Many brides take their bachelorette party as a fun excuse to get out of town, but some fail to realize that this means their bridesmaids and close friends all feel obligated to dip into their savings to come along for the ride.

As this bachelorette party planning checklist from The Knot attests, it’s important to give the bride the bachelorette experience she wants, but when do you draw the line? Would you sign up for a trip to Palm Springs? New York? Mexico? Europe? Would you be excited or annoyed?

Do out of town bachelorette parties make you want to rant or rave?

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Out-of-town bridesmaids have to struggle to plan and prep for your wedding remotely, plus the extra burden of paying for flights and hotels for all of your events.

If you have out-of-town bridesmaids, do you expect them to attend your bridal shower and bachelorette party on top of flying in for your entire wedding weekend? Would you be offended if they didn’t? Rant or rave about it!

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Since my wedding was held in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, I wanted to show the out-of-towners that Michigan, and especially Detroit, Michigan, could actually be a pretty cool and beautiful place to visit, despite its poor reputation.  To do this, I put together some very personal, hometown gift bags for my guests, without spending a ton of money.

To start, I bought the bags themselves from Oriental Trading to match our wedding colors.  Buying in bulk saved a ton of money, and you can even have the bags personalized (although I printed my own labels).  Next, I headed to Costco and purchased bottled water and small bags of local Better-Made chips emblazoned with the Detroit Tiger’s Logo (a lucky find!).  I also ordered Mackinac Island Fudge in bulk to please our guest’s sweet tooth.  Finally, by contacting my state’s Travel and Tourism department, I was able to get 120 state and local maps for free.  I also put together my own list of “things to do” with specific foods, features and places that my fiancee and I loved in the area.

As a final touch, I purchased some locally-grown Michigan Cherries and Apples at Costco so the guests would have something healthy to munch on.  Because almost everything was purchased in bulk, I was able to spend a little and give a lot.  And, using hometown goodies made everything really personal.  Do you have any ideas of your own for hotel gift bags?

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That’s why it’s important for every bride-to-be (and their families and friends!) to make sure they get the word out about their various events with time to spare.  Of course, they want all of the people closest to them to be present at their event.  But, depending on the date and number of out of town guests, that can be quite a challenge.

The general rule that most people should follow is to get party invitations out at least three weeks in advance, with a month being even better.  As far as wedding invitations go, anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks is best.  If you follow these rules, you’ll give all of your out of town guests time to  schedule and save on flights, take vacation time and truly get excited about your event.  If your event falls on or near a holiday, it’s best to give them as much notice as you can.

And don’t forget–Wedding Paper Divas has some great Save-the-Date cards that will let your guests start planning well before the big day.  These can be sent out anywhere from 4 to 9 months in advance, so you can assure that everyone will be available to celebrate!

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This interactive site asks you to enter the city, state and date of your wedding, then generates a Google map of the area that you can use to mark where the ceremony and reception will be. But the fun doesn’t stop there–you can add icons for you and your local relatives’ homes, your favorite restaurants, entertainment venues, hotels, airports and local attractions.

You can also add personalized messages and images that will pop up when guests first access the site and when they place their cursor over any location you highlight. Plus, you can use the site to look up local vendors and connect with the wedding community in the city you select.

This online tool is easy to use, really fun to do and totally free! I think it’s a great way to help your guests become acquainted with your city and to get everyone excited about your upcoming nutpials!

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