A few weeks ago, I went to Costco and priced out items for the OOT welcome bags. Yes, I walked around Costco with a notebook and pen and did research. It felt very official.

I’m way ahead of when I can actually start assembling the bags, but I wanted to get the shopping out of the way because a) I have enough things to keep on the mental to-do list, and b) Costco’s inventory changes constantly and my research would be moot if I didn’t get down to business.

All of the food is dated late 2009 (or later), so I went for it. And when I got home, I immediately did a test run — minus a few things that I’ll have to repackage into individual servings at a later date: dried fruit, peppermint patties and gingerthins.

The bags are from Target (and a lucky find, since the typeface almost matches the one we’re using for everything else). The Salem Visitors’ Center gave me a box of visitor guides (for free!), and they’re like little magazines. That was a nice surprise. In front of the travel guide is a Willamette Valley winery guide, and peeking out in front of the S. Pellegrino (my big splurge) is a Heart in Oregon sticker. On the right is an Ikea jar with a nut assortment (another treat I’ll be repackaging… later). And the rest is standard fare — little chocolate chip cookies, Sunchips, bottled water.

But as soon as I unfolded the little bag, I knew there was a problem. There was no way all that stuff was going to fit.

I’m not sure what I was thinking. When I bought the bags, I can very distinctly remember thinking, how in the world am I going to fill these? Clearly, I found a way. Somehow.

The voice of reason says to keep the bottled water and ditch the Pellegrino. So what if it was on sale? And, ahem, so what if you love Pellegrino? The Kirkland bottled water is 25 cents a bottle. Seriously.

But the voice of aesthetics says, excuse me, that Pellegrino is in a beautiful glass bottle. And — bonus — you wouldn’t have to go through the painstaking process of removing all those Kirkland labels and replacing them with your own. Checking an item off the DIY checklist (with exactly zero effort) sounds pretty good right now, no?

I’ve gone back and forth about 20 times on out-of-town bags. On one hand, OOT bags are essentially another favor for our wedding, since nearly all of our guests are traveling in for the big day. But on the other hand, I love the idea of playing hostess, even in some small way, for all of our wonderful friends and family members. How lovely would it be to arrive at your hotel, tired from a day of travel, and find some nice goodies waiting for you?

So I decided that we would do OOT bags as long as they were simple and economical. If I had my druthers, the “bags” would be Container Store baskets or boxes filled to the brim with delectable treats, Oregon-themed momentos, and a letterpressed card. But I settled on a more realistic (and hopefully still thoughtful) plan: a simple bag with bottled water (with custom labels), a couple of treats (packaged by yours truly), and a Willamette Valley wine tasting guide (note to self: I need to start gathering these). There might be one other thing as well, but I’m still doing some research, so it’ll be a surprise if it turns out.

I was killing some time at Target this evening, and I found these fantastic bags:

They only had one package, and they don’t sell them online, but I’m going to swing by the other local Targets and see if I can find more. I think they’re fabulous. They’re an unexpected choice for me for a couple of reasons; I never use a typeface that’s similar but not exactly the same as the other members of a suite, and I’m often not into pre-printed items. But this typeface is remarkably similar to the one we’re using, it won’t be in company with the other printed goods, and the design is quite tasteful. Finish them off with some ribbon and a custom tag — perfect!

Snippet & Ink featured some fantastic DIY projects by Paul Lowe, and I’m enamored. How lovely are these votives?

I’ve been sitting with my summer 2008 Martha Stewart Weddings for a couple of weeks, and there really are some fabulous finds in there. I must admit I was slightly irritated that one article is talking about being a bride on a budget (aside: anyone else notice the expanded DIY section?) and a few pages later, they’re talking about giving iPods as attendant gifts. (I love my girls, but how does $1,500 for gifts fit into a smaller budget?) But once I got past that, I found some fun music suggestions and downloadable templates. Oh, and the cuff links… Definitely one of the highlights, great variety.

I found the crafty girl who made the cake toppers for the wedding I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. Unsurprisingly, it sounds like she’s pretty booked up, which gets me wondering if I could DIY something vaguely similar…

What a brilliant idea: Having a space on the RSVP card for people to make a song request for the reception. Fantastic for those of us who are iPod-ing it.