Weddingbee boards

Lovely Bees,

I'm having a shower in a two and a half weeks (Yay!) and it is out of town. I just received a shower gift in the mail today (double Yay!) and was wondering the following:

1) Do I open gifts I receive before the shower before the actual shower takes place?

2) If yes, do I write my thank you note before the shower?

I don't want to appear rude either way but I have no idea what etiquette dictates and would like to know what you have experienced in practice. Help!

I don't think it's rude either way. You might want to open the gifts that are mailed to you as soon as you get them so that you can make sure they're in good condition and didn't get damaged during shipping. And if you do decide to open them before your shower, write the thank you card right away so that the gift giver will know you got the gift!

But if you decide to wait, nothing wrong with that either! You can bring them with you to the shower and open everything together! Have someone take a photo of you as you open the gift and you can send the photo with your thank you! Just an idea :D

Are you driving or flying? I'm asking because you may want to ask the person who gave you the gift if they want you to open it now or wait until the shower. Some people really like to see you open presents. We had our first shower this past weekend and FI's parents gift was accidently shipped to my house and they told me not to open it and to save it for the shower. So I did...and it was lovely...like a million count duvet cover that I have been watching on my registry trying to figure out who bought it!!! :)

We are flying (my mom and I) so bringing the gift with me isn't an option, sadly. My preference would be to open it in front of the giver. I also was going to have lovely Thank You cards with my monogram (matching our invite scheme) made for me to use after the shower and they aren't done yet so that is partially why I am asking. I guess I will open it now, although I feel kind of bad opening it without them, and send a thank you right away. I'll follow-up with an additional thank you once my stationary gets in.

@scrapsoflife - I LOVE the idea of taking pictures of us opening the gift and sending it along with the thank you card - I'm going to do that for sure!

Thanks!