Sneak Peek: Out-of-Town Bags

When you plan a wedding it's easy to get swept up in "Me Too." To avoid this, for every DIY project or item we look at whether it reflects "Us."

As you've surmised by now, food is very important to us. As you're also aware, we're on a budget. A budget means we need to make decisions as to how much we do.

For our out-of-town bags (OOT bags), we wanted to spend no more than $500. That means our OOT bags are a DIY project where quantity versus quality came in to play. Here we opted for quality over quantity. 

Before we reveal what we're doing, I need some of our readers to stop reading here.

Members of Dan's Family

(Image Source)

PLEASE STOP READING NOW

Okay, is everyone who's in Dan's family gone? Yep? Yay! I hate keep secrets, but at the same time I want people to be surprised. 

We didn't want to skimp on food that represents San Francisco. We also didn't want to stock our bags with items that our guests were just going to toss. With these two goals in mind, we decided to limit the OOT bags to just cubes' immediate family (Mom, Dad, Nan, and sister Jamie will receive an OOT bag). cubes' brother is in our wedding party and will be getting a Day-of Survival Bag. Don't worry, there will be some additional goodies in his bag for cubes' Sister-in-Law.

Besides a Wedding VIP Contact card, customized Google Map, and Weekend Guide, here's what we're going to be including in our OOT bags.

The Goodies ($420 - less than our $500 budget)

1. Canvas Maptote from at the WeddingChannel. On sale for $13.99 (regularly $15.00).
2. San Francisco Food Lover's Pocket Guide, Second Edition from BettyCrocker Store. $8.15.
3. Tickets for Anchor Steam Brewery Tour. Free.
4. Tylenol, Advil, and Pepto-Bismol packets from Minimus.biz. $0.39 to $0.95 each.
5. Columbus Italian Dry Salame. $8.50.
6. Tcho Hot Chocolate and Chocolate Bars. $21.50.
7. Ritual Coffee Beans, 12 oz. $15.95.
8. Boudin 8 oz Sourdough Round. $2.83.
9. Re:newal Premium Spring Water. $1.29 each. (This bottled water is eco-friendly. The BPA-free, biodegradable bottle and label are made entirely from plants not crude oil.) 
10. Bi-Rite Creamery Gift Certificate. $10.00.
11. Portable Wine and Cheese Set from Picnic Fun for picnicking in the park or at the vineyards. $18.00.

What did you do for your OOT bags? Did you go for quantity over quality?

Check back next Wednesday for a Sneak Peek at the Survival Bags we put together for our wedding party.

DIY Project: Out-of-Town Bags

After traveling for work and heading out to Belden for Priceless, we're back! And we're thinking/planning our wedding once again.

Over the past month, 100 Layer Cake has featured a couple of Guest Totes. One for NYC, Brooklyn, and last week Palm Springs. These guest totes got me thinking about our OOT bags once again. (These are one DIY Project that has been added to and deleted from our To Do list many times so far.)

San Francisco is known for many things. So it stands to reason that putting a unique out-of-town bag (OOT bag) together is somewhat challenging.

Before renewing the search for San Francisco items, I took a step back and thought about what represented us. We love food. Cooking and our favorite restaurants are featured in our wedding. Idea! Our OOT bag should be about food!

The Goodies from San Francisco that We Love

1. San Francisco Food Lover's Pocket Guide
2. Anchor Steam Beer Maybe we should offer guests the option to go for a tour of the brewery the Friday before the wedding?
3. Bi-Rite Creamery and Bakeshop Where we ventured for dessert on our third date. We first stuffed ourselves full of pizza at Delfina Pizzeria.
4. Boudin Sourdough The oldest sourdough bakery in San Francisco. My favorite sourdough bakery was Parisian - the second oldest sourdough bakery - which is now unfortunately shuttered.
5. Columbus A salame I grew up with. Once located in North Beach/San Francisco, they've now moved to Hayward.) Or Molinari & Sons Italian Dry Salame an Italian Dry Salame that's still located in San Francisco - unfortunately one that I'm unable to eat as it's made with dairy. Or Boccalone with its retail location in the SF Ferry Building (production is across the bay in Oakland).
6. Ritual Coffee Roasters They offer tea as well. In fact on one of our early dates, we stopped at Ritual on Valencia for a cup of tea. NOTE: We considered Blue Bottle - our favorite coffee - but it originated in Oakland, not San Francisco.
7. Tcho Say chocolate and San Francisco and immediately everyone thinks Ghirardelli or See's (headquartered in South San Francisco near where I grew up). At Priceless this past weekend, I discovered Tcho - the only chocolate factory in San Francisco today.

What do you think of our OOT bag so far? Think it represents the San Francisco we know and love? What else would you add?