Going home 1500 miles away for wedding...

Smashleyk

We don't really want to register for any gifts because FI and I live in another state and will be leaving for honeymoon day after wedding without stopping back home...what the heck do we do then?

jagore08

Most guests know that they should send the gift directly to the B&Gs home.  If someone happens to bring it to the reception then you can leave it with a family member and have it ready to ship for when you get back from your HM.

I live in Cali and was married in FL.  We did the above.  Only about 4 physical gifts were brought to the reception, the rest were cash gifts or they were shipped to our home in Cali before the wedding.  

meganb1977

When you register you can give them whatever address you want where you want gifts to be shipped.  Unfortunately, some people don't want to pay for shipping and will bring a boxed gift to the wedding even though it does put a burden on the bride and groom, so you should probably have a friend/family member who lives in the town where you're getting married help ship everything to you, or maybe that person could take back as many items as they can to the BBB/Macy's/etc. near where you're getting married and get a credit for you to shop closer to home so there will be less to ship.  I'm guessing you usually fly when you visit and it wouldn't be practical to plan a road trip to bring back gifts.  I've had good luck with everything that has been shipped to me from the retailer, if plenty of bubble is used and everything is kept in the boxes you should be fine.  Hopefully people will be conscientious that you live so far away and will either ship gifts to your home or just give you a gift card or check rather than bringing too many boxed gifts!   If you don't register for a lot hopefully people will just give you money or gift cards.

mdeidre

Ask a friend or family member to allow you to use their home as a place to have gifts shipped, register that address as your shipping address for the place you use as your gift registry.  Ask that same person if they wouldn't mind being responsible for any gifts physically brought to the wedding and then pick them up when you get back.

emilycasari

We are having my FSIL's address as our shipping address and asking for gifts to be sent there, since we'll be in the wedding location and honeymoon when they'll likely arrive (she'll only be gone for the weekend of).  BBB has told us any gifts brought to the wedding from them can be "returned" to the closest store (my mom will do this) and "picked up" at the store around the corner from our house.  I haven't gotten around to researching other stores' policies yet.

Make sure to include on your website or invitation where to send gifts.  Unless they're a distant guest (parents' cousin or such), they'll already know the geographic complication.