I have only experience with the London Consulate (as an Italian but resident in the UK), which is one of the busiest in Europe, and I know of people that had to ask for visa for spouses or similar remotely and than plan changed. Although it is not easy to contact them, there is opportunity to call in and explain the situation and they would often work around it and give you options (if possible they could fast process your application for an additional fee and let you collect it to avoid further postal delays). So my suggestion is to call in talk to them and if this is not possible, just turn up there the latest you can and see what are the options (it could be that your application has passed the checks and only need the issuing of the final stamp and is at the bottom of a pile, so they could pick it, stamp it and handed over to you).