A Bride abroad- Wedding shower help?

I had my shower the day before my wedding, because I and most of my guests lived far from where I was married. As far as shipping, register for what you need and spread by word of mouth that you really need things shipped to your home and not brought to the shower. Or register for gift cards or a honeyfund.

Shipping to our home would cost our friends and family a pretty penny in shipping expenses not to mention it would go through customs and we would be subject to paying a secondary tax on the items individually. Gift cards would be only usable within the US and would bring us back to the shipping issue.

Search around and see if you can find companies that ship for free, or international companies (such as IKEA) where items can be shipped to a store near you, which is usually free and at most costs a little.

Also, I meant ordering online and having items shipped directly to you from the store, not from your friends and family. That's what we did for friends who were married in Ohio but living in California, and friends who were married in Georgia but living in Alaska.

Do a registry at international companies, so they can buy ar their home store but have the pick up at your home store then they can just include a pic or wrte in the card what your gift is. Alternativly if you had an online registry they could buy online and pick out what they wanted to give you and you could pick it up at home. Or do a honeymoon registry so that they are putting money towards your honeymoon. You pick the destination and they can buy you like a massage there or pay for different excursions. Or just have the person throwing you th shower spread the word that there are many things you want but as the wedding is so far from home a monetary gift would be much appreciated. (our webiste has a registry and gift ideas page that says "We are saving for our first home and would appreciate donations to our "new home fund" in lieu of gifts.

To our musician friends we would love a gift of your performance at our reception.We have registered at Sears if you prefer bring a gift ...

That's a good idea. I will look into some international registries to see what stores would offer it. People have also suggested a honey fund to us as well but I have read on here that people seem to think it#s in poor taste to do one of those. Given our particular situation, it may be one of our only options though. Were having a smaller (60) person wedding of only our family and closest friends, so anyone that is coming already knows our situation. For our wedding we weren't going to register at all. My cousin happened to ask me about having my bridal shower today and that got me thinking as to what would we even do for it since I can't receive actual gifts.

I agree with the idea of looking into international companies. Amazon.com has a German version and information on international shipping. My fiance and I looked into a honeymoon registry since we have lived in our house together for two years now and don't need much in the way of material things. We decided against it not because of it being in poor taste, but because either the guest or us had to pay 7.5% of the gift amount. Meaning a gift of $100 either cost the guest $107.50 or we would only receive $92.50. In your situation, however, the fee might be cheaper than any taxes or shipping charges and be worth it to your guests and/or you. There are also home registries that work the same way.

I'm also abroad, in Taiwan. I am pretty sure I am not going to do a shower, my mother says people generally give cask at the wedding, so I will just skip gifts. Also most of my family and friends know that I can't carry big things back and were already planning on giving cash anyway.