Not even pregnant yet, but curious .... Did any of you plan an away from home baby shower? We recently moved 2,500 miles from our family, so once we're pregnant, I know our moms will want to throw a shower for us back home. How did you deal with the gifts? Curious about gift cards vs. actual gifts ... Then sending them across the country in extra luggage or shipping. I've had this on my mind for a bit & would love to hear what you did.
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We were just talking about this today. I am only a 5 hour drive from my family, so it's not really the same thing, but my shower will be near my parents, not up here, most likely. I'm hoping people will consider that when buying gifts and have big things shipped or buy smaller items that will be easier to pack in the car. I also plan to register at Buy Buy Baby, so if we can't fit stuff in the car, we can always return it down there, and buy it back when we get up here.
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Yep. I had two in our home state. I brought back some things with me when I flew back home. Then my parents brought some things when they came for my DC shower. They (and ILs) brought some more when they visited once LO was born, and they mailed the leftovers.
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I live in FL, I'm from NJ, and one of my sisters lives in Utah. She just had her wedding shower and the invite requested gifts be sent to (her address in Utah). That's what we will probably do for my baby shower in NJ. It's fun to do the present opening but its just not feasible if you aren't driving distance! I think that phrasing would work for a baby shower invite too.
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I flew home to my family for my shower. Everyone knew I was flying, so buying bigger items was not ideal. A couple people gave me gift cards and then the rest of the stuff fit into my luggage. On my way there I packed two suitecases into my suitecase and just paid to check the extra bag on my way back, which was cheaper than shipping stuff, which had been my original plan.
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@VEGMAMA: I've heard about people doing Skype baby showers. I might consider that if I can't make it home for a shower.
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@ALV91711: Love that!! We fly Southwest (2 free bags per seat), and I didn't even think of packing an additional!! We never use 2 bags, so that would be perfect.
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A friend did this for her bridal shower, she just reminded people in the invite that she would be traveling back home and would need to transport gifts. It was suggested that gifts be shipped directly to her house from the store rather than her having to transport them.
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For ds, I had a shower in NY, where I was raised, and all my family lives. I'm in SC. My parents go there every summer to a cottage they own on one of the fingerlakes. I flew there for a few days, but since my parents drive up each summer, they brought all the stuff back with them in their Trailblazer. I did pack what I could in my suitcase, but the bigger stuff came back with my parents.
For this baby, everyone up North is having stuff delivered to me, cause I wasn't able to travel this time around. Or, they sent it to my mom or mil for them to put out at my shower.
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My "shower" was ten hours from where I live and what I couldn't bring back with me, my parents brought when they came to meet the baby. So our nursery had no crib until LO was born, but we really didn't need it. People were generally considerate of size and travel issues. We ended up getting almost all of the small necessities. A&A blankets, washcloths, onesies, nose freida, moby wrap, that kind of thing. The swing, stroller, car seat, crib, etc. were either purchased by us, by local family, or delivered by mom and dad.
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For the most part people will be understanding of travel and probably buy smaller gifts. But I think it's a little tacky to ask people to ship gifts to you. First of all that's an additional expense to them vs just buying in the store, and second of all, the whole point of a shower is for people to see you open their gifts. It's kind of rude to say "please buy me a present, but don't inconvenience me with having to open it and transport it". We ended up canceling my at home shower because I had pre term labor and was not allowed to fly. But the plan had been to pack an extra empty bag to bring presents back and if I got anything really big (swing, pack n play, etc) we would have returned it for store credit and then re-bought the exact same item when we got home.
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@VEGMAMA: Yes, cram as much as you can in. Plus I only packed for myself what I would need for the few days. And when packing the baby things in your luggage, take it all out of the packaging and you can fit more.
I did get one item that I returned and re-purchased when I got home, as well as one bigger item that is still at my mom's. But the baby won't be using it until a few months old and we are planning to drive out for a visit before then and will just bring it with us.
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@MamaMoose: I feel that way too ... I think it's a bit impersonal ... Obviously if someone wanted to buy us a stroller or something, then by all means, but I totally agree that people want to see you open your gifts.
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@MamaMoose: I fully disagree, if your shower is somewhere besides your home, either you are shipping it (and can usually just buy online and do free shipping to their house) or expecting them to pay to ship it. I think it's much easier to just buy off their registry where usually the cost gets you free shipping ($50 plus at most places) or you can pay a few bucks. I don't think that's rude at all.
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@KJfromNJ: I don't think it's as rude as it is impersonal. I know that since we only go home once or twice a year, our (eventual) baby shower will be a big deal for our families. And, since they won't be there when the baby is born, I feel like seeing us open the gifts in person would help them feel a little more involved. I think a note asking for larger things to be shipped is totally fine (especially like what you said, most things over a certain amount are free), and they shouldn't have a problem with it. If they do, it has nothing to do with me, haha.
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@VEGMAMA: the opening gifts part is true- it's kind of annoying at bridal showers (IMHO- I mean a blender... yay...) but at baby showers I LOVE IT and it would be sad to miss... it depends on the tone of the party I guess. I will probably request gifts to be shipped and have a BBQ/very casual bc that's how my family is, but husband's family... NOTSOMUCH lol! For his I like the "larger gifts" idea. I had friends do that at my wedding shower, they wrapped a picture of a dyson and had it sent to my house. It was cute because I still opened something but I didn't have to worry about shipping a dyson back to my house!
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We had just moved to CO from WI. My aunts threw me a shower in WI with just family. I wasn't able to attend because of work, but they called me and then passed the phone around so I coud talk to everyone then they shipped me my gifts. It was so unexpected and sweet of them!
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@LemonLong: That is SO sweet!!
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We are doing 2 virtual showers- one with my aunts and one with my husband's family. I created a website (really just a wordpress.com blog) for the shower. We are organizing local party locations for my aunts to get together (no more than 10 people in one location) and using google plus for the group video call. In the month leading up to the shower I am posting videos and games on the website. I am shipping out "party in a box" to each of the sites including balloons, streamers, personalized advice for mom and dad cards, favors and the game sheets. For the actual shower my husband and I will call in from our nursery. The planned activities include giving a nursery tour, having my husband diaper a baby doll blindfolded, guess the bump size (I included baby themed measuring tape and yarn in each of the party in a box and will take requests to hold up household items next to my belly for comparison), Mr & Mrs Parkerhaus as babies quiz, and husband knows best quiz where I try to guess how the hubby will answer some basic questions. We will also open gifts. I expect it will be about 1.5 to 2 hours in length.
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Since both of our families live in the same area and we usually go home during the summer, we planned to travel home for the shower that my sisters and MIL are hosting. I've asked my hosts to have large gifts sent to directly to our home and I think that I'll probably have small gifts like clothes to open at the shower. We are bringing extra suitcases with us just in case there are other gifts that are larger in size. Let's hope it's not big gifts. Though, my brother is giving me his used city mini select with second seat and accessories (which I am so thrilled about!). We will use the airlines policy of traveling with a stroller to get that one back home. We will check in separately so people don't wonder why we have a stroller but no actual baby.
Oh, I've registered at stores where there is free shipping or free shipping to a local store so they shouldn't have to pay for shipping costs.
Oh, that's right, we did something similar for our wedding. Our wedding was out of state... or in the town we moved from. We had friends and family ship us gifts.
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