Info Packets For Out Of Town Guests

I'd thought I would have to hold off on this project until about a month before the wedding, but we were able to schedule the time for our rehearsal sooner! This turns out to be good and bad--good in that I could now make the info packets for our OOT boxes, bad because there's been a wedding scheduled at our venue the night before ours, meaning we can't store anything there ahead of time.

You might remember the embroidery floss binding I did on our programs, which I considered doing again for these info packets. But since I'm a stickler for punishment, I decided to play with a slightly different binding method for these, involving hole punching and threading ribbon.

First though, I spent a couple evenings laying out the info and printing everything out. Most of the content came from our wedding website, so it was mostly just a matter of figuring out how to arrange the pages so they would print double sided.

After cutting the pages down to 8.5" x 5.5", I then cut slits in the back cover, for the pocket detail card.

Next up was the hardest part, punching 8 holes in each packet. Even though I was using text weight purple paper for most of the pages, this step took FOREVER, and ultimately made binding these 30 info packets harder than floss binding the 60 programs.

I did print a faint row of circles as a punch guide on the cover page though, which helped speed up the process of hole punching a bit, but didn't do anything for my cramping hand.

Once the punching was done, I cut the end of purple 1/8th inch ribbon (left over from decorating our favor boxes) at an angle, and threaded it through the punched holes. This part was actually quicker than the floss binding, because I didn't have to thread a needle each time, but because the hole punching took me so long, I still think the floss binding method was quicker overall than this method.
(Like my PJ pants? :) )

After threading the ribbon, I just tied it in a knot on the back side and trimmed the excess.

All done! And the perfect size to fit in our 9" x 6" x 6" OOT boxes.
So, that was the binding and assembly process, now, want to see the content inside these packets?

A thank you for coming message and contact list:

The overview map from our invitations and a schedule of the weekend's events:

Rehearsal dinner map, details and directions:

Wedding map, details and directions:
Sunday luncheon map, details and directions:

A bunch of pages with descriptions and directions to fun things to do in the area, but I won't bore you by showing all of the pages; they all basically looked like this:

The back cover held the business card sized pocket details sheet:
I actually got this idea from Mrs. Apple Cider. When unfolded, this pocket sized sheet includes contact phone numbers, the at a glance schedule, and directions to the three main events. Perfect for guests to just put in their pocket or purse!

Now the only thing left to do is to stuff the OOT boxes with some treats for our guests, and drop them off at the hotel! Oh, and make an even more detailed schedule and list of things we need help with the day-of for our wedding party and parents, but that's a whole 'nother post.

How will you be getting all the important wedding event details like contact info and directions to your out of town guests?

"Here's Your Room Key and Your Box of Treats!"

Yep, like so many bees before me, we're doing out of town boxes, to be handed out when our guests check into the hotel. Our hotel only charges if we want the boxes put in the rooms, so we're perfectly fine with them being handed out at the front desk for free!

I found some inexpensive 9" x 9" x 6" kraft gable boxes from U.S. Box, but unfortunately they only came in 50 packs, so I have some left over. I'm estimating we'll need to give out about 24 OOT boxes (one per room), and so I made 5 extra, just in case.

And how will I decorate the boxes, you ask? With layered ribbon and paper, of course!

I didn't do that much to decorate these, because, who am I kidding, nobody is going to save the boxes! So I just cut and ironed two layers of ribbon, and hot glued them around the boxes.

Then I made quick signs for the boxes, and glued them on, along with some punched flower embellishments.

Quick, cute, done.

Well, almost done! I still have to make a packet of information for everyone, which will include the schedule of events, maps, things to do in the area, and contact info for the wedding party. But I can't make the packet until we nail down our rehearsal time, which we can't do until one month prior to our wedding. As much as I'd like to have this done in advance, it's going to have to be a somewhat last minute project.

And a month before the wedding we'll also have to stuff these boxes with some snacks, which we're planning to raid Costco for. I'm thinking each box will get 2 water bottles, some chips, beef jerky, gum, travel size Advil, and whatever else strikes our fancy on our Costco run.

Will you be doing OOT boxes for your guests? What ideas to you have for snacks to go in the boxes?