they are rented or brought by a bride, they still have to be set up. Complaining to the bride's family members is so unprofessional! Aaaand end vent. Haha

Originally Posted by Carlota1981 

 

Hi girls! This is an interesting threat because I was starting to think I was the only one that is afraid to say "wedding" at Riviera Maya! lol

 

 

My wedding is in 2months and although the most of the payments are crazy ( the extra fee for bringing more people) for me the worsts are the flowershops and photographers.

 

After days of asking costs I found the best costs with a flowershop that my planner suggested. I was completely desesperated with the super high costs and I wrote my WC telling her my problem It is 3 times less expensive than the cheapest cost i had found. But still crazy for me. Mexico is cheaper than Spain and even with this it seems Riviera Maya is some city of Japan (to say one expensive country).

 

The other issue is the photographers. I am shock the hundreds of dollars they ask!

I agree! I just finished my wedding here and had to fight very hard to get reasonable prices. I have lived here for a year and a half so I know that there is a HUGE range of how much things cost down here, wedding or not. I also know that everything is negotiable. When you feel you are being taken advantage of, say something and insist on a fair price. Who is your wedding planner and what florist did they recommend? I may be able to help you find a more reasonable florist if you give me some information about what you are looking for and who has given you quotes.

Hey ladies! I am a newlywed who lives down here in the Riviera Maya. I'm just starting a decor rental company now that my wedding is over. I have discovered I have a passion for wedding decor and all the little details that go with it! I actually purchased some of the items from Sophia2616.  If anyone would like to see pricing on mason jars of various sizes or any of the rustic vintage decor items I have listed in my classified ad below, please send me an inbox message! My pricing is fair, since I know firsthand how frustrating wedding pricing can be.

Also, if you have any questions about the area, please let me know. Happy planning! 

Originally Posted by TealMarie 

 

slstriednig and FutureMrsSingh - Welcome! This site really is my favourite for wedding planning, everyone here is so super friendly. I'm not sure if it's because DW brides are more relaxed, but whatever it is, it's awesome!

 

So girls, I picked up my dress today and I'm going to post a lot of photos because I haven't been able to share it with anyone yet and I'm too darned excited! 

 

This is with the lace overlay that I'll wear for the ceremony with this belt and my veil. I kind of want to wear it for the first part of the reception, so I can get pictures with people in it, but haven't decided yet.

 

Wow, your dress is stunning! It fits you perfectly! I love your choice of colour for the belt, very elegant.

Originally Posted by kirab22 

 

I am looking at doing a November 2014 wedding. Can you brides tell me your time lines? I'm worried about lighting!

Hi Kirab22! In addition to the helpful tips from the ladies on here, your photographer is a great person to ask about timelines. They are the lighting experts and have the timeline down to a science! I'm sure you haven't picked a photographer yet, but this is a great question to ask potential photographers to see how knowledgeable they are.

My husband (so funny saying that after being engaged for so long!) got his outfit from Zara. He only wore the blazer for the ceremony and wore just the vest and the shirt for the dinner and dancing. Zara had great prices and it was awesome to be able to make a unique outfit by mixing and matching things they had. His hat is Brixton and his shoes are Sperry's.

Originally Posted by Moments That Matter 

 

Great photos MrsHK!!! looks like you had a gorgeous wedding !!! looking forward to seeing more photos from your Wpg photographer too......(that's my original hometown

 

Wishing you a wonderful life journey ahead filled with every happiness you can wish for........Congrats!!!

 

 

team MTM asst, Lynda

Thanks Lynda! I should mention that the reason we had two sets of photographers is because Susana Hidalgo of My Adorable Bridal is a good friend of ours and was a wedding guest. We wanted her to be able to enjoy the day along with the rest of the guests and not have to work. She took some photos at our cocktail hour and during the reception but didn't have the pressure of covering the entire day from beginning to end for us. She took such beautiful photos, even though it was very casual and she wasn't really working!

That adorable baby I'm holding in the photo up there is her's! She was our precious little flower girl, and Susana walked her down the aisle since she's only 10 months old and isn't walking yet.

Originally Posted by ChocoTaco7568 

 

Quote:

Congrats, Katy.  I love your photos and you were a beautiful bride. You two look like a match made in heaven!

Thank you so much! Do you have some of your photos back yet? I'd love to see them, as I'm sure all the other girls do too! Your profile pic is beautiful

Hello fellow brides and congrats on your upcoming weddings! Our wedding was two weeks ago in Tulum. We were lucky enough to have two different sets photographers at our wedding! One was Luckygirl Photograph yfrom Winnipeg, Canada and we are still waiting to get our photos back from them.

Our other photographer was Susana Hidalgo of My Adorable Bridal. She is so sweet and very talented, as you can see by some of photos she took of us below! Her prices are very reasonable (up to $1500, depending on the package) and you will not be disappointed! Her style is very artistic and photojournalistic rather than posed stiff photos. She also does TTD sessions if you're interested in doing one. Here's her website where you can see more of her work: http://www.myadorablebridal.com/ and you can contact her through the website.

Feel free to PM me with any questions, and happy planning!

Originally Posted by AllieH 

 

MrsHK - your details are gorgeous!!!!! 

 

Thanks Allie! I guess I should mention that I live down here in Playa Del Carmen, and that's how I was able to collect so many of my own things to use for the wedding. I wish I could relive that day over and over! I'm counting down the days to our professional photos and video.

Here's a few photos from our vintage travel inspired wedding in Tulum, Mexico on May 22nd! I'll post my professional pictures once I get them. There were lots of details, such as vintage suitcases, a globe, lots of mason jars and a DIY photobooth station that I don't have any photos of yet. We purchased or made everything ourselves rather than renting, even the exposed bulb lighting. We sourced everything from our travels to Vancouver, Palm Springs, and a handful of cities around Mexico. Pretty much the only things we rented were the tiffany chairs, bamboo mats and the gazebo! Although the hanging bottles and flower garlands on the gazebo are mine.

For you brides that are getting married in the Riviera Maya in the next year that are having trouble figuring out how to bring vintage decor items down here, or can't seem to find companies down here that rent decor items like this (there aren't many in this area, if any at all) please send me an inbox message! I'd be happy to talk with you about an affordable rental!

Hey ladies! I just wanted to say congratulations on your upcoming weddings! I am a newlywed that lives down here in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. We just got married last week in Tulum! We planned our wedding for just over two years and went through deciding between several all inclusives, and then switched to deciding between different villas in the area, and finally settled on a wedding at a small hotel in Tulum. We had 75 guests and we rented out the entire hotel. I wanted to offer my help and advice to those of you with any questions about the area or advice on planning a wedding down here in general. With planning a wedding in the Mayan Riviera and living in the area for a year and a half, I've picked up quite a bit of knowledge in the process.

Also, if anyone is going for a rustic vintage style wedding but doesn't want to lug all the decorations down here, I can help! It is very hard to find companies down here that rent this style of wedding decor. Believe me, I looked! I have several glass bottles, mason jars, candleholders, burlap & lace table runners, lanterns, bulb lighting, chinese lanterns, vintage books, old suitcases, customizable table numbers and signs, etc that I'm going to be renting out. I know that most of you won't be making these types of decisions just yet, but it's nice to know what your options are, isn't it? 

Please send me a PM if you'd be interested in seeing some more photos and pricing of my decor items. My goal is to give great service with fair pricing. In my many months of planning I became very frustrated with the outrageous wedding pricing down here and I want to help fellow brides have their dream wedding (did someone say Pinterest?) without costing them an arm and a leg. Just because you want to have a wedding in paradise doesn't mean you should be charged up the wazoo to do so. 

Again, congratulations and happy planning! 

Katy HK

Originally Posted by Dazeydawl 

 

Hey Katy!!! Love your pics but I already saw them on Instagram of course. I can't wait to get mine back as well. I love Mairen (we didn't have Rachel but we did have robin, mairens brother and he was awesome) she was well worth the money and her dedication was amazing!!!! I feel we got more than we deserved lol of course the full day wedding coverage, she shot an excursion for us and the. We did a second day shoot which was in plain clothes in the morning like an e session and spent the afternoon and evening back in wedding attire driving around Jamaica it was insane! 9000 shots were take I believe, lol safe to say I think she will be out photographer for everything already thinking of a boudoir shoot for 1st anniversary

Happy to hear that you got so much photo time and had Robin as a second shooter! They said they shot a similar number for us, around 9000 photos. I guess the hard work for them now is narrowing it down to 900 for each of us! They are so dedicated and really love their jobs, I'm going to recommend them highly to anyone and everyone. A boudoir shoot as a 1st anniversary gift is a great idea!

Originally Posted by heather1214 

 

Love all of these pictures!!!  The vintage look is so timeless, very beautiful!! Congratulations!!

Thank you so much! I can't wait to see the video and professional photos! It's the only way I can relive the day over and over... and over.

Originally Posted by brownsugarbride 

 

Your wedding is absolutely gorgeous, very vintage and personal. I love that dress---is it Essense of Australia?

Thank you so much! We put a lot of time into all the small details to really make it our own. Living down here in Mexico helped with that, and we provided almost 100% of our own decor. We collected bottles for flowers, made burlap and lace runners, and found lots of little knick knacks in the different cities we travelled to around Mexico and the US. The only things we rented were chairs, a few tables and the gazebo! We even purchased our own bulb lighting since it is very expensive to rent down here. It was definitely a lot of work but totally worth it!

The dress is by Canadian designer Ramona Keveza, style L854. I had satin buttons put down the back and wore the sash from my sister's wedding dress that she wore 7 years ago.

Hey ladies!

Here's a few of our photos from our wedding last week in Tulum. Our photographers (Luckygirl Photography fron Winnipeg, Canada - www.luckygirl.ca) gave us a sneak peek of our day before shoot. We don't have any professional photos of the wedding day yet, but our friends and family took some nice shots that I'll upload for now.

The day was beyond amazing, everything I ever dreamt of and I wish we could relive it over and over! I guess the wedding video will have to do. Here's to happily ever after for all of us!

Originally Posted by sswed13 

 

Amazing! 

Originally Posted by ucfjennifer 

 

Beautiful! Makes me wish we were having table settings! We decided on a cocktail reception instead.

Originally Posted by Peach 

 

This is awesome!

Thanks ladies! sswed13, do you already have your table numbers set? Since we live down here in the Riviera Maya and purchased pretty much everything for our wedding, I've decided to rent out a bunch of our decor, including these table number/name displays. I can customize them for you if you'd like! Let me know if you'd be interested in renting these or any other rustic vintage style wedding decor for your upcoming wedding.

Hey ladies! First of all, congrats to all of you! By now pretty much all of us have tied the knot, aside from a few brides who will be getting married over the next couple of days. I hope all of you had an amazing week with family and friends and your wedding day was everything you ever dreamed of!

Here are some photos from our wedding in Tulum a week ago. We did an engagement shoot the day before around town with our photographers, Luckygirl Photography from Winnipeg. They were able to give us some sneak peeks of the engagement shoot! Their website is www.luckygirl.ca and I have Ali from this forum to thank for posting about them. Flying them in was one of the best decisions we made. They shot us for 4 hours the day before the wedding and stuck around shooting for 14 hours on our wedding day. Talk about dedication to your work! 

The wedding day photos we have right now were taken by our friends and family. The day was perfect and we couldn't have been happier with how it all turned out. Here's to happily ever after for all of us!

Hey ladies! Our wedding was last week and I wanted to share a couple of photos of our Welcome Kits and our Oh Shit! Kits.

16 oz Tumbler Mug with wedding logo - $3.75ea from DiscountMugs.com

Tote bag with wedding logo - Discount Mugs - $3.60ea from DiscountMugs.com

Notebook - handmade on brother-in-law's letterpress, took a very long time to make 80 of these but totally worth it!

Beer coozies with wedding logo and "Drink Up Me Hearties" - $1.10 ea  from DiscountMugs.com

Cooler bag with ziploc liner for leaks (our energy conscience hotel in Tulum didn't have fridges) - $3.70ea

Snack pack with bag of chips, Japones nuts and Winis candies (similar to Starburst) all purchased at Sam's Club in Mexico - $1.50ea

We did one bag per couple and one bag per single guest. For everything from Discount Mugs, I had it all sent to my Dad's place in the States to save on shipping. For all you Canadian girls, you can have everything sent to a shipping place near the border and pick it up for much cheaper than the shipping costs to Canada.

I used round circle stickers and alphabet stickers from Dollar Tree to label all the mugs with everyone's initials, and used hang tags from Staples to label everyone's bags. I tea stained the hang tags and used alphabet stamps from Michael's to personalize the bags for everyone. For the couples I did their first names on the hang tags, like "J & C" or "M & K". For the single guests I did their full initials like "DL" or "NC".

We included a little Welcome Booklet with information about the area, things to do, restaurant recommendations, helpful Spanish phrases, etc. Let me know if you'd like to see the booklet we made for Tulum in detail.

A note about the hang tags: The little circle at the top comes off when you tea stain it. I had to glue all mine back on. You can either put some glue ahead of time so they don't fall off, or be ok without having the circle be on the tag once it comes off.

We used paper lunch bags to put our Oh Shit! Kits together. I again used hangtags from Staples and tea stained all of them. I used the alphabet stamps for the "Oh Shit! Kit" part and a potato stamp to make the red cross. I then used a sticker on the back (vintage travel themed) to close the bag and tied them closed with twine, and hung the tag on the twine.

We decided to buy our meds in bulk and divy them up ourselves. It saved a TON of money and didn't take that long to do. No one seemed to mind that the ibuprofens weren't in a sealed package. We made a little piece of paper with instructions for the diarrhea relief and ibuprofen. 

Here's the list of contents:

1L Gatorade packs - purchased in Mexico at local grocery store - $0.65ea (1 per person)

Diarrhea relief - Costco in Canada - 168 tablets for $23, gave 2 per person for a cost of $0.30 per person

Ibuprofen - purchased from Costco in Canada - pack of 500 for $10, gave 6 per person for a cost of $0.12 per person

Tums - purchased from Walmart - packs of 3 for $2 which is $0.70 per roll (1 roll per bag)

Aloe Vera purchased from Avon.ca - $1.89ea (1 per bag)

Band Aids - on sale at Shopper's, 320 bandaids for $12, gave 6 per person at a cost of $0.25 per person

Gum - purchased at Sam's Club in Mexico - $0.40ea (1 pack per person)

Oh Shit! Kit cost:

per single person - $4.31

per couple - $6.03

Welcome Kit cost:

per single person - $13.65

per couple - $20.00

Total Cost of Entire Bag:

per single person - $17.96

per couple - $26.03

We had 70 guests total, half couples and half single people. In the end we spent just over $1000 on our Welcome Bags, but I think it was totally worth it. Everyone came from so far and it was the least we could do to show our appreciation for spending their time and money to come celebrate with us.

We received a ton of thank you's from everyone and I think mostly everything was used, especially the Oh Shit! Kits. People kept commenting on how useful and thoughtful everything was, which was nice! We saw lots of people using the tote bags, beer coozies and tumbler mugs. The best thing is that I'm sure people will use some of these things at home, such as the tote bag and the drink tumbler (coffee mug). We chose to not put our name and date on most items so that people would keep them for their everyday lives.

I hope this helps some of you for inspiration!