Shower in Geographical Location away from Current Home

[pearlbeachlady]

(Here's my Intro Post)

My FH and I live in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The bulk of our families live near Cleveland, Ohio.
These two locations are approximately 14 hours' drive from one another.

My dear best friend, with the help of my mother, is going to throw me a bridal shower and invite both sides of family who live in Ohio. Bottom line, we'll be

Comments

[lalanav]

I think it would be rude of you, personally, to ask people to ship things to your home in Arkansas - however, I think it would be perfectly acceptable to have the hosts of the shower 'spread the word' that, because of the distance, it would be really helpful if the guests could have shower gifts shipped there. Some people might still think it's weird to attend a shower without a gift in hand, so some might not do it (and others might just not be able to afford the shipping cost if they don't purchase enough to get free shipping), but my bet is most people will understand and show up with a card and a print-out or photo of what they got you, so they can still 'shower' you with something. :)

[ipsafictura]

Yup, this is exactly what I was going to say.

[pearlbeachlady]

Thanks :)

[pearlbeachlady]

Thank you for your feedback. Like you say, I didn't intend for FH or myself to ask that gifts be shipped to us. I was more asking if it would be something appropriate to include in the invitation.

To be honest, I'm more looking forward to time spent with some folks I don't see all that often more than I am the gifts they'll be showering us with. I'd be perfectly happy if they showed up with nothing!

[sailorgarnet]

What my mother and I always do for showers where the couple lives far away, is have the item shipped, and wrap a picture of the item up in a box for the guest of honour to open during the shower. While I don't think there's a polite way for YOU to indicate that you'd like something like that done, you could ask your mother and best friend to communicate that in the invitations. :)

For example: Pearlbeachlady and her fiance are registered at bed bath and beyond and amazon.com and to help them transport the gifts, please have them shipped to their home address: insert address here. So they still have the pleasure of opening your gift and seeing your thoughtfulness at the shower, please print and wrap a picture of your gift!

[pearlbeachlady]

Thank you for the example text for the invitation. That will come in handy. :) It's considerate of you to think about what to do when the couple lives far away. I don't know that I've ever been in that situation (we are one of the first ones to "move away").

[lissiehoya]

I was the maid of honor for iris4700's wedding and was throwing the shower with one of the other bridesmaids (who is also in LJ, but I don't know her username off the top of my head). Anyway, we actually did not put registry information in the invitation, but said, "For registry information and to RSVP, please contact email_we_created_for_the_shower." The other bridesmaid responded to all the RSVPs with the registry information. So if you don't want to put that note in your invitation, doing it this way would be another possibility.

Other than that, I like sailorgarnet's idea.

[meredith_mccraw]

Mt first bridal shower was thrown for me in a location that I had to fly to (and from) and was not where we were later holding the wedding. It was put bluntly in the invite for the shower that we were flying and for guests to keep that in mine when buying presents. We still got a few items that we had to stuff in our luggage, but mostly they either shipped to our home, or gave us gift cards. I didn't think it was rude to let people know that we would not be able to take home big, bulky items. If you let people know you are traveling by plane they will most likely buy appropriately. I think BBB does free shipping when you order from the registry, maybe not though...

[pearlbeachlady]

Thanks for your feedback.

[pearlbeachlady]

Thanks for your feedback.

One of the places we're likely going to register is Amazon.com, so they won't be able to go in and purchase items from there anyway. I thought it might be conducive to helping folks ship directly to us since they would have to have items shipped anyway.

I had no idea you could ship via Greyhound. Thanks for the info on that.

[amyleaton]

I don't have any great advice, but did want to drop in to say that taking them with you on your honeymoon is not a great idea. My cousin recently did that, and their car was broken into. They lost everything, and hadn't even had time to open everything. :( Good luck!

[pearlbeachlady]

Yeah, that is my hesitation against doing that. Sorry to hear about your cousin's unfortunate luck.