(Wedding Recap) Welcome Bags

You might remember my search for the perfect purple gift bag, to welcome guests to the hotel upon arrival.  I almost drove myself crazy with this detail.  Mike threw in the towel after many a google search.  Then it hit me.  Forget purple, let's go peacock!

Funny side story:  Because I worried Mike might not agree with even more peacock details, I sent him 2 links.
First to this picture:

{found here}

Then once he was all flummoxed by the craziness of a that baby in a peacock costume, never-mind the look on the poor babe's face, he clicked on a link to these:

{found here}

All of a sudden, my "out there idea" of using peacock welcome bags seemed so much more normal in comparison to a baby dressed as one. Duh. (Genius, I tell you, genius!)

Upon checking into their hotel, guests were given this bag by the front desk.  And I know this is a fact, because when I checked in the night before the wedding, they gave me a bag... only after I questioned them about "where's my welcome bag?!"  Totally not bridezilla at all.

PS.com:  Guess who delivered all those welcome bags to the hotel?  That would be the lovely bride to be and her beautiful friend, Lara.  Why by myself? because of some stupid bachelor party.  But it's ok.  It's just a testament to my personal and physical strength.  yeah, I'm dropping that.  right there.  boom.

Back to the bags.  We stuffed them with all sorts of good stuff:

Above you will see the wonderful contents:  local walking maps, metro map, event itinerary, fruit snacks, hershey's kisses, lara bar samples, gum -- and a special thank you to Blair Candy for providing the very apropos ring pops! (not pictured: chips. salty, savory chips.  & water bottles.)

Mr. Melonball thought he'd "help"

I swear that cat is always getting into something.

Here's a great aerial view of the planned contents.

Mike and I created a great assembly line/stuffing system and in no time the bags stood in boxes, ready for drop off.  And then we had tons of kisses left over and threw in more to the bags.  and then some more.  and there are still hershey's kisses in my cupboard.  (but I'm not complaining.  sometimes Costco's portions overwhelm, ya know?)

ta da!  finished bags

Why welcome bags?  Because this:

• it creates and sets the tone of hospitality, fun, and yumminess for the visit
• when you arrive in a new city you need maps, food suggestions, & advice
• its all about the details, yo
• you also need immediate food (b/c who wants to pay $10 for an airplane granola bar?!)
• and then you get drunk and want chips, fruit snacks, and other yummies.  poof.
• guests know where and when stuff is happening
• guests know how to get to said places ( = less stress for bride/groom)
• moar peacock!
• hotel guests "dig it"  (or so says my bro-in-law) 

What's the best item you've received in a welcome bag?

Welcome Bags!

I find welcome bags a nice touch upon hotel arrival.  You get to your event city, check in at the hotel, and a fun little bag of goodies awaits you! 

I'm on the search for a white whale. 
I want deep purple (no lilac or lavender crap), medium sized (8x4x10), glossy coated, with stand up handles, bags.  And I need about plus-or-minus thirty count at around a dollar a pop.
Nothing specific or anything...

My illusive search led me to many dead ends.
Until I found that photo above! Genius!  I thought my search was over, until pressing "order" & learning all but one of those bags were out of stock. When I called the company I then found out they were back-ordered two weeks, with an additional 2 week's shipping time.  If you're smart like me, you realize that's exactly 4 weeks and pushing it way to close to the wedding. 
So back to square one.

Then it happened when I least expected it.
I found a bag.  A new bag. A beautiful bag.
The perfect bag.
And you can't see it yet.
But the level of perfection is out of this world.



Beyond that, I'm focused on their contents.
Obviously we need a welcome letter with itinerary, a city map, a metro (subway) map, and some goodies.  Mike and I plan on hitting up Costco soon to purchase water bottles, prepackaged cookies, and individual baggies of chips.

Sooo... suggestions?  What would be fun to see in welcome bags?
What have you received or what did you put in hotel welcome bags?


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The Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn!

Buckle your seatbelts for an EPIC POST:

Take a look at Scott Circle in DC.

The green arrow locates Scott Circle.
The purple star shows the location of our wedding and reception: The Carnegie Institution.
All the red letters show hotels in the immediate area.
So. Many. Choices.

Mike took on the responsibility of calling the many hotels and negotiation room block rates.  (I strongly dislike phone correspondence.  Give me email any day, but please, oh please, don't make me pick up a phone!)
Mike also possess the skill of talking people down on price.  I normally give up and pay what they ask. I don't win at flea markets.


One hotel in the area wanted $300/room/night and $2800 for the honeymoon suite.  Not kidding.
Another slightly under that price demanded an attrition rate. [Attrition rate: if your room block is not filled by a certain date you are required to pay 80% or so of the cost of those rooms not rented. aka: BS]

Soon enough we settled on wanting to see The DoubleTree, The Courtyard Marriot, and The Rouge.
Each are within four walking blocks of our venue - an easy enough jaunt there and drunken stumble back.


The DoubleTree

Tyrone from The DoubleTree is a customer service genius.  He honestly knew what to say, how to say it, and when to say it.  I feel completely comfortable working with him and enjoy his sense of humor.


The hotel was clean and beautiful.

The DoubleTree room block runs $129/night.  There is no attrition rate so long as we do not exceed 40 rooms/night.  If we fill  80% of our block, we receive 5% off a day-after breakfast.  If we fill 90% of our block, we get 10% off!

Tyrone even even allowed us to peek at the Presidential Sweet (aka Honeymoon Suite) even though the cleaning staff did not get to it yet.
It's spacious, gorgeous, and even has two bathrooms!

 The space for the Day-After Breakfast is bright, airy, and lovely.  It can seat up to 100 easily.

 Oh, and Tyrone gave us parting gifts for stopping by: a copy of The Knot DC and cookies!







The Courtyard Marriott

I know I promised not to cross any honest company trying to earn their money, unless they crossed me.  Well after waiting for The Chick-whose-name-escapes-me (not even the person Mike coordinated the room block rate with on the phone) to finally show up we then saw the Day-After Breakfast room.  It's dark and only seats 60.  Blah.

Then on our way to see the rooms The Chick realizes her master key doesn't work and leaves us standing there in a hallway for 5 solid minutes while she ran "real quick" to get more keys.  The rooms are nice, clean, but all different sizes as the building was once an office space for the NRA.

The Chick asks about our big day, making small talk, she then chuckles under her breath, "A Sunday wedding?! Haven't heard of one of those in awhile."    She's our age.  In awhile? Come on. Be professional.

The Courtyard Marriot runs $200/night and requires you to use the adjoining restaurant's catering service, with no discounts.  I don't believe there's an attrition rate. But there's The Chick to deal with.

The Honeymoon Suite was nice, but not very spacious.  (And covered in a little too much animal print for my liking)


The Rouge, by Kimpton

Immediately upon walking into The Rouge, Kate greeted us by name at the door. She then offered us ice tea and lemonade at their credenza, where they serve complementary wine from 5 to 7 daily during the summer.  Um, WOW.

The Rouge works off of a boutique hotel idea, but is owned by a small chain.  It's also DC's only green seal certified hotel.

This hotel ROCKS.  It's so avant-garde and fashion forward, I love it.  It runs on a red colored, retro theme throughout.

The block room rate for The Rouge runs $179 for a king room and $199 for a double queen. (No attrition rate, ever)  It's honestly worth the extra dough for such an awesome place!

 The only bummer is the space for a Day-After Breakfast can only hold 40 people.

However their Junior Suites all come with Wii game systems!


The Decision
What it boils down to is this: 
The DoubleTree not only has the best rate, but great customer service.  Their space for the Day-After Breakfast is gorgeous and the discount incentives are great.  We will reserve the bulk of our rooms there.
(Plus they gave us COOKIES!)

Since The Rouge is closer to the Wedding/Reception site, second best in price, with great customer service, we will block the rest of our rooms there.   


(BTW, The DoubleTree is "C" on the map and The Rouge is covered up accidentally by my purple star - even though the star represents The Carnegie Institution!)

Now to put all this together to go as inserts with our Save the Dates! Whew!



{Map of Scott Circle thanks go Google Maps}
{All other photos courtesy of Yours Truly, Me.}