Long distance shower

Who is hosting the shower?

I would think it was rude if you didn't open the gifts since that's usually the point of the shower.

My mom is hosting

I think the responsibility of shipping falls on you. I think it would seem incredibly rude to tell guests that their gift to you needs to be shipped elsewhere instead of the shower.

What would you do instead of opening gifts?

I'm attending a shower next month and saw that the registry suggested the couples address for shipping. I asked the host if they would be opening presents there. She didn't know what to tell me so I decided to send it to their place. I'll come with a card. However, my cousins bridal shower had gift opening. I've seen both.

I've hosted two showers with this issue. One friend lives in Spain 10 months out of the year and one lives in Florida and her shower was at her moms house in PA. For both they put their home addresses on the registry websites, and on the invites were quick instructions for ordering items to be shipped directly to those addresses.

Yes the point of a shower is to open gifts, but sometimes that's just not feasible. I still wanted to throw my best friends a shower they'd enjoy and we made it work. The party is usually on the shorter side and both were very casual. So many people told me they actually enjoyed just hanging out, mingling, playing 1 or 2 shower games without needing to sit there as the bride opened presents awkwardly in front of everyone.

I mean mingle, play cute games. Celebrate your future marriage.