Baby Showers
Baby Shower Invite Wording
We recently moved about 4 hours away and will be traveling home for the shower. Is there a tasteful way to suggest shipping shower gifts as we have a small car? Thanks for any suggestions.
Sara
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Re: Baby Shower Invite Wording
Nope. Here's the thing - people are doing you a favor by buying you a gift in the first place. And they usually like to actually see you open it. HOPEFULLY they'll think about the fact you hvae to get it home and will keep it small or will get you a gift card.
But if they don't - YOU need to find a way to get it home. It shouldn't be on your guests to pay to ship your gifts.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
The only way to suggest that guests ship the gift is to have that info spread via word of mouth when they RSVP. Your host could say something along the lines of, "MTB will have limited space in her car for large or bulky gifts so please keep that in mind when shopping."
Another option is renting a full size car or SUV for the shower. The 4 hour ride would most likely be more comfortable and you'd have lots of room for gifts. It may even be less expensive to rent a car than to pay to have multiple bulky or heavy items shipped.
This! There really isn't a way to tactfully word this on the invite, but it's okay for you/host to spread the word about your preference about this for the larger gifts. Hopefully, those bigger ticket items come w/free shipping and your guests will take advantage of it. That's what thankfully happend at my baby shower recently and I made it a point to thank those who sent gifts to my home once I was done opening the other gifts at the shower just so they felt included and acknowlegded.
I am always surprised when I hear about people thinking 4 hours is a long ways. It's really not. ALL of my relatives live 3-5 hours away and we see them about every couple of weeks. My DH drives 1 hour to work and 1 1/2 home (traffic). Maybe because I have always lived in the country we are used to it.
I can think of 2 suggestions that would save the cost of shipping gifts (either you doing it or your guests). 1) Borrow a friend's van or large SUV (just swap vehicles for the week-end and 2) return the big items to the store and re-purchase them when you get back home (more hassle IMO).
You can't put on your invite to please ship gifts. I have to ship Christmas gifts every year and I cringe each time. Sometimes it costs more to ship the gift then it did to purchase it!
So basically, you're telling us that either your friends/family are idiots and don't realize you're going to have to transport it back or you are inviting people who don't know how far away you live.
Either way, the simple answer to the OP is no...there's not really a nice way to word it on the invite.
He's the single greatest thing I've done in my life and reminds me daily of how fun (and funny) life can be. He's turned out pretty swell for having such a heartless and evil mother.