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Shipping a bag ahead

Posted by (Mayberry on the Willamette) on

My lovely partner & I are getting married in Edinburg in October. She has a simple dress plus some scarves & other hoo haw to make herself look (more) beautiful. I will have a full kilt outfit (brouges, socks, kilt, jacket...going regimental so no underwear?) Our celebrant has agreed to have us ship a box to her & we can catch up to it in Glasgow. I have researched mybaggage.com and it looks fine. Rates are decent & good reviews. Rather than a box I would like to ship in a large Timbuk2 Copilot bag i have. I looked at FedEx shipping & the rate is over double. But if that is what it takes then I'd be comfortable with that.

I'm worried about the bag clearing customs. Mybaggage.com has a list of prohibited items & we would adhere to those guidelines. Any advice on easing my worries on clearing customs? Ex: I did it & my box/bag got sent back to my home because I had car parts in the box vs I did it no problems at all. FedEx says they give advice on best way to clear customs. Mybaggage.com had a list of prohibited items (ie; car parts)

*I don't want to check a bag because we have many stops on the way to Scotland including Minnesota, NYC, Heathrow & Dublin)

Posted by
11321 posts

One suggestion I have based on an unfortunate experience with tariffs in Italy (who knows if the UK has similar regulations), make certain the Customs slip says “used clothing.” My son sent some stuff back to us in Italy a few years ago and failed to do so and we had to pay 1/3 of the value of the clothes to get our stuff out of Italian Customs!

Posted by
763 posts

Just follow the company's instructions and you won't have problems. The previous poster's advice to indicated that the clothing is "used" is good, and the company should tell you that. It's what they do. Screw-ups hurt their business, so they make sure they plan for unusual circumstances. We haven't used mybaggage, but do use Luggage Free and it's always 100% seamless. If you call them, I'm sure they could offer you some reassurance. Happy wedding!

Posted by
15007 posts

I've used Send My Bag to ship a piece of luggage ftom the UK to the US. It took 4 days. They walk you through each step.

Posted by
2267 posts

One note regarding the time between traveling and getting to Edinburgh—The luggage services won't hold your bag for you, so you'll want to be sure that the Scottish destination is OK with storing it all of the time you're traveling, or maybe arrange with a trusted person at home to drop it for shipping a few days before you get to Scotland.

Posted by
317 posts

Thanks @Scudder. We are going to ship weeks ahead of time to our Celebrant in Glasgow. We are leaving from Portland on Sept 10. So maybe as early as Sept 01. Hopefully it will arrive at our Celebrants house before we leave. The trick to list as Used Clothing is a nice tip. I appreciate the other services reviews. I'm looking at them now

Posted by
32757 posts

just be truthful on the Customs form. If not the wedding may be less pleasant (congratulations, by the way),

If it contains used clothing say so. If it also contains other possessions mention them too.

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