The wedding is fast approaching which means we will have a full house of family and friends staying with us. A lot of our guests are travelling all the way from Australia and for some it will be their first trip to America!

Making your guests feel welcome and special is a gift that truly enriches their experience and their stay with you. It also let’s your loved ones know how much they mean to you. And the best part of all? IT’S EASY & INNEXPENSIVE!!!

All you have to do is give just a little bit of your time. Once you’ve purchased the essentials listed below, you will never have to buy them again, yet these essentials can be enjoyed by many of your guests for years to come.

If you have a designated guest room, you probably already know the fundamentals that everybody knows … provide clean sheets, clean towels, and maybe go above and beyond and stock a few of the basics like soap and shampoo. If you stop there, most likely, your guests will see this as nice … but will they feel special? Here is a way to make them feel loved, feel special and feel welcomed. Honestly, these three easy steps have made my guests happier than any gift we could have given them.

Essentials: This is all you will need:

1. Some picture frames of various sizes (a few 4×6, 5×7 and even throw in some 3×3)
2. A corkboard with a nice frame
3. A basket, bucket, box (anything) that can hold their favorite snacks

THAT’S IT!

Now I’ll tell you where the “specialness” comes in.

1. Your picture frames of various sizes: I personally have 8 frames, that look something like this:

The style of the frames is completely up to you – any mismatching frames of various sizes will do. Now, you have to fill these frames with pictures of your guests. Try to make them as personal as possible, but if you can’t, there’s always the wonderful world of social media that has LOTS of their personal pictures that you can download and print at home. Print them out and fill ALL of your frames. Continue this tradition as new people don your guest room … the pictures of people who have stayed there before are underneath the newest special guest.

2. A corkboard with a nice frame: You can get as fancy or as minimalistic as you want for this one. This board will contain a wonderful “welcome” message, along with things your guests may need to know around the house … wifi passwords, where snacks and drinks are kept, how to work the television, how to turn on the spa, where to find more towels etc. Consider this a “welcome” and “house rules” board. If you have left over pictures, add them to the board. Below are some examples of corkboards.

3. A bag, bucket, basket (anything): Use this to fill with their favorite snacks and items that might be helpful. Here are a few examples. In some of these, I actually had time to whip up some custom labels for each treats … but you don’t need to go through all of that. Just find out what their favorite snacks are, favorite wine, favorite late-night munchies, favorite magazine etc. It helps if you have someone on the inside who knows what they love! Also provide a little pad of paper and pen in case they need to take notes. I have even sometimes made individual labels for my guests and got them ‘sippy’ cups with their names on them. I also went down to AAA and got a couple of tour books and maps since they wanted to venture out and see southern California for themselves. Again – FREE!

This is my ‘go to’ whenever i have guests stay. We even did a segment about it on Home & Family last holiday season so check it out below! So the next time you have guests coming to visit, think about how you can personalize their stay and make it just a little extra special. Or if you have your own special tips and tricks for getting your home “Guest Ready”, we would love to hear them!

Xoxo,

Paige