Using shower gifts before wedding?

I think you can open them now, and you can go ahead and send the thank you cards so you'll have those done!

I have opened only some of our presents and are using them. But, I have sent thank you cards whether I started t use them or not.

They are your gifts! Open them and send a thank you!

The only think I know etiquette says you're not suppose to do is: Use the gift. You're supposed to wait until after the wedding, incase something happened, you're supposed to return it to the person who gave it to you. It doesn't say anything about you unwrapping the gift to see what it is, I would and then send them a thank you card!

I don't see a problem with opening to at least make sure it works/isn't broken. Some stores may be funny about exchanges or returns if you wait too long.

I definitely opened and used mine. My shower was 5 months before the wedding, it would have been torture not to!

I had no idea about the etiquette, so we used them right away and wrote on the thank you note what I had done with them/how useful they were. I probably should have checked here whether I was supposed to wait, haha.

Like PPs said, the etiquette rule about waiting is because, in case the wedding doesn't happen, you need to return them. That's pretty much it.

Open them to make sure they're not damaged and send TY notes right away.

And try to not use them!

I was considering asking this same question. It feels weird to use them before being married, but it also feels really silly to leave perfectly good gifts just sitting around for two months just because we aren't actually married yet.

I agree open, send thank you, make sure gift is in good condition and doesn't need to be exchanged. We used ours prior to the wedding because we didn't have a lot of kitchen items and moved into a house together. I have heard the etiquette of waiting but we didn't want to and got married still LOL. However I just saw a Facebook post from someone who called off their wedding asking for peoples addresses to return gifts so I guess it does happen

Huh?!! You're not supposed to use them before the wedding? I never heard of this idea until WW. My shower is almost 4 months before the wedding, and FH and I already live together, so it's highly unlikely that I will have the self-control to not use the gifts. Just sayin'. :-)

I knew you were not supposed to use them, that's an old standing thing for just the instance of the wedding not going forward. My cousin sent her gifts last month. I was not going to use them but she told me to lol

As long as you could afford to return them should the wedding not occur for any reason, go for it!

Open, use, send thank you card within a few weeks.

DH and I did not have the space in our apartment for things to be sitting around unopened. We had a lot of gifts that replaced old things, so as we received them, we would donate the old and unpack the new.

I have sent shower gifts that I know were used immediately. Why not?

I say open them. I'm not sure if my shower was 6+ months before my wedding if I'd have enough self control not to use certain things.

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I've been checking all gifts as they come in and writing thank yous, but there are some things I really can't wait to use! Going to try to hold off for the next three months, but I saw my top pick disappear from our registry the other day and I don't know that I'll be able to resist that I do like the idea of coming home from the honeymoon to a bunch of new decor and kitchen gadgets, though!