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When I took my invites to the post office, I didn't hand cancel them. Did the rest of you or do you plan on it?
How do you do that? I keep seeing posts about it but i have no idea what you mean!?!
nope, I will be giving them to the mail lady at my building!
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I hand cancelled! We went to a teeny tiny post office and asked to hand cancel. The woman at the desk refused and we argued with her for a few moments. Then another woman came out from the back and heard us, and said it was no problem at all. She handed us the little round cancellation stamp and a stamp pad and a big box to put the cancelled envelopes in. It took us about an hour to get them all stamped and dried. They came out great!
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Hand cancelling prevents your invitations from getting stuck and destroyed in a postal machine. You can ask the person at the post office if they can hand cancel them, but it seems more people are luckier asking if they can hand cancel the invites themselves. From what I've heard, it's easier if you ask at a post office that's not as busy.
Here's a great post to explain a bit more about it: http://www.weddingbee.com/2006/08/05/wait-a-minute-mr-postman/
I love wedding bee, i would never have known that! Now that I do I will totally think about doing it! If we go with the vellum enveloppe it could save some ink smearing too!!!
My mom mailed them from a rinky-dink post office near our venue that has literally ONE employee. I told her to go in and offer to do the cancelling herself and the guy (overwhelmed at the prospect of handling 200 pieces of mail at once) gladly let her do it!
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Not personally, but I did ship them to Bridal Veil, Oregon to get the infamous Bridal Veil hand canceled post mark.
I got the laugh and look of "You are kidding right", so decided it wasn't that important. I guess it just depends on the post office you go to...
I did. I took them to the main post office near Penn Station in New York. The first 50 were free, but I paid $.05 per invitation for the remainder. I did not get to do the cancelling myself. I had to entrust them to the care of the post office. I was a little nervous letting go of them -- I was afraid they would get pushed aside or lost.
They did make and they were hand-cancelled, but there was still the bar code at the bottom indicating they had gone through some machine. I don't think there is any way to avoid that. Still, they looked better than if they had the machine cancelling.
Overall, I would do it again.
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I just sent my invites out and my post office (the main post office where all the smaller annexes send their mail) told me that it was against the law for them to hand a customer the postal stamp, or to allow a customer to do it themselves. Although I'm not sure it was true, she explained that the canceling signifies that the postal employee has inspected the mail according to government standards, which of course customers aren't familiar with.
She was a little feisty about it, but then offered that a postal employee on "light duty" could hand cancel them for me. I checked on a few of the local invites and the WERE all hand cancelled, so shout out to the USPS!!! 
Ditto Jenny Bee. We had ours hand canceled at the HUGE post office in NYC Penn station. We had our invites letterpressed and hand calligraphied, so we figure the extra $.05 per envelope was a small price to pay.
@vistagirl - you can send your invites in a separate package to get handcancelled in other cities...usually ones with cute names, like bridal veil, OR. i remember reading a martha stewart article that had a whole bunch =).
oh and i'm going to handcancel mine! our envelopes are cream with a wonderul letterpressed pattern and i'd hate for them to get all messed up. thankfully i'm a frequent visitor to both post offices in my area and they're really nice to me =)! i'm hoping they'll let me hand cancel with no problem once i'm ready to send!
I haven't yet, but I'm planning on it! Just completes the look.
After working so hard to make the invitations (down to the envelopes) look perfect, I didn't want the PO to ruin it all!
I wish I knew sooner about that! I just sent out the last batch.
I can't believe some places charge! The Bridal Veil idea is a good one and made me think of this older post: http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/10/30/postmark-stamp/
Lillindy YOU ROCK! I am going to do this too. I was never sure of how to go about this before, but definitely now. Thank you so much for this fabulous suggestion..We spend alot of time either designing or making our invitations and we want them to get to our guests as non-damaged as possible to help spread the good news and of the good times ahead.
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Don't forget the postmark in good ol' Chapel Hill, NC!
Sadly, while I live here, and dropped them off at the town post office, ours got run through that damn machine, and have a giant "Raleigh" on them.
It's so worth it to hand cancel.
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@ Lillindy - Ms. Deviled Egg is who I got the idea from. I posted a few comments on it regarding Bridal Veil's story if anyone is interested in learning about them...it is pretty neat. I still order stamps from them, as that it their main source of income. The post master even sent me a sweet letter after they post marked my invites!
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I went to the Evanston, IL post office and the first person I asked looked at me like I was crazy. Thankfully, another friendly employee interrupted us and gave me the stamp so I could cancel the invites myself. After seeing what our RSVP postcards looked like after going through the canceling machine, I'm glad we took the extra step.
Bridal veil oregon is 10 minutes from my reception site! I am going to drive them there myself! That is amazing thanks for the info ladies!!!! PS you should google image search the falls, they are awesome!
@bree72: How do you buy stamps from them? I'm assuming it probably has to be in person, huh?
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@ Lillindy - Nope, I live in Florida, and just mail a check to her (made out to USPS) for a book or two of stamps. She mails them back in a Priority Mail envelope for free. I had to buy a ton of stamps for Thank You's, so that was the first time I ordered. So basically, I spend 1 stamp to help them out.
@bree72 -- did you end up sending your invites to Bridal vail? I would love to see the post mark. I, unfortunately, was too much of a slacker and didn't get my invites finished in time for them to travel to Oregon and back to Pennsylvania. I really regret not doing it, because I think it would have looked really neat.
You know, the funny thing is, I brought my invites to the post office and handed them to the clerk. She threw them all in a box and while I didn't expect it, she hand cancelled them for me. I knew because one came back to me (One guest didn't have a mail receptacle...blah!). Very nice of them, I think! :)
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@ Deviled Egg - We did end up sending them to Bridal Veil first, but I was dumb and didn't send one to myself. My sister still has hers, though, so I'll have her take a picture to send your way. I received the funniest comments about them...I guess not too many people know that you can do this (I know I didn't until your post), so they thought I actually went there.
What do the Bridal Veil stamps look like? And does anyone know the address for this?
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I had mine had cancelled at the stamp is really cute. It saved them from being chomped through the machine and they were glad to do it!
@ Burgandy - You can order any actual stamps you want, just like any other Post Office (you just have to specify), but if you were talking about the post mark...it is two hearts intertwined side by side. It also says something about being the "wedding capitol" or "wedding headquarters" underneath. I can't quite remember. In any case, you would just send your invites to
USPS, 1 West Mill Road, Bridal Veil, OR 97010
From what the post master told me when I called, there is only one road and like 2 buildings for miles, so you could practically write Post Office, Bridal Veil, Oregon and it would make it. I did insure my invites, though, especially since they were letterpress.
If you are nervous at all about sending invitations, you can call the PostMaster, Geri at (503) 695-2380 to ask her any questions you might have.
I flipped through my old MSWs and found the piece on hand canceling! So in case anyone wants some other city options, here is the text from the article:
Special Delivery
The towns listed below will cancel your stamps for you, imprinting them with their sweet names. Enclose your stamped, addressed invitations in a padded envelope or box, and include a note detailing your request. Address it to "Postmaster," follwed by the name of the town, state, and ZIP code (call before mailing). Allow enough time for invitations to be delivered, postmarked, and remailed -- ask the postmaster how long it will take.
1. Bliss, New York, 14024 (585-322-7740)
2. Bridal Veil, Oregon
3. Darling, Mississippi, 38623 (662-326-8408)
4. Harmony, Rhode Island, 02829 (401-949-2745)
5. Kissimmee, Florida, 34744 (407-846-0999)
6. Lovely, Kentucky, 41231 (606-395-5848)
7. Loving, Texas, 76460 (940-378-2259)
8. Luck, Wisconsin, 54853 (715-472-2079)
9. Romance, Arkansas, 72136 (501-556-5911)
I hand cancelled, too! I went to a post office that's not as busy as the one in my town, asked the person behind the desk if she hand cancelled, fully anticipating her to laugh in my face, and she happily stamped them all! I practically skipped out of the post office!
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I totally love weddingbee. I was trying to figure out what hand cancelling meant and I found this post. I will definately be doing this.
Thanks again!!
I wanted to hand cancel and fiance put his foot down, and said "baby, we just need to get these out". I was sad, since I had visions of the Bridal Veil hand cancel or something equally cool, but he was right. We compromised and bought the wedding ring stamps instead!
I saw this article in Martha Stewart and was planning to hand-cancel at our local post office. I had totally forgotten that Darling, MS was on Martha's list!! Thanks for reminding me charmedbride! FI and I call each other darling (somewhat sarcastically) and a Darling, MS cancel would look so perfect on top of our custom monogram stamps that I ordered this week. You guys are the best!
Make sure to call before sending your invitations to the postmaster to have them hand cancelled. If the postmaster is on vacation they can sit there for weeks!
Postal employees technically do not have to hand cancel unless you pay for registered mail (unfortunately it IS in the Postal Regulations). And they are union so that is were the attitude is from (my FI has been a carrier for 23 years, I know! lol)
Hand canceling also does NOT stop them from going through the postal machines. Sorry. Local mail will not get the big black barcode cancel because they don't go to the main post office. i.e I live in Pleasanton, if I mail to Pleasanton and I am nice to the clerk (mine hand cancels cause they have to see me everyday lol) they will arrive with the just the hand cancel. But if they are going outside my zip code they will go to Oakland first (our sorting facility) and all those beautiful hand cancelled envelopes will go in with all the mail and get the ugly black cancel.
Just an FYI, and most postal employees don't know this or don't care, photo stamps are metered mail. Which means that they don't get cancelled and go into a different bin for mailing. Problem is, and this has happened to me, one postal employee will put them into the metered mail, where they belong and another employee will pull them out at the sorting facility and cancel them anyway.
All the advantage of having a FI that works for the post office
I took my invitations into the post office with the intention of asking them to hand cancel, and the lady offered to do it without me even asking. I was shocked especially since there was about 175 invitations!
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