Wedding home, living 5000 miles away

holycrapitsalexa

So here is the deal....My fiance is in the Army and he is stationed in Hawaii, 5000 miles away from our homes and where the wedding and reception will be. Once we get married in August, I will be moving to Hawaii with him. (He is already out there and has been for a while.) We are not even considering any of those honeymoon registries or what not. We have put together a registry but now we started thinking....How are we going to get all the gifts to Hawaii? Unfortanutely, as we are not yet married, the Army will not yet assign housing and therefore, we do not know what our address will be there. Has anyone run into this or have any possible suggestions?

TheSlowskys

Register at stores that have brick and mortar stores in Hawaii. Return anything heavy and rebuy it in Hawaii.

hoffse

Also look into APO shipping - a lot of stores ship to an APO address for the same rate as on the mainland, and you could have gifts shipped there.  Technically it's proper etiquette to have the gift shipped beforehand.

holycrapitsalexa

I looked into the APO shipping, however because we don't know where we are living yet, we don't know an address. I am at a loss. I have seen different postings about people selling gifts then buying again in Hawaii. That seems like such a hassle, but definitely an option!

Avion22

The APO address is at the military post office on base.  It's like a PO box.   As long as your fiance is already stationed there, he should be able to get an APO box on base. 

A lot of companies will ship to APO.  BB&B definitely DOES (although some store workers will tell you that they don't) -- we used them for our registry and had no problem with having stuff shipped to our APO box in England.  We just made sure the address on our registry was the APO address.

Some people sent things to my parents' house in VA, and we just sent them to our APO box in those flate rate USPS boxes (which you get a discounted rate on if you send them to APO).   

Target also ships to APO.  I'm not sure about Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, or other stores, but you could easily check.

holycrapitsalexa

Ok, wow! Thank you so much! He does have a box on base. I will have him check into that this week and I will check the stores!

I have been sending him little care packages to that box with flat rate shipping and I definitely did not realize I could be getting a discounted rate! Thanks for that advice!!

holycrapitsalexa

Does anyone know....Are APO and PMB the same thing? Or can thy work in the same way?

Avion22

The APO discount for the flat-rate boxes is only about $1, and they apply it automatically (when they type in the zip code that the box is going to).   It doesn't have to be the special "APO flat-rate box", it can be any flat-rate box.   I think the large ones are normally $14.95, but are only $13.95 if sent to an APO address.   

naturenut7

we're in the same sort of situation.  we live in va, getting married in michigan (home) and then moving to az and won't know our address until a few weeks before the wedding.  so we just registered for some stuff for the sake of registering if people wanted to get a tangible gift, but we also registered for gift cards at bbb.  on your website, we put a nice into on the registery page about:

(cliffnotes version)  "It is not our goal to take gift giving pleasure away from our guests, however, if you choose to bring a gift, monetary gifts or gift cards would be much appreciated as space will be at a premium when we start our journey west.  Thank you for your consideration of this option."

everyone knows our situation, so hopefully that will work out well.

Avion22

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_registering-gifts_wedding-home-living-5000-miles-away?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:34Discussion:0f85f408-df4b-4678-b7f8-b816e7ebb236Post:73d109e0-4ac3-4361-a894-6636f300c1a7">Re: Wedding home, living 5000 miles away</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Wedding home, living 5000 miles away : Really? I have been using the special APO flat rates, which only come in one size. Will they ship those overseas to an APO address too?
Posted by Liatris2010[/QUOTE]

<div>Yep, they sure will!    I've done tons of care packages to friends overseas, and have shipped a TON of stuff to myself as well.</div><div>
</div><div>Remeber that the flat rate boxes are great for heavy things, but for lighter/less dense things, you might pay less by using your own box and sending it priority yourself.  For overseas APO you ALWAYS want to ship priority, or else it will take FOREVER to get there.  Priority takes usually 7-10 days (even to the sandbox).</div>