items from shower

URIsweethearts

one more post and then i should get to work
i am having my shower on saturday -
can i /should  i be/am i supposed to be:
using the items right away?

FI asked me last night, he was like, all the stuff you get on saturday - what should we do with it?

thoughts?

ps- we live together and have been for 4 years.

i2012do

I live with my fiance and the stuff is at my parents
I am supersititious so I'm not using most of the stuff before we are married.
We ended up returning some things, doubles, and going through the gifts

One person gave us a gift basket with all kinds of cheeses, balsamic vinegars, oils, truffle oil etc
All that stuff we took home

I exchanged something for aa salad spinner that i wanted, so thats at home.

Mostly everything else we are storing at our parents
I want to spend a day doing a "kitchen clean out" and getting rid of old stuff, selling some tings, and reorganzing my kitchena dn i dont see that i will have time to do that ANY time soon-- so that was my stance

ont he other hand my bf had her shoer a few months ago and is already using everything from the shower curtain to the blender.
so its really up to you!

dberrett

I would suggest writing the Thank Yous before using anything. I know that no one would know the difference, but I felt that was important. Then I selected a few things that I really wanted to replace ASAP (like my new knife set) and brought that home. Otherwise I stored everything in my parent's basement. It's still there, actually! My condo is tiny so I knew we'd be buying a house soon, so why move stuff twice? In fact- we just bought a house!!! :-)
Anyway, I'm kinda traditional, too, so I waited to use most everything. I even waited to cash checks which I regret. I felt that that, too, should wait til after we're married for tradition-sake, but I think it was a major inconvenience to have checks not cashed for like 3 months. Learn from my mistake! But again, I'd wait til after you write the Thank You to cash it.
Good luck and have FUN! It is really a day that is ALL ABOUT YOU and it's kinda cool!

Sarah&Eric2012

I've always thought that you weren't supposed to use anything until after the wedding.  FI's family is VERY traditional and would be appauled if I used everything we received (except money) before the wedding.  Everything we received is sitting neatly in a closet in the spare bedroom.  I have to say though, I'm running out of closet space between the "wedding stuff" closet and the "wedding gift" closet.   I'll be glad when I can reclaim that space after the wedding

URIsweethearts

that is kinda what i was getting at - we don't have a lot of space as it is. and i dont want all the clutter and boxes around. i guess we will just wait until after the wedding and store the items in the loft we have with the rest of the wedding stuff. i do agree about not using it until you have written thank you notes. FI and I are looking into getting into our own house by the end of the year - fingers crossed! so to unload and reload would be silly anyways. speaking of silly, FMIL is SO traditional - we got a gift already and we opened it (someone who cant come to the shower). she is coming to visit this weekend and we hid it so she won't see. she would be uspet that we even opened it!

i2012do

Ha! I opened up a gift before my shower and my momyelled at me
She came over and took every gift I got for the shower from someone that wasnt coming, opened it up out of hte shipping box, wrapped it up and borught it to my shower
which i thought was a bit over the top but wahtever- it was actually easier to keep track of gifts like that, since it was all written in one place.

We have NO space, we live in a loft and have one closet. It's our bedroom closet-and there isnt any other storage or anything, so we didn't have anywhere to put the stuff

I would cash the checks right away, because people are probably waiting for the checks to be cashed.
I just cashed them on Saturday so I had held onto them for a week

We actually probably werent "traditionally" supposed to do this, but i used teh extra cash to upgrade my wedding band to the next weight of diamonds.

Eyejewel

FI and I have been in debate over this.  Evrything was sitting in the living room and porch and we just painted so it all had to be moved. FI started whipping things out of boxes and using stuff. I have been a little not sure but running into space issues so he started cleaning the everyday dishes but i said something and he hasnt touched them since. I finished all my thank yous after 1 week so im clear in that department.

RIFallBride

We will be waiting to use them until after the wedding, I am a bit traditional in this sense.  I do not think there is any harm in using the gift prior to the wedding though.  We are sending thank you notes as quickly as we can after receiving the gifts. 

i2012do

ps. how long did it take eeryone to get out your thank yous?I had about 40-50 people i had to send them to and I am still writing them out.
Maybe I am being too wordy but they are taking forever!!

I sent out all the thank yous to my bridesmaids and one of my aunts. but now i am laboring over the rest. I have 15 to go! I hope I finish them by Wednesday

dberrett

LOL the week after my shower was Hurricane Irene, so since I couldn't do anything else without power, I finished all my shower thank yous the next week! That was kinda nice ;-)

Sarah&Eric2012

My shower was on the 10th and I mailed all my thank yous out yesterday (all 46 of them, haha).  FI said I was a "super bride" because I sat down and started them as soon as I got home from the shower.  I hate having things hanging over my head.  Plus, I refused to take the cash and checks we received at the shower to the bank until the thank yous were mailed and I hate having that much cash sitting around my house.

HeatherR45

You aren't supposed to use the gifts until after the wedding because (god forbid) in case the wedding never happens, you're supposed to return the gifts. I would cash the checks as soon as you write out the thank yous just because people are probably waiting on that.

LOMLBOAT

Like HeatherR said, the reason you aren't supposed to use/open gifts is because if the wedding does not happen, the gifts are to be returned.

We lived together and husband didn't understand you weren't supposed to open the gifts, so when I brought everything home, he started ripping boxes open and started washing stuff.  I just chalked it up to he'll have to use his money to return all the gifts if it didn't happen lol.

I had about 75 people at my shower and it felt like it took FOREVER to get my thank you cards out, and I had a shower at work.  I'd say I got to all the thank yous w/in 3-4 weeks.  I only got 1 check which I cashed a few days afterwards as that always bugs me when I know my bank account isn't right because I have outstanding checks floating around.

We actually cashed the wedding checks the day after the wedding (my mom yelled at me and said it was in bad taste), but we were leaving for 2 weeks and had already scheduled credit card payments and needed the money in the bank account.  So I'd say if you want to wait to cash your checks after the wedding, maybe that's better, but just letting people know what we did.