Wedding Blog
Hi everybody! Today is a momentous day! Our invitations are finally going out!! Although I don’t want to post them here until our guests have received them (think end of this week), I thought I’d share the DIY pseudo-calligraphy I did (some of you seemed interested) and our adventures with stamps. Now, I’m not entirely convinced that anyone actually notices either of these two things, but we brides certainly do. So here we go.
First off, the calligraphy. I decided I wanted to get all fancy-pants, so I got a calligraphy pen and decided to try my hand at calligraphy. What did I discover? I suck at it. I can’t make all the little swirls and swooshes look good. Instead, I look like I am trying to be pretentious. So instead of addressing the envelopes using fancy calligraphy, I did two things: First, I just used the calligraphy pen with my regular handwriting. Then I added the one fancy pants calligraphy thing I really like, which is the spacing-out-of-the-zip-code (more on this in a moment).
Here is one of my envelopes:
Not all of my envelopes look like this, however. As some of you know, I like to be a Prepared Puff. I like to get things done as far ahead of time as possible, so as to reduce time-crunch induced stress. Thus, I have been addressing envelopes for a couple of months now. One of my earlier envelopes does not have the spaced-out zip code:
And one more…
How many of you have this issue? We have a couple that will be married in one month–after we send out our invitations, but before our wedding. So how does one address their envelope? I decided to address it to “the future Mr. and Mrs.”
As you may notice, I addressed this envelope to Mrs. Rachel and Mr. Nick Lastname. This was a decision I made long before I started addressing envelopes. I am totally opposed to the idea of the woman disappearing into her husband (ie, Mr. and Mrs. Nick Lastname), so this is what I came up with. Sometimes I put the woman’s name first, sometimes I put her name last. I totally don’t care how many etiquette rules I broke! 
Okay, now moving on to the Stamp Issues. Well, they’re actually Post Office Issues, not just stamp issues. In order to keep our postage at 59 cents, I have redesigned our invitations THREE TIMES. I know every regulation like the back of my hand, and the postage situation really stresses me out because every time I go to the post office, I am told something different. Now, onto my long-ass story.
Our post office makes me miserable. I dread going there. It always takes at least a half an hour to get through the line, and once you get to the front, you are either faced with Lady Who Hates Life or Guy Who Doesn’t Mail Anything The Right Way. Lucky for me, the past three times I have gotten Lady Who Hates Life, who clearly hates weddings and wants me to have to mail all of my invitations parcel post.
Last week I went in to have them weigh the final invitation with the letterpress. Lady Who Hates Life set my invitation on the scale. I see that it weighs just under two ounces (thus, 59 cents). She looks at me and says, “why did you write the zip code like that?” I replied, “It’s calligraphy, they write it like that.” She tells me that the machines will not be able to read the envelope with a zip code like that, and I can’t mail it. I know that she is full of it–every time I go in there, she tells me something different which would require me to re-do all of my invitations.
Inevitably I go to USPS.com and find out that she is wrong. However, I also know that she is wrong about the zip code because I just received an invitation written like that (and don’t worry, I already tested it and the envelope got to its destination just fine). So I again ask her how much it will cost to mail my envelope, and she says, “$1.59.” There is absolutely no way that this envelope needs to be mailed parcel post, which is the price she was quoting me (I could see it on the screen). I asked her why it needed to be mailed parcel post, and she said, “because it’s too thick.” I made her put it through their little plastic slot thing that determines how thick is too thick, and despite her trying to hold it every which way to keep it from falling directly through the slot, it fell straight through. I asked her again how much it would cost to mail it, and she reluctantly said, “59 cents.” Then she gave me a look of death.
Her look of death haunted me. I was nervous about mailing them. What if she somehow was right? So I decided to get a second opinion. While I was visiting my parents in Oregon, I went to their local mail depot (not actually a post office). The two people there spent 15 minutes deliberating and ended up telling me they would be 96 cents each. I totally knew that was wrong, because their explanation made no logical sense, but Momma Puff bought the $1 stamps anyway. We drove by a real post office on the way to our next destination, and I made Momma Puff stop. This time, we got a very well-informed, nice postal worker who explained exactly why my invitations would cost only 59 cents to mail. However, we had all of these $1 stamps, and for some reason she wouldn’t return them.
And that, my friends, is how I ended up with postage that looks like this:
It’s not pretty, it’s not custom, and it cost $35 more for all of our postage than it should have. But you know what? I’m over it. I’m too sick of stamps to try to return them to the post office and get the right amount, and I’m convinced no one notices stamps anyway.
The one thing that does still bother me (I have to admit it) is the fact that we went to three different post offices and got three different answers. I do not understand how something like this can be so subjective! Shouldn’t it be easier than this?!
I wish I had some sort of solution for you guys. My only suggestion would be this: go to as many postal employees as it takes until you get the answer you want to hear (provided you actually know the regulations and know that you’re right). 
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I got screwed over by the post office too. For my shower, I used these cute little note cards and when I brought them in, I wasn’t allowed to mail them with regular postage because they were small and therefore not regulation size.
So instead of $0.52, I had to pay $1.15 per thank you note, making the postage more expensive than the cards themselves. Argh.
I hear you on the post office frustration. It is really maddening. Just to reassure you- I sent mine last week with the zip code just like yours and we’re getting RSVPs back so I know they made it just fine. I think your calligraphy looks great, by the way! Congrats on getting them out
i’m so sorry, i don’t mean to laugh at your troubles, but your description of your local post office just cracked me up … i feel like i’ve been there.
I completely empathize with you! I was told my envelopes would cost 58 cents to mail because they were a square envelope. I bought all these vintage stamps and made sure every envelope was either 58 cents or over (most cases it was entirely over). When I went to a different PO outside of Atlanta, in my small local town, she declared that 41 cents was all I need because square or no square, it was 1/4 inch within the guidelines. She promptly took my box and hand canceled them herself. She mentioned that some postal workers might think it was heavier than truth due to the cardstock quality. I just figured if any state’s workers had questions - they would weight/measure themselves.
You would not believe how many invitations were returned to my house for LACK of postage and they stamped them undeliverable in red ink all over them! When they had 10-25 cents more than necessary to mail. It was quite the headache!
Sorry for the long story - but I completley empathize!
they are beyond dumb at the post office. they lose things all the time, and then they act like it never happens. I had to mail something to our videographer, costing $5 each time, and I mailed it 3 times because he wasn’t getting it! Never came back to me or anything. With our invites I sent my hubby down. They told him it would be 96 cents. which would have required a bunch of different stamps. and of course you want it to look somewhat nice! So we did one 41 cent stamp and one 58 cent stamp, costing 99 cents each envelope. then she was like, well why would you do that, pay more? UUmmm, what are our options??? and its only 3 cents each, which comes out to like, $3. she was like, oh, okay.
We did the exact same thing. I got three different answers on how much postage I would need from three different post offices, so I just took the highest number and went with it. We ended up spending about $40 extra also, but I just didn’t want to deal with the hassle.
It seems so strange to me that you can’t get a straight answer from one post office to another, given how many rules USPS has! =(
All these postal stories make me very glad my boy works for the USPS so I won’t have any of those problems. Thankfully he’s a good one!
I went to the post off to mail my invitations and they have a little scale out in the lobby..so I weighed them and it told me .59. So i bought .42 and .17 stamps. I went to mail them (and I guess it was fate cause I was just gonna put them down the slot) took the box in the office and she told me I needed .17 more cents. I told her I weighed it on the scale outside…and she says it doesn’t work right. Well, then why do you have it out in the lobby!!!!!!! My grandfather used to be postmaster of a small town and I don’t think it was ever this bad when he was working for the USPS!
i say good for you for not getting the stamps get to you! and love the handwriting… i’m a big fan of zip codes like that too!
haha! I felt like I was just reading my own experience. My favorite part of my story though was when the guy told me “well, you can’t mail these.” um, really? there are no solutions? Then proceeded to fight with the woman next to him about how much it was. He was trying to be helpful, but needless to say it took over an hour and cost me another $75.
I totally understand too. I took my final invite to the post office, got the postage quote. My kicker is that I used a letter sized envelope, but wrote the address parallel to the short edge. The postman assured me that this was no problem, and told me it would be 59 cents. The Tiffany stamps happened to match my invites perfectly, so I decided to put two of those on each invite - total postage = 82 cents. Then my FMIL came into town, she is a postmaster. She told me that the address the way I wrote it actually costs 20 cents more, so my total postage should be 79 cents. She even showed me on the web site how to figure it out - still I had enough postage. She was even so sweet as to call my local post office and let them know that I would be coming in and asking for hand-cancelling. They were waiting for me when I came - but promptly told me that each invite would now cost a dollar! Me practically crying, called the FMIL and had her speak to the clerk at the P.O. and explain to her why she was wrong. Issue resolved. I did get one invite returned to me saying that I had insufficient postage, but I just popped in the mail again with no problem. FMIL made a power point though, and sent it to the station that rejected it to show them the error of their ways. Lesson learned - if you’re doing anything strange, talk to a postmaster (not just the clerk at the desk), and look at the website, print it off and take it with you in case they ask questions!!
YIKES! I’m not at the mailing invites stage yet (nor amy I marrying a postal worker) so I’m very scared about the headaches to come… and I thought picking a ceremony and reception site was hard.
On a side note I love the calligraphy, we are our own toughest critics. I too will be attempting my own calligraphy. I think it will look good enought to get to my guests, and look like I cared and put some effort into it.
Just an FYI for anyone else doing this: the post office is actually right about the machines and the zip codes. It’s certainly not undeliverable, but it is significantly more difficult for their machines to read that type of spacing and errors are more likely.
Oh God!! I can totally relate. Three different trips to the post office, and every time they quoted me $.79 After reading everyone’s horror stories, I stopped by another branch to double check — oops, nope, according to that fine postal employee, I actually needed to pay $1.00 for an extra 1/4″ on my envelope. Back to post office #1 to demand a refund on the stamps — oh, no, we don’t refunds…GREAT!! After their phone calls to the postal service in the state capital, and lots of arguing back and forth between employees, it was finally determined that yes, I need $1.00 worth of postage. My only option was an additional $.27 stamp, so I’m up to three on my envelope . . . GRRR!! At least they’ve all been mailed as of Saturday.
Haha! I also got three different quotes from three different post offices - although in each case it took every employee in the post office to come up with the answer. We ended up going with the highest quote - cost us an extra ~$50 in postage, but what the heck. My mom was all for your idea - to keep asking until we got the lowest price and go with that - but the nice lady in the post office that did give us the lowest price quote told me that unfortunately the receiving post office gets the final say about whether the postage was adequate or not - and can hold your invitations for postage due if they choose. So it seemed worth it to us to pay a little extra up front rather than potentially have guests required to take a trip to their post office and pay extra to get the invitation - how tacky would that be? And in the grand scheme of things, that $50 is hardly noticeable.
Blah, that is CRAP! I detest our post office. I’m dreading this.
Ha! “every time I go to the post office, I am told something different” that’s so the story of my life…
My only fear about finding a postal employee who’ll tell me what I want to hear is: What if she says one thing, I stamp em & drop em off, and then someone down the line decides every recipient owes the post office money?
I feel ya.I HATE the post office. I thought it was just that the British Royal Mail are terrible but I think that all post offices are dreadful and that they attract complete biatches as employees.
Grrrr. Something that should be so simple!
Wow, you just re-told my story. I mailed out my invitations about two weeks ago and it was the biggest headache of my life - Thanks to the post office! I also got 3 different answers, but two of them came from the same post office! Uggh. I had to stand there and hand stamp every single one of my 250 envelopes even though I had 62 cents on each of them. It clearly states on the Web site, for a square envelope that is 1 oz. or less, a 20 cent surcharge is added. My envelopes were ALL under 1 oz. and let’s do the math here friends……42 cents (for a regular stamp) + 20 cents = 62 cents!!
My advice to anyone preparing to mail out invites?? Know the regulations, add a little bit extra (it will barely cost you much more) and if still in doubt, offer to hand stamp everything yourself with the black date and city stamp. They hate sqaure wedding envelopes because they can’t send them through the machine. If you offer to do their work, they’ll quit whining and ripping you off while pocketing your extra money!
No, i’m not bitter.
Oh great, I’m working on our invitations and I was already dreading asking the post office how much it was going to cost to mail an invitation. Now I’m petrified. :’(
I love how the post office keeps jacking up the cost of stamps but they love to say “It’ll cost extra to mail this because our machines can’t read it” (for example square envelopes). If I hear that, I’m going to say “What is that my problem? You guys raise the cost of stamps, get better equipment!”
This all sounds so familiar. I took my invitation, it was weighed, and she told me 58 cents per invite. I buy the stamps, get them all ready, bring them into the post office to ask for hand cancelling, and a different employee takes one look at them and says I need another 41 cents. I said, how can that be, SHE weighed them, and pointed to the other lady. The lady denied ever telling me that or ever having seen me, until I recounted the conversation word for word. Finally she apologized, and the 3 of us stood there and put more stamps on. She said otherwise they would go “postage due”. Nice. They did refuse to hand cancel them, though at that point I didn’t care. And I can’t tell you how many people have told me they sent their RSVP to my PO Box and I haven’t received them. UGH!!!!
Hahaha. Don’t you just love the post office? Well, at least you know FOR SURE you’re covered. And I want to say that your “regular” handwriting, using the calligraphy pen looks incredible.
I recommend sending yourself a sample. I sent a complete invitation and an RSVP card with the postage that I thought it should be (and was hoping it would be). It worked just fine, so I mailed them all out with that postage. No issues.
That’s it. I’ve decided every time I come across a post-office complaint, I’m going to email it to them.
What a huge pain! Some of the people at my P.O. are very cranky, too. I empathize.
Do you have any advice for someone (i.e., me) who hasn’t designed her invites yet? I’m doing letterpress with three pieces (invite card, RSVP card with its own envelope, and accommodation card). Is there a certain weight of paper-stock that I should stick to in order not to break the USPS scales?
I used these stamps which are not only cute (I love the dragon fly!) but are $0.62 - perfect for my invites which needed $0.59
I ordered them online at usps.com and had no hassles!
http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=11834&productId=37707&langId=-1
oh my… now i’m getting nervous. we’re in the home stretch of invite design and have decided to get a little more elaborate. i forsee many trips to the post office in the future [crosses fingers that the postal officials will be kind].
eep! I had to do a double take on that last addressed envelope as I’m pretty sure your guests live in the same building as I do! (During the school year, that is.) Hopefully they don’t hate trains as much as I do, though.
I avoid the post office like the plague. The last time I went they calculated the postage wrong and didn’t send my package back to me until 3 weeks later! Does it really take 3 weeks to notice the wrong postage and then send it back to someone living across the street?
What a pain! But I think your envelopes look beautiful — stamp and all!
I go to the post office about once a week - I have a post office box. I really don’t have a problem with the employees there - they try hard. The line is always out the door, and they seem hard to be trying to explain things to people best they can.
I’ve taken sample invitations there and they got mailed out fine with standard postage.
I’m hoping seeing them once a week will help me come hand cancelling time…. Just thought I’d try to have one post semi-supportive…
Again there are people bashing the post office. It would be appreciated if comments were directed towards specific people who work there and not generalized to the entire USPS. Please remember that many people read this blog. The rants are becoming offensive and disrespectful.
First of all, I love the picture shout out! Hee!!!
The envelopes look beautiful! I sort of made up a lot of our letters and it’s funny how a calligraphy pen improves everything.
I went to one post office, found out it would be 58 cents (a year ago of course), and never questioned it. I’m sorry you had so many post office headaches!!! I did my zip codes like yours with no problem. A friend even sent me a letter (not a wedding invite but that would be awesome) once where he cut out each part of the address like a ransom note and it still arrived.
The thank you notes will be much easier at the post office (since they’re just regular 1st class 42 centers) and you can always do wedding picture customized postage for those.
Puff! What cute envelopes! I think you totally rocked it. Reading your post made me think of something I have been wondering about calligraphy for a long time and wondered if anyone else had? What if you just printed the envelopes using a regular home printer in calligraphy font and then traced over it using the calligraphy pen? Has anyone tried this? I was thinking I might try it for fun soon.
your calligraphy looks really good! and actually, the etiquette when it comes to using first names and last names is to have the girl’s first name first and then leave the guy’s name next to his last name (the way you did), since it’s technically his last name so, no worries! emily post would approve!
So with you on the stamp thing, girl! I have never, in my life, ever noticed what stamp anyone has ever used to mail me anything. I actually used those printout stamps that the machines at the post office spit out…theyre black and white, say the zip code you bought them from and how much they cost. Bingo. Done. Fin. No “is this the right ammt?” Drama or anything. Just like you
i just went through this today! two different post offices with two different stories. one told me that it would be 42 cents and another said it would be 84 cents or so.
the one who quoted me the higher price also said that it would cost 48 cents to mail a postcard! she was so incompetent! it is 27 cents for costacards.
My story about the USPS is the same as yours. 3 different quotes from 3 different employees. Not to mention 2 different quotes for the postage that went on the RSVP postcards inside the invitations. I was so frustrated with them…and to think both my parents actually work for the Post Office!
I just had the exact same experience at the post office. I took one invite to get a feel for the price and the first PO I went to quoted me $0.79 for domestic, $1.16 for Canada and $1.89 for Asia.
TODAY, when I was ready to send out my invites, the PO nazi quoted me $1.36 for domestic, $1.42 for Canada and $2.15 for Asia. At this point, I just didn’t care….I hate the PO and did not want to return so I ended up paying through the nose to send ugly piece meal stamps to send my invites. *sigh* I totally feel ya.
btw, I’m also a daughter of a postal worker and I still hate the PO. -^
I sympathize! When I sent out mine last year, the postal increase happened a two weeks later so I had to add the extra postage to the RSVP envelopes..of course most of our family actually sent them in right away so it was money wasted..and the 2 cent stamps I had to add were UGLY to boot.
We have three weeks till we send out our invites, and this post is making me nervous.
1.) Puff - what size pen did you use? Brand? Recommendations?
2.) I may be in the minority (and I haven’t tried to purchase stamps for our invitations yet), but I LOVE going to the post office. It is in an old historic building downtown, the three employees I see most often are so incredibly nice and helpful, and whenever I go to the post office it is either because I’m 1 - checking something off the to-do list (i.e., mailing a package), or 2 - receiving a gift (i.e., picking up a package) - and both those things make me really happy. Inconsistencies stink no matter where they happen - I hope I don’t run into problems with my invitations and no longer enjoying the post office. It’s my favorite errand!
Stamps made me cry last week, so I certainly feel you! Our invites were oversized and heavy so I knew I would have to pay more, but one PO employee told me $.59, one told me $.79, and one told me $1.00! I was also really shocked and disgusted to find that the regular POs in NYC do not stock “design” stamps, and in fact only stock one type of each amount — they sent me to the big PO in midtown, which DOES sell design-y stamps, but only from 11-4! I spent 3 hours trying to get stamps and came home empty handed. It’s a good thing I only plan on getting married once, I would never go through this again!!!!
Wow. I am totally blown away by all of these horror stories! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but JEEZ, that’s a lot of bad experiences!!
@ Hum–that is REALLY annoying. Just goes to show that the pain isn’t necessarily over just because the invites are out. Yuck.
@Tiramisu–I’m really glad to know the zip code worked for you! Whew!
@ Emily– I”m glad. I would definitely rather make someone laugh than make people think I was nuts!!
@ taaliza–that is truly a disaster of pretty much epic proportions. I am SO sorry you had to go through that!!!
@Erin J–that reminds me of my experience with the letterpress printer, who told me I shouldn’t have used their online submission service. It’s like, “COME ON PEOPLE. If you don’t want people to use a service, don’t offer it!”
@ rmr–it amazes me that even though you have the connection to a POSTMASTER you STILL had problems. Dear lord!!
@Kim–thanks!! I definitely agree with you on the calligraphy.
@suzanno–holy crap!!! Good to know about the receiving post office. Yikes. Now I’m glad I went with the 96 cents quote. I definitely know that the parcel post lady was incorrect, but maybe there IS a slight bump that would somehow make them 96 cents. GOD I hope they get there okay.
@brendalynn–This is a very real concern. Good point! I didn’t realize that actually happened, but apparently it does!
@Jodi–I totally agree with you. The other thing I hate is that they keep raising the cost of stamps, but nothing appears to improve. This whole process is painful. It seems like their regulations get tougher and tougher and the price gets higher and higher, but it’s not like things get there any faster.
@Kris–I hope they show up at some point! May we all receive our RSVPs!!
@Lovebug–THANKS!
@Erin–very good point. I sent myself a sample too. But I sent it with 59 cents on it and was told 96 cents later…I am sure it would have been fine with 59.
@ design-phan–I wish I did. If you plan to use a ribbon to secure things, get one that is super lightweight so it doesn’t make a bump in your invitation. I’m not sure about paper weights, though. Good luck!!
@MTate–back in the 59 cent days, we were going to use those, too!
@ Daughter of a Postal Employee–I think the problems people have are about post office regulations, not about any of the workers. I’m sure no one meant to be offensive. I certainly didn’t!
@ katya–hehehe, i thought you might appreciate that!! The thank you note stamp idea is FREAKING GENIUS. I love you.
@bugaboo–THANKS! I hadn’t thought about doing your suggestion. Good idea!!
@ meli–you crack me up!
@enmoore66– I used the Faber-Castell PITT calligraphy pen in “size” (I think that’s what it is) C. May your PO experience be a happy one!!!
@ivete–I was thinking the exact same thing last week. I would NEVER do this again!!! hahaha.
u know, i totally made the same move with the stamps. i bought 400 stamps instead of buying 200. I didnt realize I bought 400 because I was in such a hurried rush. The receipt says that there are no refunds/exchanges on stamps and postage, but I am going to try to return the 200 extra I bought.
i am also attempting to do calligraphy on my own. i think your envelopes look great! job well done!
oh and with the stamp designs, i didnt think it through before buying them.. figured i was at the post office to send something else out, so wanted to get the stamp thing out of the way… i didnt realize that i could actually pick a design i like….. so i am stuck with technicolor flowers & american flags. oh well. noone looks at them anyway!
@Jodi & Miss CP: Did you know that it costs the Post Office $1M for every cent that gas prices go up? And that by law stamps can never go up faster than inflation?
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Mrs. Cream Puff, San Francisco Bay Area
Age and Occupation: 25, Illustrator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31, Merchandise Planner
Engagement Date: May 27, 2007
Wedding Date: August, 2008
Blogging Since: February 7, 2008
Venue: Ceremony at Crissy Field and Reception at the Green Room
About Me: I never dreamed about my wedding as a little girl because I was too busy playing in the mud or pretending to be Martha Stewart–but now that it's here, I'm having a fabulous time DIYing everything in sight! We’re planning a very fun multicultural wedding (I'm Jewish and Mr. Cream Puff is Chinese), filled with as many personal details as I can muster.
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