Dress

I had always planned on shipping my wedding dress to Hawaii because we were already going to be carrying so much crap and I didn't want to risk something happening to it.  But shipping is a risk too, right?  They could lose it shipping it just like it could be lost on a flight.

Then the guy at the bridal store completely freaked me out about shipping the dress, because if something happened to it, how could you replace it?  Something that has to be ordered months in advance and then fitted?  Then I thought I should keep it as close to me as possible.

Then I heard stories about dresses being stolen out of first class coat closets or overhead bins, and other assorted problems.  Not to mention that the dress bag would take up one of my 2 carry-ons (sorry, carry-on and personal bag) and we are going to have so much stuff.  So then I was back to shipping it.  Early.  Early enough that if something were to happen, there would be enough time to try to track it down and to assemble an emergency plan B.

And now, I'm really thinking shipping it is the way to go - a bride had her gown stolen out of her checked luggage!  Who would do that?!  One would think you could just not check it, and just carry it on.  But I'm reading online on the boards that they can't guarantee you that you can even take garment bags on board anymore as carry-ons and the only way to be sure the dress travels with you is to buy it a seat.  I am not spending more than the cost of the dress to fly it on the plane with me!  That would be outrageous!

I love that we're having a destination wedding, but the logistics of getting all the stuff from A to B when it's not driving distance is definitely a minus.  Especially the important stuff for the wedding, like the clothes!  My current plan is to ship it by FedEx or UPS.  What stress!