Thursday, March 24, 2011

STAMPS

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When it came to getting stamps for all of our invitations, we went to a post office one Saturday with our sample to see how much the envelope would cost to mail. I could immediately tell the woman behind the counter had no clue what she was doing. First of all, it took her about 5 minutes to answer us, she was pressing a ton of buttons on the screen, and at one point...looked up at the ceiling and starting counting off numbers as if she was adding up in her head. Then she pressed down on the scale with her hand, looked at us and said:
"ummmmm .81 cents"
I said...
-"really? you're sure it's .81 cents? For this one envelope?"
-"yes".
- "It says .81 cents right there on your screen? Can you show me that?"
-"ohhh...umm ok, hold on"
She then proceeds to go through the whole process again to get .81 cents on the screen for me to see. Chris looked at me and his eyes were saying "Do NOT buy .81 cents worth of stamps here, this woman is clearly an idiot." At that point...all the post offices were closed so we couldn't get a second opinion. But we drove over to Chris's office where they have a mailing machine. We put it on the scale and it said .61 cents. That made sooo much more sense to me. From everything I had been reading online and from what I've seen in other invitations that have been mailed to us, that's what I was expecting. What on earth was that woman doing? Did she think I had asked her for the total cost of the invitation + the weight of her hand??

Oy...So Chris's mom very generously took our invitation to a different post office that Monday to confirm that .61 cents was all we needed, and this different post office did in fact confirm this price.
Source
We got the pretty .61 cent cake stamp and got to work stamping our envelopes! The lesson? Make sure you don't get jipped by your local post office!

Another thing I learned: Nicole-Lynn at Seaside Smitten gave me the great advice to "hand cancel" the invitations when they are dropped off. This way, they are not electronically run through the machines which might damage them.

Again, because we got our invitations on a Monday night and were mailing them on a Tuesday, Chris's mom offered to take them to the post office for us. I wasn't about to commute into the city with over 100 invitations just so I could personally mail them. But, I did feel a little sad that I wasn't there for their release. I felt like it was my children's first day of kindergarten and I wasn't there to see them off. (Dramatic, I know). I asked her to have them "hand-cancel" the invitations...thinking they would take care of it when she dropped them off. Well...the clerk handed her a stamp and showed her a workstation where she could do them. Chris's mom proceeded to stand in the post office and individually stamp each invitation!!! I feel so bad she had to do that herself! She was definitely a trooper when it came to our stamps AND mailing our invites, and we can't thank her enough for helping us out with that!

Tomorrow, I'll show you our invites! And don't forget to vote in Wednesday's Wedding Poll: "Are You Changing Your Name?"

12 comments:

Mom said...

Love the cake stamp. It's so pretty.

Manda Mack said...

Do you "hand cancel" them, or do you ask the Post Office to do that?

HiLLjO said...

Phew... I know my invites will mail with a 64 cent stamp now. Mine are flat and plain-level so I might not hand cancel them...

Jasmine said...

oh my god! that's so nice of her!! you have a very sweet future mother in-law =)

Kelly said...

Technically, the Post Office is NOT supposed to let you stamp your own. It's the whole point of the cancel... to show that it has been approved by a USPS worker. But a lot of workers are lazy and make you do it yourself.

I actually wish mine had let me do my own. They just took the invites and said, "ok. someone will do them", which doesn't instill much confidence. At least if I had done them myself, I would know they got done!

Cat said...

Oh, thank goodness for helpful moms! I hate when you get an idiot at the post office…particularly when you are trying to get ready to mail your wedding invitations. Is there no more compassion in the world (I think it may have been replaced by idiocy ;) ).

Heather said...

That is so awesome of her to do that, and I'm glad you got a second opinion at another post office. That first lady sounds clueless!

Rebekah said...

We stamped our own. I can't remember which stamp it was but it was slightly more than the 42cent stamp. We then had them hand cancelled by the post office. That's crazy that she said it was so expensive!

Anne @thefitbridesmaid said...

I was convinced that mine was $0.61, but had to take it down to the post office to be sure.
And it might be good that you hand canceled. Our addresses were smudged a bit by going through the machine. I'm just happy that they appear to have made it to everyone. Can't wait to see yours!

Unknown said...

I think I can get away without hand canceling mine... They'll end up being just a flat card really. But that's a great tip! And the stamp thing too! Good for you to not let them gip you!!! :)

steph c said...

Everyone says to hand cancel! I'll be sure to do this when we send ours out :)

Good thing you guys double/triple checked.. 20cents savings per envelope is a ton!!

Cathy said...

Love the cake stamp. Wish i'd got a second opinion on mine now or just stuck first class stamps on them instead of getting them checked for size and ended up paying for a large letter.