Behind the Inquiry: What Really Happens After a Planner Reaches Out to Lavender + Pine
Planner Support + Behind the Scenes | Welcome Gift Bags | Wedding Season
There's a moment in the planning timeline when welcome gifts move from "we'll figure that out later, there's plenty of time" to "we need to take care of this now" and in our experience, that moment can be in the very beginning of planning OR at the six-week (or less) mark. There's rarely an in between!
But that's why we're here and we meet our clients where they're at. Honestly, this is the fun part for us..not because it's easy, but because it's where the work actually starts. Behind every inquiry is a Planner who cares about getting the details right, and a couple whose guests are about to arrive somewhere new and hopefully, feel genuinely welcomed.
That's where we come in.
Here's an honest look at what happens on our end the moment you reach out.
This Time of Year, Our Inbox Looks a Little Like Yours
May through July is one of our busiest stretches. Planners are finalizing vendor contracts, coordinating timelines, managing guest logistics and somewhere in that stack of to-dos is the day-of details and the welcome gifts. We hear from a lot of Planners who are all at different stages: some have a clear vision and need execution, some have a vibe and a budget and need direction, and some reach out simply knowing they want something and not yet knowing what.
All of those are fine starting points. There's no wrong way to inquire and the reason why this business exists.
Just this week (it's April 17th, 2026 as I write this)... and most weeks during peak season, the range of welcome gift requests reflects just how different every wedding actually is. Even when different couples are getting married the same month, in relatively similar regions, with similar guest counts. The needs an details are vastly different.
That's exactly why we don't operate from auto responses when a Planner reaches out via email, our contact form or specific event gifting form. Sure, you'll receive confirmation we received your email but our follow up is not a generic templated script. It's personalized to your request.
What to Expect When We Receive an Inquiry.
When a new inquiry comes in, we read it carefully. The details a Planner includes (or doesn't include) tell us a lot about where they are in the process and what kind of support will actually be useful. Also, working with a gift company is still new territory to many, so we keep that in mind as well.
Our responses ultimately depend on the inquiry itself and we will always provide the option to connect via virtual call but for the sake of this blog, I'm going to share a few things we're always thinking about before we respond to an inquiry that provides minimal information:
The questions we're already asking before we reply...
For the inquiries that come through via email and supply very little info, we always follow up with the below:
Guest count and timeline - These two details shape almost everything. The number of bags affects pricing and logistics. The timeline tells us whether we're working comfortably or whether we need to move quickly. (As a general rule, we recommend reaching out at least 4-6 weeks before your delivery date and earlier is always better for fully custom.)
Location and Venue - A destination wedding in the Hamptons calls for something completely different than a mountain lodge or a Hudson Valley estate. During the design phase, knowing where guests are arriving helps us determine best experience as well as delivery logistics
Budget range - Budget helps guide us to which direction we recommend for your event. So often, people don't know so we guide them. Our custom gifting starts at $4,000 with a $350 retainer for design and our pre-filled gifts have no minimums, sold in increments of 6 and have flexible options to make them more your own like changing the vessel style, ribbon color and even stationery elements! Gifting IS flexible and we work with you to figure out what's best.
The couple's overall vision - this also helps with direction. Whether a planner shares a mood board, a few words, or a detailed brief, any context about the couple's aesthetic or what they're hoping guests feel; helps us think like a creative collaborator rather than just a fulfillment vendor.
Why we always lead with options, not a single answer
One thing we try to avoid is presenting one definitive "here's what you should do" before we fully understand the inquiry. Gifting is not a on size fits all approach (it's also very flexible) which is why we typically share a few directions. To be clear, our goal is to not overwhelm with too many details or cause decision fatigue, but to share what can be done within the parameters we are given.
Doing this is our way of making sure the Planner is the expert on their client, and we're the expert on the gifting. The best outcome is almost always a conversation and collaboration, not a one-way "do this" pitch.
A Peek at Two Real Inquiries From This Week
We're in mid- April which means our June inquiries are starting to roll in. This week brought in two welcome bag inquiries with meaningful overlap; similar timeframes, location-inspired goals - but very different creative goals. Here's how we approached each one.
A Hamptons-Inspired Welcome Gift on a Leaner Budget
A planner reached out for a mid-June wedding with a Hamptons aesthetic and a budget that we wanted to keep top of mind. She was interested in incorporating some local snacks or regional touches to make the bags feel specific to the area.
This is something we genuinely love to work with. For our prefilled welcome bag designs, clients can absolutely add items to personalize the bag further. The way it works: if there are specific local products you have in mind: a favorite cookie, a regional snack, a small artisan item, you can either tell us what to source on your behalf, or have the items shipped directly to us for inclusion. What we're adding becomes part of the existing design rather than a full redesign, so the bag stays cohesive.
In this case, we sent over a few of our current and some newer welcome bag designs (as of April 2026, these haven't been launched yet!), including one that was already Hamptons-specific, relaxed and welcoming. We're hopeful it lands and can't wait to hear their feedback!
A European Garden Wedding Welcome Experience in the Catskills
The second inquiry this week was for an early June wedding with a wonderfully specific creative direction: European garden aesthetic, set in the Catskill mountain region of New York, with a goal of giving guests a genuine taste of the local area alongside some useful essentials that support a full weekend of events. On our call, this Planner emphasized the incredible "experience" she's designing for her clients which told us right off the bat that we're going custom.
Following our call, the Planner sent over her design deck and her clients filled out our custom design questionnaire so we can really dive into the curation.
One of the items on the wishlist: s'mores kits. Which, honestly, we were excited about. Not only is it a personal favorite but there's something about a thoughtfully curated s'mores kit arriving in a welcome bag for a Catskills wedding that just makes sense; it's experiential, it fits the setting, and it gives guests something to actually do while sitting by the fire at their hotels.
And we're not using Hershey's chocolate and Nabisco grahams here people. We're going into the heart of the Hudson Valley to source delicious chocolate, gooey marshmallows and crunchy graham crackers from the makers themselves. Locally made, small batch, real ingredients. This is what we do.
This inquiry is a fully custom gift - a collaborative process where we develop the concept, the curation, and the presentation together with the Planner. The European Garden lens gives us a lot of beautiful material to work with: lush, textural, a little romantic, fun and grounded in the landscape. The experiential elements gives us a lot of creative room to work with and the Hudson Valley products we source will indeed deliver. We're looking forward to diving into this one.
The Detail Most Planners Don't Know About - Local Snack Inclusion
Because it came up this week, it's worth noting this: we actively prioritize local and regional items for custom welcome bags, and for prefilled designs, adding 1-2 items is more straightforward than most planners expect.
For pre-filled designs, there's no sourcing fee for us to buy a specific product on your behalf - you just let us know the exact brand you'd like us to include. Or if you'd rather handle the buying yourself, you can have items shipped directly to our studio and we'll incorporate them.
The one thing to keep in mind: we keep product inclusion to 1-2 items only. If the additions would significantly change the structure of a prefilled design (Ex: different sizing, major layout changes, a new concept altogether) - that moves into custom territory, and a design fee would apply due to the time re-working the design.
But for most "we'd love to add a local honey or a regional chocolate bar" situations? Of course we can do it, just let us know what the brand and we'll happily include it!
It's a small service that makes a real difference in how location-specific a gift feels. For destination weddings especially, the local element is often what guests remember most and it gives all of us an opportunity to support more local businesses. We've found out about some incredible brands we would have otherwise never known if it wasn't for our couples including something different!
What "Custom" Actually Means in Our Process
At Lavender + Pine, there are essentially two ways to work with us:
Prefilled welcome bags - These are fully designed, ready-to-go gift bags that we've curated with intention. They're cohesive, beautiful, and available to browse on our site. Planners who love the design can order as-is, or they can personalize with additions as described above. We can also include your clients stationery! Browse our prefilled welcome gift bags
Custom welcome bags - This is a collaborative build from the ground up. It starts with understanding the couple, the setting, the guest experiences the planner is trying to create, and the budget. From there, we develop a concept and refine it together. Custom builds involve a design retainer fee that's applied to your total, a $4k minimum and work best when there's enough lead time (6+ weeks) for the conversation. Start a custom inquiry
Most planners fall into one of two camps pretty quickly once they see our existing designs: either something speaks to them immediately and they build from there, or they know the vision is specific enough to need something new. Both are legitimate paths and we're set up for both.
What to Have Ready When You Reach Out
Honestly, there's no need to wait until everything is figured out before getting in touch, that's what the inquiry conversation is for. But the more context you can share upfront, the faster we can get to something useful.
A few things that help:
- Guest count - even a rough estimate, or even if you know you'd like one gift per guest or one gift per room. We understand counts arent finalized until a month out anyway!
- Desired delivery date or wedding date - so we know how much runway we have
- Location - city, hotel or venue if you have it confirmed
- Budget range - even a ballpark. We can guide you if you need help!
- Any aesthetic references - a color palette, a mood board, stationery inspo, a photo you keep coming back to
- Any specific items you have in mind - especially your clients favorite snacks or an experience you're creating
Rest assured, you don't need all of this to reach out. But having even a few of these details ready makes the first response we send you much more useful than a generic "tell us more." We understand how incredibly busy Planners are and we're all about efficiency and getting you what you need rather quickly.
Ready to See What We'd Build for Yours?
If you're in the middle of planning a May, June, or July wedding and welcome gifts are still on the list - now is a good time to reach out. We're currently building for that window and love having enough lead time to do the work well.
Whether you're drawn to one of our existing designs or you're working with a vision that needs something built from scratch, the best next step is the same: start the conversation.
Browse our welcome gift collection
No pressure, no hard pitch... just an honest look at what's possible and what makes sense for your clients' wedding day!
