This great question comes from a reader that wrote in to Nina Callaway at the About.com  Weddings Blog:

Reader Melissa asks:

I just had my first Bridal Shower and we received MANY beautiful gifts for the home and our new beginnings, including gifts at our Engagement party earlier this year. My fiancé and I do not live together, but we just leased a new apartment [where he will live before the wedding]. Is it poor taste to open or set up any of the gifts we received in our new apartment prior to the wedding in December?

Here is Nina’s Response and we totally agree with her on this:

Tradition stipulates that you not open wedding gifts before the actual wedding. Part of that is indeed only tradition and niceties, not unlike waiting until your birthday to open birthday presents even if they arrive early. But it’s also practical. If anything were to happen – such as one of you deciding not to go through with the wedding – etiquette would require you to return any wedding gifts. Thus, superstitious and cautious people especially say that you should wait.

But engagement presents are intended to help you celebrate the period before your wedding. You might have received toasting flutes, photo albums, or other gifts that will be useful now and you should definitely go ahead and use them.

Bridal shower gifts fall into the grey area between the two. Showers are intended to help you set up your new home. If the gifts you’ve received will help you to start feathering your nest early, I don’t see any harm in doing so. But if you’ve gotten gifts of lingerie, or things that feel decadent and special, why not keep them for after the wedding? Having some shiny new things will help you avoid any post-wedding blues and make you feel excited for your new life together.