Vacation Survival Kits

Last time, I talked about what should belong in our out-of-town bags, and several of you responded that Advil or Tylenol might be a good idea.
So I took your advice, and promptly had way too much fun in the travel-sized section of Target, REI and Walgreens.

Oops?

It's okay though - we'll put all this fancy stuff in cute little hibiscus bags.

And then we'll staple it up with a little list of "ingredients".

Don't ask.

Anyway, if my bad-attempt at being clever left you confused, our "survival kits" include sunscreen, shout wipes, lens wipes, Tylenol, Tums, and a little packet for first aid.

The leftover glassine envelopes from our tissue packets hold three bandages and two little alcohol wipes. Though I hope no one has need of the little guys, I did throw in one surprise per trio of band-aids.
Sparkles, in case there happen to be any "cold ones" in our crowd.

I think it's quite obvious that we need to just get married already. I feel like each pet-project is getting more and more absurd. But at least this one was fun and stress free. If only you could have seen the look on Sak's face when he saw Darth Jellyfish.

Is this our version of pre-wedding peace?

It very well may be.

Will you have emergency kits for your guests?

Out of Town, On an Island

A while back, I debated on what sort of out-of-town bags we should use. Well, to bring that story arc to a close, I decided to order the Hawaiian print totes.

They were cheap, cute, and I'm under the belief that one can never have too many bags.

Just for fun, we blinged them out a bit with some more buttons. Beachy-themed, of course.

Kudos to you if you "get" the very obscure reference on the bottom right button!

I put three buttons to the corner of each bag. Does that fill the "flair" quota for the day?

Inside the bag we'll include our welcome cards, in which we thanked our guests for coming.

And inside the welcome card I threw in this little bit of folded card stock:


I recycled an image I doodled for the blog a while back for the front. Doesn't it look like I just scribbled it on with a big, fat marker? Hehe. Sak didn't understand why this little scrap made me so happy. I think I've just been in planning-mode far too long. I'm losing my mind.

Sadly, our bags come to an abrupt end for now, as we plan to fill them in Hawaii. On the list of things to include, however:

-A bottle of sunscreen
-A bamboo beach mat
-A box of Hawaiian shortbread cookies

(source) I wish I could afford these most amazing cookies. Maybe if I buy in bulk?

-A package of ultra-strong-soy-sauce-infused rice crackers

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-Various pamphlets to Oahu attractions
-Some water bottles

Now, water bottles. I've had the water-bottle label on the pet-project list since day one. And luckily, I still had time for it! First, I created an 8.5x2" design.

We had it laser printed at Kinko's, and then we cut them out!

I'll just tape them onto some Hawaiian water bottles once we're there, like this:


Anything else I should add to our goodie bags? What's in yours, if you're assembling any?

The Welcome Pineapple

The other day, while digging for buried treasure in a Michael's dollar bin, I came upon these festive little cards:

Pineapple cards? For me? Yes please!

I figured I could use them in our out-of-town bags, as some-sort of a welcome/thank-you-for-coming letter. I took a few packs of them home and stuck them in a random "wedding-bin" in the house. Later, I took them out to show my mom, and then I realized - there's two pineapples on the front. Following my train of thought?

Pineapple card plus Sharpie equals...

Cute pineapple-people, of course!

Happy faces make everything cuter, I tell you. And they had all sorts of other fruits at Micheal's too. Like strawberries! How cute would a strawberry person be? I decided to stick with pineapples though, since they are pretty Hawaiian-esque. Sak was upset that they didn't have any limes and coconuts.

Funny how a cheerful pineapple can make a stressed-out bride smile. Maybe I should draw silly faces on everything else that stresses me out.

What's given you a de-stress moment recently? And any ideas on a good, "pineappley" opening line for this welcome letter?

Proper Packaging

Problem: What do I use to put our Out-of-Town goodies in?

Parameters:
- Needs to be big enough for a couple of water bottles, paper, snacks, etc.
- Needs to be able to flatten for easy transportation to Hawaii.

We could do boxes:

(source)

This would probably be easiest, but they are somewhat single-purpose. A bag, at least could be easily re-used.

How about pretty Hawaiian tote bags:

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I'm a big-bag-fanatic, but we are already giving our guests chair-cover-bags - would this be bag-overkill?

Maybe a meshy beach bag, instead:

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This is a little different from the favor bag, right?

Or maybe a fancy looking parcel wrap, tied up with strings:

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It's bound to be someone's favorite thing. Right? Though I don't know how I'd wrap something like a water bottle. That would probably have to sit to the side.

Or maybe we should just go with a towel rolled up with stuff:

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Yeah, I know what you're thinking - diaper cake. We can call this the beach-cake, no babies involved!

Any other ideas? I plan to take the packaging materials over to Hawaii with me, then fill it up with local goodies before the wedding - hopefully before all my guests show up!

If you made out-of-town favors, what did you put your guest's goodies in?