Chicago Out of Town Welcome Basket- the ingredients

We love making custom wedding welcome baskets for clients across the country and this past week we put together and shipped 25 baskets for a client getting married in Chicago! I wanted to show you the finished product and some some of the fantastic items that filled it!

First, this is the BEST caramel popcorn I've ever had in my life... In fact, we over ordered purposefully and we have a giant metal bucket full of this stuff in our office. Check out all of the amazing products Garrett Popcorn has to offer- a staple for a Chicago welcome basket.

When we started designing our line of out of town welcome baskets I knew I wanted a great coffee or tea in each of them.... we tried many many different companies and varieties and out of every city and state basket we offer, Metropolis Coffee is by far the best coffee I've ever tasted... great people to work with, great packaging, great all around and the coffee is amazing!!!

Finally, we always have a custom welcome map in each of our baskets which includes 5 points of interest of your choice. We used to have a graphic designer in our office so we were able to produce these on our own... Now that we don't have a graphic designer, I attempted to make the map on myself before quickly realizing I was way over my head in Adobe Illustrator and I had to call upon an expert to help finish the project... enter Gus and Ruby Letterpress.... Whitney and Sam graciously moved a few things around for us last week to tidy up and beautify this custom map for Maria and Sam! Thank goodness too, there's looks SO much cuter than mine did :)

There you have it, adding personalized and hand-selected products in our welcome baskets is one of the main reasons ours stand out. We think they're pretty well designed too, if we can say so ourselves! Happy planning! KP

To learn more about our line of Out of Town Welcome Baskets, check out our website! We always make new custom baskets for any city/state/wedding destination!

Out of Town Accommodations

When we get hired to plan a wedding, 95% of our clients are planning a New England destination wedding. Because of this statistic, one of the first things we do for our clients is find them overnight accommodations for their guests. The quicker you can take care of this to-do item, the better, since there are many factors affected by these decisions. Here are a few things to think about when reserving your accommodations for your out of town guests:

1. ROOM BLOCKS- some hotels will offer room blocks that you can reserve and offer your guests. Often times there is a reduced room rate with your block, but that's not always the case. In the height of the summer season in New England, many hotels will offer you the courtesy of reserving rooms because they will otherwise sell out. Some hotels will require attrition on the room block which means you are required to fill a certain % of the total block, often times it's around 80%, and if you don't, you are responsible for paying for the rest of the rooms. Make sure you check in with your hotel to see how your block is filling up. Many hotels start their room blocks at 10 rooms and then will continue to add to it as you fill the rooms. If and when you reserve your room blocks, make sure you include the name of the block on your Save The Date or your wedding invitation to make it easier on your guests.

2. PRICING- we always suggest trying to get room blocks at three hotels around your wedding location that reflect three different price points to help your guests. Some people at your wedding might have just graduated college and don't have the means to spend $300/night for a hotel room. Some of your parents guests might want to make a mini-vacation out of it and splurge on their accommodations for the wedding. No matter the reason, try to find three different price points to make it as convenient as possible for your guests. One other thought, especially if you can't get a reduced rate for your room blocks, is to ask about a AAA or AARP rate. This can often be up to $10.00 cheaper than the going rate for hotel rooms.

3. STATIONERY- please try to take care of your guest accommodations as soon as you can in order to include this information in your Save the Date and/or Invitations. We suggest including the hotel name, address, phone, website, room block information and pricing if you have that information. Also consider including whether or not there is a 2-night minimum.

4. WELCOME BASKETS- if you'd like to include welcome baskets or welcome itineraries for your guests you will need to know where everyone is staying. Getting a room block at a hotel is the easiest way to keep track of your guests, since everyone will be in the same area. For the hotels that don't offer blocks, you will have to contact your guests directly to find out where they're staying. Write an email asking people to let you know where they're staying, include some sort of check box on your wedding website, or go old school and make a few phone calls.

5. TRANSPORTATION- similar to your welcome basket situation, you need to know how many guests are staying at each hotel in order to reserve the appropriate vehicles.

Getting this item checked off your list soon than later will help keep you organized and will help get your other vendors involved the information they need. Good luck with your planning and have a happy wedding!

KP

KPW product line has been blogged about!

I am honored to share this great blog post about some of the KPW products we offer to our clients written by So Chic Events!


http://sochicevents.blogspot.com/2009/07/welcome-your-guests.html

Thanks so much Shelby for blogging about us!

Take a look at So Chic Events website when you have a chance at: www.sochicevents.com

How to make an Out of Town Welcome Basket- a tutorial

We have expanded the Kate Parker Weddings brand to include a number of products, most notably our custom Out of Town Welcome Baskets. We have been blogged numerous times showing off our products and occasionally someone comments on how expensive our baskets cost. While OOT welcome baskets are often a DIY project for many brides, I wanted to show you our process so you get a better sense of how involved they can be from the ordering through shipping of each individual basket. We will ship to as many hotels as a client requests, contacting each hotel in advance to let them know our baskets are coming. In addition we send each box with a list of guests as to minimize any confusion. I hope this tutorial gives inspiration for the DIY brides and maybe even some expert secrets and tips of the trade! Enjoy.



The first step is laying out all of the containers and filling them with whatever filler the client has requested. We have a number of containers available on our website but are always open to finding the perfect item if a client is looking for something a little different. The same goes with our filler- paper shred, crinkle paper, tissue paper, natural burlap...you name it, we can find it!



Next we add the heaviest of the items, usually the waters. We use local water companies within New England and then we use Fiji waters for the rest of the country. Sometimes we have them next to one another, other times we will separate them to make room for other larger items.



For this Chatham, MA basket, we wanted to include a Cape Cod travel guide as well as a map of the area for each guest. We usually get this from the local Chamber of Commerce and often times we create custom welcome letters and maps for our clients.



Because this basket wasn't very tall we needed to roll up the map and local guide. It ended up being cuter this way!




A KPW welcome basket isn't complete without our signature medicine kit which includes Tylenol, Advil, and Pepto Bismol. You never know how traveling will treat your guests.



Here is a photo of a completed basket. We like to include the following in each of our baskets: A sweet snack, a salty snack, 2 waters, a medicine kit, chamber of commerce guides and map, and an adorable container with filler. Some clients like to add additional items, some like a few less.



Sometimes we have to put items together in order to accommodate the size of the basket. Here we are creating bags of salt water taffy.



Here we are making small 2 cup bags of the BEST caramel popcorn in the world, Garrett's Popcorn in Chicago... it is so fabulous!



When the baskets are completed they are lined up to check for symmetry and to double check all the contents are included in each basket.




Packing baskets is not an easy thing, since we have to make sure the contents don't move or get destroyed in transit... we like to start with a large 30"x30" box filled with some biodegradable packing peanuts.



Each basket is wrapped in bubble. We don't like to use cellophane for each basket- it's a waste of money and it's not easy for your guests to deal with.



Once the baskets are placed in the box they are covered in more peanuts and bubble wrap, ensuring their safe delivery to each hotel.