Past and Present Brides: What about Gifts?

[tamiflood]

I know this sounds so cheesy, but my guest are harassing me about gifts.

 

I was advised that they cannot bring wedding packages/gifts on board. My sister is planning a Bon Voyage party for me, but what have past brides (or present) done about the gift situation...I am very concerned about the wording my sister is going to use to explain why they need to bring our wedding present to our Bon Voyage party WEEKS before we are actually married. Thruthfully, I'd prefer that they just bring a card and call it a day!

 

What are some thoughts....

Thanks,

Tami

[sas80]

Some ideas:

 

I would ask/designate someone to handle any and all gifts brought to the pier. Have them greet your guests, politely explain that "gifts are not allowed on board but you will be happy to make sure that the happy couple recieves this".

Have your designated person continue to collect until all guests have been accounted for and then have designated person take gifts to their car.

 

If everyone is sailing with you then I would include a small note in the wedding invitation (the one you used to invite people to the wedding) that indicates that wedding presents are not allowed on board the ship.

OR

Dont you have an info sheet for people? "Please be there by 10:30 a.m.. Please bring photo ID. Please dont bring wedding gifts to the pier as they cannot be taken on board, etc."

 

The people whom are going to buy you gifts wont see this as a sign not to get you one, rather they will start to ask 'how do they deliver your gift'. At that point you/someone could offer:

you could bring it to the bon voyage party (if the bon voyage party has not happened)

you can ship it to their house

you can wait till they get back and deliver it yourself

etc

 

But try not to make it sound as if you expect gifts before your actual wedding.

[ashley&tony]

I worried about that too but it turned out to not be a problem. Most of our guests didn't want the hastle of bringing a gift on the plane and new it would be hard for us to get them back home so we got a ton of cards (most with money). A lot of people had also shopped online (as most do these days) and had the gifts shipped to our house before and after the cruise. We sent out several newsletters during the planning but opted not to mention gifts for etiquette reasons. I'm sure it would be okay though to put in any cruise info. you send out not to bring gifts because of cruiseline rules with customs, we just chose not to. We just relied on our close friends and family to spread information by word of mouth not to bring gifts to the ship. It must have worked because anyone who wanted to give us something at the actual wedding brought the cards with monetary gifts.

[dcdiva]

We didn't mention anything about gifts in any of our communications with our guests. But no one brought an actual gift with them. Our gifts were mailed to us at our home either by the guest or via our gift registry. We got a few cards (and checks) the day of the wedding, but it really did not turn out to be a problem.

 

We did do a pre-wedding newsletter with some hints about the cruise and how things would work -- what to wear, when to arrive, what else to expect. Had we needed it, we could have included some non-specific language explaining that guests would have to clear security before boarding the ship and to limit items they bring on board.

[jerseygirl3]

We asked that our guests refrain from gifts by telling them that the expense they were incurring to accompany us on our cruise wedding was to be considered their gift to us.

 

Having said that, almost everyone did give us a gift anyway. Most gave an envelope with money (very traditional in Italian families anyway), and some gave us shipboard credits, one gave us rolls of quarters for the casino on the ship, etc.

[sd1029]

Everyone coming to our wedding (except for 2 people) have to fly on a plane to get there so most people have been sending gifts via mail to us before the wedding or ordering things online from our registry and having them shipped to our house. People I am very close with I sent an email with all the details of where and when to meet for the wedding and then added, "Carnival said that due to Customs regulations all wedding gifts are subject to duty fees and to please ask guests to have gifts sent to our home. Your gift to us is simply your presence at our wedding. " My mom sent emails to the other people and nicely suggested they have any gifts shipped to my house or if they did bring a gift to give them to my aunt (who is not going on the cruise) before we board the boat and that she would arrange to have them shipped to me after the wedding.