Hellobee Boards

Could you order from a store that is local to them? Like IKEA? Otherwise I'd go with linens maybe, like a nice cloth napkin set.

For our wedding, friends of ours from overseas sent us a voucher to a really nice restaurant in the city we live in (different to city of wedding) - so was doubly awesome as didn't have to cart anything heavy home & it was a lovely treat to have a few months post-wedding!

@blackbird: Is your friend in Vienna? Don't order from Ikea, it costs like €50 minimum for delivery depending on what you buy and how far away they live from the store. We looked into it because we don't have a car and needed a few things and it wasn't worth it (I think they deliver it from the store and not a warehouse). I would look into ordering from amazon.de. You can't find everything like in the US but at least they ship from European warehouses and shipping isn't usually expensive. The site will be in German but it's fairly easy to navigate. Houses/apartments and kitchens are a lot smaller than typical American homes, so depending on where they were living, I wouldn't get any huge appliances like a mixer or food processor.

Eta: if you have an idea of what kind of gift you want to give, let me know and maybe I can point you to a store or a website.

Is there a local department store? When I was married abroad, we had a registry at a local store, but it was very low tech. Most people don't register.

Typical things you'd see as wedding gifts would be art, wine, cash in the local currency if the honeymoon was abroad, experience gifts...my inlaws got us a certificate for a hot air balloon ride, for example. We also recieved a breadbox and a knife from my GMIL.

i also vote for money, with a thoughtful card, i am sure it would be much appreciated.

but if you still don't want to do that, then also a gift card for a date night is nice like someone suggested to a restaurant in their area. or how about a gift card to a local department store? sometimes you can order those online and print them and then you can stick it in a card.

I had a friend from overseas send me two fancy bottles of wine for my birthday once and it was so awesome. they used my local liquor shop to order online.

@blackbird: The easiest thing to do would be to send a wire from your bank to her bank...she might not be able to even deposit a check.

When you do send a wire, they can convert it to Euros.

So the unfortunate thing about Vienna is there is only one department store and it's clothing/shoes/beauty. Someone gave us a mall gift card though when DD was born and it could be used at any shop at the two huge malls on the outskirts of the city (but a pain to get to, depending on where they live). I'm going to wall the site to you.