Weddingbee boards

hey bees,

i posted something similar a while ago, but now i have concrete details.  first some context: my fiance and i live in chicago.  we have been here a couple years; none of our family is here, and very few of our chicago friends are invited to the wedding.  my bridesmaids reside in 5 different states (ca, or, ak, ma, and dc). 

my maid of honor, who lives in california (where the wedding will take place) is throwing me a bridal shower in december.  it will be mostly friends from college (fiance and i met at college in the bay area).  she called yesterday asking which registries to put on the shower invitiation.  we are registered at macys, crate & barrel, williams-sonoma, and foodie registry (restaurant gift certificates). 

here's the dilemma: i will be traveling, so packing housewares home to chicago will be difficult (especially with a pitstop in oregon for christmas).  plus, many of the items on those registries are nicer wedding-gift things in the $50-$300+ range, and i don't want my girl friends to feel pressured to spend a lot on the shower gift.  as of now, the shower doesn't have a theme, but i have made a couple wishlists at sephora, anthropologie, and victoria's secret with more girly, travel- and budget-friendly items.  what should we do?

should my maid of honor just list the regular wedding registries with a note asking people to have the gifts shipped to chicago since i will be traveling?  should she list the registries without such a note?  is it presumptious to list registries at all?  should we just stick to the more fun ones for the shower?  any input would be greatly appreciated.  my fiance's grandmother is throwing me another bridal shower in virginia in january, and that will be more of the women in his family, like aunts, etc.  so i'm going to be running into this dilemma again, but with a slightly older crowd.

thanks!