Wedding Shower Gifts for International Bride

I think explicitly saying that you don't want large gifts would be perfectly fine. If many people already know the situation, I think they'd be more apt to give gifts in other ways. You can still give the option to have gifts sent to her home in New Zealand so that she doesn't have to travel back with the gifts. I'm in a little bit of a different situation since I live in the US and don't have to worry about traveling for anything. I do have a normal registry set up at a couple of places but I also have gift areas for our home improvement projects (since we already own our house) and our honey moon fund (we have it mostly paid for but it is still nice to have the extra money when we're on the trip itself).

I would also check how she would go about traveling back with money if that is what she is given. I think there may be restrictions on what she can take back with her and how much she can take back with her. I don't know if this is the case but it would be something to look in to.

I would put something in the invite about it. Something along the lines of:

"While we love a gift, we hate a shipping cost! With our couple living in New Zealand, the ceremony in Mexico, and the bridal shower in Ohio we kindly ask that monetary gifts be given in lieu of physical items."

Most of your family and friends will know the situation and understand.

Can you just throw a party that isn't gift-centered? That would be the easiest solution of all.

I agree about potentially having a non-gift event or spreading the word to guests to limit gifts to small items she'll be able to pack in a suitcase (e.g., lingerie, favorite recipes, etc.). Cash and especially checks can be tricky because of the different currencies (my sister has lived in Australia for decades and we still have relatives who send her checks drawn on American banks, which she cannot cash...). Also, I don't know about NZ, but currently the USPS is extremely limited (and ridiculously expensive) in what you can mail to AU due to Covid-related transportation limitations, so shipping gifts probably isn't a viable option. A small padded envelope weighing a few ounces at Christmas would have cost nearly $100 and the USPS would NOT guarantee it would actually be delivered -- it may have been returned to me.... If you do gifts, encourage guests to be very creative in coming up with items that are very small and lightweight!