Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

Tips for your Shower, Writing Thank Yous and Sorting Everything Out!

Ladies, please feel free to add to this list!

Your Shower

1.Pamper yourself for your shower. Get your hair and nails done, get a massage. I’ve been neglecting myself for months, so this was a nice way to get dolled up!

2.Wear comfortable clothes. It’s a long day. It’s tiring. I’m someone who is always cold and I was so hot all day (glad I wore a short sleeve blouse under my cardigan sweater). Wear comfortable shoes – no one is looking at your feet anyway. Don’t wear anything too low cut – you will be bending over opening gifts most of the day and you don’t want to show everybody your goods – unless you really want to!

3.You need an official “scribe” for the day – someone with neat handwriting to write down all the gifts you get and who they are from. It also helps if she’s a recent mom – she knows the gifts. My “scribe” not only kept a separate log of the gifts, but also wrote on the backs of the cards the gifts (a lot of people gave multiple small gifts and these things could get mixed up), so it really has helped a lot that I have two records to see what people gave! Very important!

4.Don’t even bother taping the card to the box – they will fall off and get mixed up, especially since the “men” loaded up the cars (see #7 below). It helps to keep the greeting cards separate (like in a small gift bag). Also keep cards with checks and cards with gift cards separate – since these could easily be lost or mixed up. Keeping all the cards in one gift bag was awesome and I highly recommend it, especially when your “official scribe” wrote the names of the gifts on the backs of the cards!!! Very easy system and very helpful!

5.You need at least one, if not two additional helpers to hand you gifts, get the paper ripped and take the gift from you. This helps speed up the process and avoids you having to lift anything too heavy (most the baby stuff is in big bulky boxes). These helpers should not be preggo (yes, I’m speaking to you Cheryl!). They should be young, fit people! I know some of your younger kid guests are eager to help and sometimes that can lead to problems. I was very lucky to have my 6 year old cousin help and she was amazing (she’s also a very well behaved kid).
6.I greeted everyone individually when I first walked in. This assured that I personally thanked each person for coming. I noticed a couple of people left before the official end time and since I was still busy opening gifts, I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye.

7.If anyone offers you help in bringing stuff back to your house – take it! Also make sure you have strong men with SUV’s to help lug stuff back to your house. You don’t realize how much room a travel system or swing can take up in a person’s car! We had 3-4 trucks and 2 or 3 cars to bring stuff back. As the men are loading up the cars, make sure they know where they have to put everything (like a dedicated room). Gifts did get mixed up (especially gifts with multiple items – things fell out of bags and were put into the wrong bag).

8.Be prepared to get duplicates of gifts. I received $300 in duplicate gifts.

9.Be prepared to not get gift receipts. I would say at least 60-70% of the people DID NOT include a gift receipt with their gift.

Tips on Sorting Through Everything and Writing Thank You’s

Again, I was lucky to have a dedicated space (for now) where we put all the gifts. The floor is completely covered with gifts and you will stare at it in amazement. The whole day is a blur.

1.First up, gather all of the gift receipts you received and put them in one pile. This will help you if you need a gift receipt for a return, because most people do no give gift receipts, you can use another person’s receipt for a return if you need it.

2.When writing thank yous, I found it easy to start with the big ticket items (or things in huge boxes). These things are pretty easy to spot in the room and you can check these off your thank you list very easily. Then you can have DH take the big item to its eventually resting place and out of the room, freeing up space for you! And thus cluttering up another spot in your house.

3.Next, it was easy to write thank yous for people that gave one gift (i.e. mobile, humidifier, etc.). Easy box to spot, easy thank you to write since it’s only one item.

4.The hardest thank yous are the ones where people combined and chipped in for a gift or for someone that you gave you smaller multiple gifts. Take your list, find the card and match gifts up. Take one thing at a time. This by far takes the longest.

5.Hold onto all cards and gift receipts and keep in a separate bag, so you have easy access to it.

6.Once you have written your thank yous, put duplicates separate and try to find a receipt for it. If you received something that is not on your registry and you DO NOT want it, add it to your BRU registry before heading to the store to return it.

Tips on Handling the Returns/Exchanges at BRU

1.BRU is crazy on weekends. I suggest going at night or first thing in the morning or towards closing (if going on a weekend).

2.I received $300 in duplicate items, most of which I did not have receipts for. I was able to use other people’s gift receipts to return an item, so that helped. As of now (and I think the policy will change in June), BRU will take items back as long as they are in their originally packaging with a gift receipt OR as long as the item is on your registry. So again, if you received something that was not on your original registry, add it before going to the store. That way when you go to return it, BRU will take it back (even w/o a receipt). I received full credit for items I returned without a receipt as long as it was on my registry.

3.You will only get store credit. Don’t even think of asking for money back.

4.I received 2 duplicate diaper bags. As of today, that very diaper bag still appears on my registry as “active”.

5.I received 4 of the same toy, but didn’t have a receipt for any of the 4 (go figure), however the item was on my registry as “purchased” and BRU took it back, no problem.

6.I received 2 duplicate video monitors. One guest purchased it online in January, my other guest purchased it in store in mid-February. My guest swore up and down that when she ordered it online, she confirmed that my name and registry number appeared. She said she saw the item move to the “purchased” section of my registry, but days later noticed it was back on the “active” section, which is why my other guest purchased it. On Friday, the video monitor was in the “purchased” section, however miraculously today, the video monitor is back in the “active” section.

7.I purchased some things yesterday with my $300 store credit. Some of the items now appear in the “purchased” section and others still appear in the “active” section.

8.Do not remove items that you received from your registry! You may still receive gifts from people that either did not come or who may give you gifts after your baby is born. Keep your list the way it is, because you may wind up getting more duplicates.

Most importantly – enjoy your day! Make sure to especially thank your moms (if they are the ones that threw you the shower) and make everyone else aware of it! My moms deserve a huge thumbs up for all their hard work, generosity and commitment.

Anyone that went above and beyond, especially your “official scribe”, gift handlers, special helpers or guests that really splurged, give a call and personally thank them.

I think that’s it. As of today, Saturday is still a blur, but I’ve made some headway with my thank yous and sorting through stuff.

Anyone else – please feel free to add your advice, tips, or ways of tricking the BRU clowns with returns/exchanges.

Thanks all! And good luck!

Karen &

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

Great tips!!

You could also type out a list of the people who are attending and leave a space so your scribe can write down what gift they gave you (instead of going through all the cards).

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

What a great thread! Thanks for the helpful info!!

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

This is great!

We are going to have a TOUGH time getting home I think because we live in Mass and having our shower on LI. My parents volvo SUV and our car will be all we have so I hope it fits.

A tip that someone who also had an OOT shower told me was to leave a note on your registry for your friends to order any large ticket items through a BRU that is close to your home, that way you can pick it up at the store when you have room in your car. This has worked out great- People have already sent us our pack n play, diaper champ and a bunch of "large boxed" items that would have taken up a HUGE ammount of space in our cars.

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

This is a GREAT post Karen!!! Thanks for putting time & effort into typing this out, and it is very helpful. And yeah I think my useless arse "helped" for like 2 minutes before I sat.

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

Great advice - especially about accepting help - we had 2 suvs, 1 minivan and a sedan full of stuff to bring back to the house.

Also - Specific to BRU - beware of registring for items online rather than in store - I choose a pack and play online because the main feature I wanted was the canopy (didn't care about anything else-though I wanted gender neutral) in store the one they was $160, but they had one online that was $140 -so I registered for the $140 one. Well I got duplicates and when I tried to return one of them in store, I was told that it came from Toys R Us and I would have to return it there or ship it back. I'm sure this means that I'll only get Toys R Us credit (which I know I'll use) but truth is 1. Its a pain, & 2. I would much rather have BRU credit at this time.

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

Posted by CherylWoops

This is a GREAT post Karen!!! Thanks for putting time & effort into typing this out, and it is very helpful. And yeah I think my useless arse "helped" for like 2 minutes before I sat.

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

Great ideas! I also recieved some duplicates and some items that never came off of my registry. I went online and edited those entries to reflect what I really recieved.

Also, since my days of being the perpetual bridesmaid, I have been suggesting (at showers) to write the gifts on the back of the cards... THis is a great idea. My good friend wrote all the gifts on the back of each card, and kept them together. THen, when I got home, I just went through the bag and REALLY read each card. When writing TYs I just put a check mark on the back of the card. Much easier than having a friend search through a list to find someone and then write the gift down.

An additional suggestion: When we got home, our furniture had not been delivered, so we quickly filled up an empty room with all the gifts. I spent some time each night after the shower organizing the small gifts into gift bags and baskets. (one for feeding items, another for bibs, etc.) That way when the furniture arrived we could clear out the room and put things away easily.

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

Thanks so much!

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

Just searching through things and found this post amazing and very helpful!!! I am bumping cause I can't believe I missed it..I had my shower last weekend and could have used all this info THANKS!!!

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

this was a great post...THANKS!!!

Re: Spinoff from my Shower Post - Tips on Dealing with Your Shower, Sorting Through the Gifts, Writing Thank Yous and Dealing with Those Clowns at BRU!

i loved this post! thanks so much for sharing- it will be very helpful when i have my shower next month!