Sending wedding things overseas

[NicolaBolton87 161]

Hi all,

 

first of all, sorry if this is posted on the wrong forum - it seemed the most sensible place to ask this question.

 

i’m in England and my fiancé is in Pennsylvania. We are 142 days in to the K1 Application and waiting for our NOA2. I have ideas in my mind of what I want for the wedding and I have seen so many perfect things in charity shops here which would save so much money and are exactly what I want such as vintage china eg teacups, teapots, saucers etc. Now my initial thought was to buy these things, package them up and ship them to my fiancé however before I do that I wanted to find out what other people have done?

 

I don’t know if the US has the same kind of charity shops as we do in England. I’m worried I’ll get there and not be able to find any of the things I want for the wedding.

 

What did other people do? Did you buy wedding bits and pieces over here or wait and do everything when you got there?

 

xx

[proudtobabritgirl 126]

The USA has some of the best thrift shops in the world! They are huge! I can almost guarantee you would find tea sets etc! I am one of these biggest fans of charity shops and I always go and spend at least one day scouting bargains, when I go to visit my husband in California. (they have them in all states, I've been to many) 

Posting them to the USA would be costly. 

Plus they have garage sales if all else fails! You'll be fine, finding it all out in USA though! Hope this helps! 

[Wuozopo 4,293]

The weight of china pieces would make sending expensive and then chance of breakage.

We have Goodwill stores, shops run by volunteers to benefit Women's shelters or other charities, and local online things like Craig's list, Beg Barter, NextDoor, etc. 

[kris&me 572]

 

every city in the US has charity shops

there are also 4 antique shops in Wilkes Barre i have visited / depending on my visit i have found some good items

check out online sites while you are still there / seems they all put ads on internet now

I don't know your timeline for planning the wedding but the New Enland states have the best antiques and collectables

 

travel to other cities is easy from that city

 

[yuna628 9,680]

6 hours ago, NicolaBolton87 said:

Hi all,

 

first of all, sorry if this is posted on the wrong forum - it seemed the most sensible place to ask this question.

 

i’m in England and my fiancé is in Pennsylvania. We are 142 days in to the K1 Application and waiting for our NOA2. I have ideas in my mind of what I want for the wedding and I have seen so many perfect things in charity shops here which would save so much money and are exactly what I want such as vintage china eg teacups, teapots, saucers etc. Now my initial thought was to buy these things, package them up and ship them to my fiancé however before I do that I wanted to find out what other people have done?

 

I don’t know if the US has the same kind of charity shops as we do in England. I’m worried I’ll get there and not be able to find any of the things I want for the wedding.

 

What did other people do? Did you buy wedding bits and pieces over here or wait and do everything when you got there?

 

xx

There are plenty of charity shops and thrift stores, most notably Goodwill. However if you're looking for specific things of a vintage nature I'd encourage you to go antiquing. I'd tell you guys to go make a couple days stop-over of it and travel to Lancaster, PA and hit up a variety of antique stores there and in the Bird-In-Hand, and Strasburg area. It's beautiful there. Best places for vintage and reasonably priced. Betting you could find most anything you wanted. There are also plenty of antique stores around Wilkes iirc. Other opportunities depends on when you arrive to the US, but you can always find stuff at flea markets (boot sales) and Amish Mud sales from spring through fall. If timing is a problem to get everything together, I'd at least try to get what non-breakable things you can (or have the fiancé go get it) and then take some time out before your wedding to finish the rest together. Of course if you were having a courthouse wedding, and then planning something bigger later on, you'd have plenty of time to do all shopping together with no time issues.

 

Don't forget checking in other places like Homegoods if you're looking for reproduction pieces or even more modern stuff with a vintage feel.

 

I would not ship anything breakable like that. For our wedding I had my husband bring some things in his suitcase from the UK, namely all of the groomsmen's clothing, my jewelry, and custom gift items for the wedding party. I signed off on everything I sent him out to go find (since I couldn't be there), and had him take photos when I wasn't sure. For everything else I just purchased it in the US. Some of it was through Etsy (you may even be able to find some vintage stuff there), antique stores, and craft stores.

[NicolaBolton87 161]

18 hours ago, kris&me said:

 

every city in the US has charity shops

there are also 4 antique shops in Wilkes Barre i have visited / depending on my visit i have found some good items

check out online sites while you are still there / seems they all put ads on internet now

I don't know your timeline for planning the wedding but the New Enland states have the best antiques and collectables

 

travel to other cities is easy from that city

 

Thank you so much for this! Good to know there are some places in WIlkes Barre we can go  It's so tricky trying to plan a wedding from another country - i know we're all in the same boat - I just have such specific ideas of what I want on the day and I know if we were getting married in the UK I could hit up all the charity shops in my town and get everything I need. It's just the not knowing what's out there. I've spent a lot of time in Wilkes Barre but one thing we didn't do was look at any of these types of places (we weren't engaged and planning a wedding then!) 

But thank you so much!! So helpful!

[NicolaBolton87 161]

15 hours ago, yuna628 said:

There are plenty of charity shops and thrift stores, most notably Goodwill. However if you're looking for specific things of a vintage nature I'd encourage you to go antiquing. I'd tell you guys to go make a couple days stop-over of it and travel to Lancaster, PA and hit up a variety of antique stores there and in the Bird-In-Hand, and Strasburg area. It's beautiful there. Best places for vintage and reasonably priced. Betting you could find most anything you wanted. There are also plenty of antique stores around Wilkes iirc. Other opportunities depends on when you arrive to the US, but you can always find stuff at flea markets (boot sales) and Amish Mud sales from spring through fall. If timing is a problem to get everything together, I'd at least try to get what non-breakable things you can (or have the fiancé go get it) and then take some time out before your wedding to finish the rest together. Of course if you were having a courthouse wedding, and then planning something bigger later on, you'd have plenty of time to do all shopping together with no time issues.

 

Don't forget checking in other places like Homegoods if you're looking for reproduction pieces or even more modern stuff with a vintage feel.

 

I would not ship anything breakable like that. For our wedding I had my husband bring some things in his suitcase from the UK, namely all of the groomsmen's clothing, my jewelry, and custom gift items for the wedding party. I signed off on everything I sent him out to go find (since I couldn't be there), and had him take photos when I wasn't sure. For everything else I just purchased it in the US. Some of it was through Etsy (you may even be able to find some vintage stuff there), antique stores, and craft stores.

Thank you! I hadn't heard of Goodwill but I've just had a look online and I see there are lots of donation centres around the Wilkes Barre area. It's good to know what's out there and that I'll be able to get what I need. Antiquing sounds like a plan too, thank you.

It's just tricky knowing I can get my hands on everything I want over here for very cheap, but not knowing whether I can get exactly what I want over there for the same price.

Thank you though, I will get my fiance and friends out there to check a few places out for me

[Wuozopo 4,293]

6 hours ago, NicolaBolton87 said:

Thank you! I hadn't heard of Goodwill but I've just had a look online and I see there are lots of donation centres around the Wilkes Barre area. It's good to know what's out there and that I'll be able to get what I need. Antiquing sounds like a plan too, thank you.

It's just tricky knowing I can get my hands on everything I want over here for very cheap, but not knowing whether I can get exactly what I want over there for the same price.

Thank you though, I will get my fiance and friends out there to check a few places out for me

 We go to Goodwill to find cheap books so are familiar with it. You won't find lots of English made tea cups.  At antique shops they will be pricier. 

 

So curious now. What are you planning and how many/what pieces will you need? What prices are you seeing in charity shops?

Edited January 29, 2018 by Wuozopo

[Wuozopo 4,293]

Browse Craigslist Pennsylvania. See if this link works. 

https://scranton.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=tea+cup&excats=134-15-13-12&sort=rel

[NicolaBolton87 161]

23 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

Browse Craigslist Pennsylvania. See if this link works. 

https://scranton.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=tea+cup&excats=134-15-13-12&sort=rel

This looks fabulous! Lots of things on here and not expensive at all! 

[NicolaBolton87 161]

30 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

 We go to Goodwill to find cheap books so are familiar with it. You won't find lots of English made tea cups.  At antique shops they will be pricier. 

 

So curious now. What are you planning and how many/what pieces will you need? What prices are you seeing in charity shops?

Haha welllll being from England I'd quite like to have some vintage teacups/teapots on the tables as part of the centrepieces. I'm thinking something like this... (hopefully the picture attached) and also with cups and saucers. I have some kind of vision but it's the kind of thing that I think I'll end up throwing together depending on what I can get! 

 

[Wuozopo 4,293]

42 minutes ago, NicolaBolton87 said:

This looks fabulous! Lots of things on here and not expensive at all! 

On the page, change the search to tea pot. Somebody has a collection of 80 tea pots. Maybe you could make an offer for a few of the more vintage looking ones. Send you fiancé to fetch and pay.