DC-Themed Wedding Welcome Bags

[jiveturk21]

I am getting married in DC in June and we are starting to think about the small things to get done, one of those are the Welcome Bags that we are going to have at the hotels for all of our guests. When my sister got married in October in Virginia, it was pretty easy to find items that were made in Virginia for these Welcome Bags - Hokie Water, Route 11 Potato Chips, Virginia Peanuts, Sparkling Apple Cider, etc. Unfortunately, I am coming up pretty empty when trying to do the same thing for DC.

Any help would be appreciated, I am even finding a tough time finding any company that makes any food product in DC.

[catharine]

Not fabulous, but this might help. (Scroll to the bottom.)

Congratulations!

[Pat]

One idea would be cookies from a local bakery and DC-shaped cookie cutters (which Hill's Kitchen carries).

[Tweaked]

Uncle Brotha's Hot Sauce...also available at Hill's Kitchen

[msnolan04]

Georgetown Cupcakes?

[KMango]

Georgetown Cupcakes?

Building on the Georgetown idea, a trip to their campus bookstore and that of GW, American, others could yield some interesting items emblazoned with their logos. Not "locally made", for sure, but at least locally themed.

[cheezepowder]

You could include chocolates from J. Chocolatier. She has a store in Georgetown though it's not listed on her website. Also here's more information.

Or chocolates from Localat.

[ktmoomau]

Or the America America store in Union Station- you might find patriotic water or something. They have chocolates with the capital and all sorts of stuff like that- I think you can find them in that chocolate shop at Farragut North, near the Grooming Lounge. Or White House ornaments? They are always beautiful. They might not have the new ones though so you might have to get last years.

[bookluvingbabe]

Drink More Water had bottles of Obama water for the inaguration. I don't know if they have other themed water through the year.

[synaesthesia]

Chocolate and regular salty oat cookies from Teaism. Jam or pasta sauce from Copper Pot. Red Apron beef jerky? (that might be more VA). J Chocolatier has some tasty dark chocolate truffles, salted caramel, and absinthe chocolates. If you're willing to extend to NOVA, Michel Patisserie macarons are awesome. Also check out Cork Market to see what they have... there might be some good options there.

[porcupine]

Cookies by PollyStyle: website

[monavano]

ackc chocolate bars

my fave- quaker valley sour cherry jam (dupont market)

hard times chili mix and hot sauce

[jayandstacey]

A different but related idea:

We came up with this for our wedding and it was a hit, especially for out-of-towners.

Make the table names to be key places in your relationship and around the City. So Uncle Buck, instead of sitting at Table 7, sits at the "Jefferson Memorial Table" or the "Tastee Diner Table". Then, on each table place a little tent card that shows that name on the front and the story of why you chose that name on the back. "The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated on Jan 1, 1850 and stands over the tidal basin. Sally and I were engaged there on April 2, 2008 in Jefferson's shadow and by the famous Japanese Cherry Blossom trees in full bloom." Each table a different name and story. Choose places, restaurants, wine names, song names or pet names or whatever. The only requirement is there be an interesting and personal story behind each.

Doing this accomplishes three things:

1. It tells a very personal story about you two and your world.

2. It encourages guests to mingle to read all the little stories at the other tables.

3. If gives you something fun to do and think about, while also being very accomplishable and low-key.

[leleboo]

A different but related idea:

We came up with this for our wedding and it was a hit, especially for out-of-towners.

Make the table names to be key places in your relationship and around the City.

I did this, but mine were all places in Paris, because that was where we were going on our honeymoon -- and I didn't do the stories, which I think is an awesome idea, particularly for this query. Nice!

[RWBooneJr]

These are the things I'd want to have if I were a tourist and somebody gave me a bag:

An actual plastic Metro Smartrip Card

Salty Oat Cookies from Teaism

Fleur de Sel Caramels from Artisan Chocolates

Decent water. Hotels are really chintsh on water.

Everything else should be special to you.

[jiveturk21]

Wow!!! Thanks to everyone for the advice, lots of things to think about and look into. I will be pretty busy over the next few weeks trying to figure out what will be perfect for those welcome bags, I will let everyone know how it turns out, and please keep the ideas coming!

[Anna Phor]

Senate bean soup mix.

[jiveturk21]

I just want to thank everyone, again, for their help with this. My fiance and I went back and forth on this for a while, and we decided that anything in the bag had to be something that they could use/eat while they were in the city. So, even though there were some great ideas - Senate Bean Soup Mix, Hard Times Chili Mix, Quaker Valley Sour Cherry Jam, Pasta Sauce from Copper Pot - we decided not to go that route. We ended up with the following items in our welcome bags - two bottles of water, two cupcakes from Lily Lane Cakes (La La Lemon and Mini Carrot Cake), box of two chocolates (Pistachio-Cherry and Malted Milk) from Artisan Chocolates, a bag of Virginia Peanuts from Feridies and two DC Lottery tickets. It was VERY tough finding stuff made in DC as opposed to VA, especially on the salty side, so we just went with the stuff that we liked best.

We are also taking photos of monuments/buildings in DC and framing them for our table numbers at the reception, so I appreciate that idea from the group. We wanted to make them "special places" to us, but that became way toomuch work because we had to think of the story, write it and thenfind a picture of that place, so we took the easy road on that one.