Suggestions for long distance shower

cari&darrin

My SIL is pregnant with her first child.  I would love to have a shower for her, but she and her husband recently moved to England.  All of her friends and family are in my area so I thought that we could do a long distance shower.  Any suggestions?  My main concern is shipping costs to ship all of the gifts to England. 

Erin Mary Ackerman

Your SIL, in honor to be the guest of honor at the party, needs to be AT the party.  Maybe she'll come for a visit before the baby is born and you can have the party then, even if it's a little earlier than when you'd normally have a shower?

KoCoLoCo

A long distance shower?  Gross. 

I agree with pp, if you are having a shower then she needs to be there.  Will she be coming for a visit?  If not, then you just might have to do without the shower part.  No shower is perfectly fine, plenty of people do it.

PinkBackPack

If she can't come before the baby is born, maybe she could come afterwards.  Everyone could pitch in an give her something like a visa gift card she could use oversees. 

afg

You could ask her to register with something like www.amazon.co.uk so when people buy her things they can be shipped directly to her. 

I think a shower could work with some planning, especially if someone has a Skype thing going on so you could do it like a video conference.

Aimee0289

I had a long distance shower, coincidentally because I live in England with the military. It's certainly not preferred, but I don't think it's tacky. Sometimes situations dictate some creativity. There was no way I was going to fly that far in my 3rd tri, and after the baby comes I doubt I'll have the money to pay for a plane ticket just for a meet the baby party, unless my baby happens to crap gold nuggets.

My friend hosted it, and we were able to set up a video link via webcam so I could "be there". It was a wonderful experience, and I am so grateful that she overlooked the distance so I could have a nice shower with all my friends and family. She shipped the gifts over, but unboxed them all first, rewrapped them lightly in tissue paper, and put them into larger boxes. All in all, I think I got 6 large boxes. I'm not sure how much it cost.

GL!

 

BCLong21

I don't think that it is impossible to do. But I would have your SIL register so that people could send her the gifts through the company website. I think that would be a tad easier than you shipping them. I also think you could do it the conventional way like you sending them. Maybe have the other hostesses pitch in for the cost of postage.

I think it is nice that you want to do a baby shower for her. Good luck.

goldielux1176

If you do the webcam thing it would for sure be good to have her register somewhere that allows her guests to ship the items to her (she can even open them in front of the webcam).  I shipped a large box from Ohio to California at Christmas and it was $100.  If you ended up with six boxes like the one post mentioned then I can only imagine how expensive that would be!

snassery

One of my friends moved across the country, and wasn't able to come home for a baby shower.  I made invites for our friends and her family to "shower K. with attention" and gave the dates of one week where we would all call or write (or send gifts.)  So even though there wasn't a gathering, there was one week where everyone she knew called to catch up and I think almost all of us sent a gift that arrived that week.  Not a formal gathering, but still love and attention "in honor of the baby." 

 

 

sec18

My friend had a wedding show this way because she was in the military, we all got together and had a light lunch and brought her cards. She had registered at a store and we could buy her gift cards or send her cash. Then during the shower she called and we all go to talk to her. Later her mom sent all the cards and photos of the party to her in one box and she got to open them all together. This was as close to a shower as she got. She took pictures of her opening the cards and send them with the thank you's. It was great that we all could get her something and the shipping did not kill her mom. Good luck.