The "Welcome to Maui" Gift Bags -or- "70 of everything please"

I am in the process of ordering all the things I need to put together the "Welcome to Maui" bags four our destination wedding. And because of the size of our wedding I have to order 70 of everything. Yikes.

My goal was to use as many local products as possible because Aaron and I strongly believe in supporting the local economy (both Maui, and the other Hawaiian islands). And with the help of the Hapa | Hale blog I was able to do exactly that! Leigh (the blog master at Hapa | Hale) really helped me out in a big way. The bags I was originally going to use were sold out until the end of September, and with our wedding being in the beginning of October I wasn't going to risk it. I'll admit it, I panicked a little, I hadn't come up with a plan B! I mean, these bags were pretty much perfect AND they were the ones used in the article that inspired me to make the welcome bags:

Modern Bride- Jun/Jul. 08

So I did what any panicked bride-to-be would do and googled like a mad-woman! I googled "welcome bags" "welcome to maui bags" "destination wedding welcome" "hawaiian bags" "OOT bags hawaiian" etc. And neither of these things resulted in what I needed to find, of course. So it was off to scour the archives of Hapa | Hale and that did the trick. I discovered the online Ailana Kai catalog. Their large Lauhala Tote Bags were perfect!  I also found a couple more products from her website that I'm going to ultimately use for the wedding.

SPOILER ALERT: if you are coming to the wedding and you want to be surprised, do not read any further!  There, I've said it.

Now here is my collage / mock up of our "Welcome to Maui" bags for our out of town (OOT- that's how they do it on the wedding message boards) wedding guests...

1. The bag pictured is not the one we're actually using. There just wasn't a decent picture of our actual bag. But they're both from AilanaKai.com. The one pictured is their Lauhala Tote. 

2. A map of Maui. We're also going to make a smaller, easier to read map that just shows the locations of the wedding events.

3. Maui Babe SPF 30. Ideally I would have loved to give everyone a bottle that size, but they're very expensive. So we are providing a smaller sampler size in the hopes that our guests will love it and purchase a bigger bottle while they're on the island. I also pretty much swear by their Browning Lotion as well. That stuff works even on pale-ass haolies like me.

4. Wow-Wee chocolate bars- Maui's candy bars. These are made on the island and come in 8 different flavors! And all of them sound insanely delicious. 

5. A mini first aid kit from Johnson & Johnson. You know, because accidents do happen while you're on vacation.

6. Hawaiian Springs water from the Big Island.

7. Maui Chips!!! They're my favorite snack on Earth. I have had them shipped from Maui to my apartment in West Hollywood. I don't care, there's nothing like them. 

8. Pretty sandlewood fans from Koyal Wholesale.

9. Kisses from Maui lip balm. By far my favorite local product that I've found. My mom and I got a couple of these babies back in May and I keep one on me at all times. I love this stuff. And the good thing is that they're colorless so the boys can use them too. But if you prefer color- they also make tinted lip gloss! 

So there. That's Megan's guide to Maui destination wedding gift bags. I'm still searching the 'ol internets and continuing to ask around for any more advice or suggestions for some affordable local products. So if anyone out there has any more ideas feel free to leave a comment and give me a heads up!

Mahalo!