Wedding Blog
Yes, these
are off in their hand-canceled glory.
A note about the hand-canceling, as I know that some people have different experiences with it than others.
First, what exactly is hand-canceling, and why do people care about it? Exhibit A below shows a regular postmarked envelope:
Exhibit B is hand cancelled:
Image found here.
In my mind, the hand canceling looks quite a bit nicer.
Now, I’d heard some stories that hand-canceling can be difficult to get. When I was buying my stamps, I spoke with the person behind the counter and he gave me a couple of tips about getting my invitations hand canceled.
The whole conversation went something like this:
Postman: Are you a med school student?
Meg: No, but I’m working on my Ph.D. Why do you ask?
Postman: You are the most confident bride I’ve ever seen buy stamps, so I figured you must be in medical school. Most brides are very uncertain about their choices and spend awhile trying to sort things out.
(Taking advantage of the good impression I’d made)
Meg: Oh, thanks- I just looked on the USPS website and figured out what stamps I wanted. Do you mind if I ask you a question? Is there any way that it would be possible to get the wedding invitations hand cancelled?
(Postman leans over counter)
Postman (quietly): It’s officially against USPS policy to hand cancel regular envelopes. But, I know the person who works the early morning shift on weekdays. If you arrive right after the post office opens, she’ll let you did it.
And that is what I did. The post office opened at 7:30 this morning, and I got there at about 7:40. No one was there, and 10 minutes later I’d hand canceled all of the invitations.
Did anyone else try to get their invitations hand canceled? What was your experience?
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I just sent my invites out this morning! I wasn’t planning on having them hand-canceled (I’ve heard horror stories), until I got up to the counter to ask for more postage for some of the overseas invites… I decided to ask about hand-canceling. Like you, I had no problem at all! She immediately pulled out the stamp and started stamping away.
gee thank you, something else to obsess over. and i live in michigan, in the metro of detroit- people, generally speaking, are NOT that friendly as it seems your local post office was.
but it looks amazing, i have to agree. and i will find a way to make this happen for my own wedding. 
My invites aren’t done yet, but I’m planning to go to my local PO and get them done. I figure I’ll have a better chance if they’re already familiar w/me and all my wedding mail they have to sort daily! I’m having a small wedding, so only 30 will go out….piece of cake for something that looks so much nicer….plus we have photostamps so I wouldn’t want a regular postmark to hide those expensive babies!
A friend of mine took her invitations to two separate post offices and brought cookies to each when requesting hand-canceling!
I had my friend at the post office hand cancel my Save the dates (in a RED envelope). Even though they were hand cancelled, because of my red envelope and the red cancelling stamp, they STILL got put through the meter! Boooo….
FI and I went on a Saturday morning. We asked the postman helping us if he can hand cancel the invites. He said they don’t hand cancel bulk mail. The postwoman next to him saw it was for our wedding and we used custom stamps through zazzle with one of pictures from e-session. She was very excited and loved our stamps that she encouraged the postman to cancel our invites. She also made sure that he doesn’t stamp on our face.
Wow good stuff! Here is what happened to me: http://www.weddingbee.com/2006/08/05/wait-a-minute-mr-postman/
For SF brides, my FI (who was the one who took our envelopes to the post office; he’s a rockstar) was told that the only post office in the city that will hand cancel is the one at the Rincon Center. He had no trouble getting ours hand canceled there.
When I first read about hand canceling (I’m sure it was here on WB a ways back!) I was totally convinced I needed to do it. But when the time came to send off my babies (yes… my babies) I just let the post office take them and do with them as they would.
I agree that they look nicer when there is less on the envelopes, but didn’t want to bother - it didn’t always sound so easy to do! In the end, most people just open the envelope and don’t give it too much thought. I think it helped also that I handwrote the names and addresses in gold ink with fancy lettering, and that the envelopes were dark purple, which probably diverted attention away from any machine-canceled ugliness. Plus, my invites were pocketfolds, so I think most people will just throw the envelopes away since everything is contained in the pocketfold.
I was actually ever-so-slightly disappointed that my usually detail-oriented girly-girl friend just opened the envelope and threw it away without even looking at it (including the DIY liner I’d put in!) But it just sort of re-iterated the fact that I probably care 10x as much about these things as most people…
I had a great experience too. There is a P.O. close to me that closes at midnight. We went late and the guy was very nice and let us hand cancel them.
It’s a lovely idea (and something to think about for me)! On the other hand, I think most people just trash or recycle the envelopes even if they keep the invites… and knowing how they can get dirtied and wrinkled just by a trip through the mail machines, I’m not sure it’s something I’ll worry about. I might just have to ask when I take ours in to the post office!
thanks for the tip, Jay! This SF bride loves hand canceling. Another tip for SF gals: the Marina post office (across the street from Safeway) is always deserted and the people there are really nice. They’d probably help you out, too.
Wow, I’d always been told by the postal folks that there’s no such thing as hand-cancelling anymore! (They told me that they’ll tell the customer that yes, it’ll be hand-cancelled, but then nothing different happens to the envelopes… but if you did it yourself, then you know for sure) I wonder if they still have to go through machines, after they’ve been cancelled?
Good job!
FYI, wedding invitations don’t qualify as bulk mail, since you’re not getting a postage discount based on quantity. The USPS website even suggests that brides have their invitations hand-canceled.
So there shouldn’t actually be any problems. I guess some postal workers just don’t want to make the effort.
i just hand canceled mine on Monday and there were no horror stories. I waited in line at the post office during lunch, went to the available post lady and asked if I could get them hand canceled and that I would do it myself all in one breath when she looked at my box of invitations. She said please move aside and handed me the stamper and I was all set to go.. hehe.. no problems there and it was quite enjoyable! =)
melbride…i was JUST about to ask if we could ask to do it ourselves! thanks for answering the question!
this is so funny bc it’s a subject mostly only brides know about…i love it!
we should have “hand cancel” Post office get together’s in our cities! HA!
i never notice if the envelopes were hand canceled or not when i get wedding invites
I had a heck of a time with hand-canceling. I assumed that most post offices would hand cancel. On Friday, I called my local post office to make sure and they were very rude and said they would only hand cancel one or two but not all 57 of my invites.
After calling 4 more post offices in the outlying cities and having the postal workers be extremely rude, negative, and condescending, I was about to give up. The downtown Portland post office is the only one that hand-cancels and you have to make an appointment at least two weeks prior. I had already bought my stamps online 3 weeks ahead of time, so I was told the lady at Bridal Veil would get really mad and be mean.
My fiance went over to the post office across from his work to ask about hand-canceling. Someone was finally nice and very helpful. The two of us went to that post office yesterday and hand canceled all our invites ourselves.
We just mailed ours yesterday!! We also had custom stamps through Zazzle, and were told those stamps don’t have to be cancelled, by hand, or machine. Our invites will go through a sorting machine, but nothing that will put a an ugly stamp over our stamp. They probably will have the barcode on the bottom, but I can live with that.
We sent one to ourselves, so I’ll be anxious to see what it looks like…
With our save the dates, I think I fell into the “say one thing, do another” camp at the post office. I asked if they could hand cancell the envelopes and the staff said, “um…sure?” with a look of “yeah, right”. I never heard from anyone who received them about whether or not they were hand cancelled. Which means no one besides the recently or soon-to-be married notices 
this won’t stop me from trying to get my invites hand cancelled in a few weeks!
My sister took my invitations to the local post office in our neighborhood and they let her hand cancel the invitations. For the remaining invitations I took them to the busy post office across my work in downtown DC and they would not let me do it, the say for tracking purposes everything must go through the machine.
ok, one more comment, now that I’ve thought about it:
If the stamp is hand-cancelled, does the Post Office not run it through the rest of the machines too? It was my understanding that the barcode is for actual mailing purposes (like a ZIP code). Has anyone been on the receiving end of a hand-cancelled envelope to know for sure?
just wondering…
I didn’t have a single problem hand canceling mine. I took them up to the window and was about to ask when the guy goes “Wedding invites?” I nodded. “Hand ‘em over. I’ll hand cancel for you.” “Thanks!” He pulled out the stamp and nodded me out the door. I think it was the basket I carried them in that gave away what they were. 
The bar code on the bottom still gets put on (so they go through a machine) but the stamp isn’t printed over. Basically they just need a way to track and to sort.
My FI is a mail carrier (has been for 24 years).
* Per postal regulations, they do not hand cancel unless you pay for certain services. They are being nice unfortunately.
*Hand cancelling does not stop the barcode, nor does it stop them from going through the sorting machines.
* Zazzle stamps are considered metered mail and do not have to be cancelled. But try to tell a postal employee, good luck. I mailed 250 christmas cards through my FI’s post office, that all delivered on his route, after arguing with a coworker over it, about 150 of them go cancelled anyways!
this doesnt help unless you live nearby, but the oldest post office in the US, in old city philly hand cancels everything. after 3pm (or was it 4pm) they stop hand canceling & send them to another post office to be machine cancel & for every item over 50, we’d have to pay ~5 cents per. still worth it if you live in the city, especially within walking distance like we do. since the date & stamp become very integral to your invite/ std, i would recommend sending a sample to yourself first. http://www.knottywood-treasures.com/pictures/ca691b.jpg
oh i should add that the bar code still shows up. here is our actual sample
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2029/2328314182_26e01a1448.jpg?v=0 …so we learned to write the address lower on the actual std.
I went to the post office in the small town next to mine (Verona, NJ) which is always empty. So one weekday morning, my mom and I went over there and hand canceled all of my invitations in less than 10 mins. We asked and the clerk just handed over 2 stamps!
my dad works for the post office in Louisiana. If all else fails, I’ll bring them “home” and get them done where he works.
I’m late–but I was able to hand cancel my save-the-dates this morning at the post office. The clerk looked at me a bit weird at first but then gave me the stamp to do them!
I’m late–but I was able to hand cancel my save-the-dates this morning at the post office. The clerk looked at me a bit weird at first but then gave me the stamp to do them!
http://www.planetwed.com/community/Post-Office-Advice-t1600.html
Our experience as told by our invitation designer.
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Ms. Dahlia, Detroit/Cleveland
Age and Occupation: 24, PhD Student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, IT System Administrator
Engagement Date: December 31, 2006
Wedding Date: May 2008
Blogging Since: September 19, 2007
Venue: United Methodist Cathedral & historic downtown hotel in Cleveland
About Me: I enjoy cooking, dancing and swimming. I am a geek and apply game theory to my everyday life. Winter is my favorite time of year, especially when spent curled up with good coffee and a book by Madeleine L'Engle.
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