Weddingbee Blog

I debated for quite a while before doing it. The time had come to mail my invitations. Should I skip over to the post office on my lunch break or wait until the weekend when there is no time limit? I was zig-zagging between hand-canceling my invitations and just handing them over.

I pulled up to the post office, 45 minutes left until I was supposed to be back at my desk, stuck a few quarters in the meter and made my way inside. My invitations were all stamped. I’d taken them to two post offices prior to make sure the postage pricing was correct. $1.39 sounded like too much the first time but indeed, it was the same at the second post office. I could’ve easily dumped them in the big blue bin on the sidewalk since they were stamped, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

In line, inside, I continued to zig-zag in my head. Should I tell her I want to hand-cancel them? I had done it to my save-the-dates only to find that the ink takes at least 45 minutes to dry once you stamp them and you might get a parking ticket in the process because you didn’t expect them to take that long. I couldn’t find another excuse, though, to explain why I’d waited in line. Why I didn’t want to part with my beautiful, paper lovelies. Hand-canceling them seemed like a way to prolong the process, make it a heartfelt, lingering send-off.

But, once I got up to the counter, I could only squeak out that these were my wedding invitations and I just wanted to make sure everything was okay with them. She weighed one, then asked me how much postage I’d put on each. “$1.39,” I dutifully reported, the taste of vintage stamp gum rising on my tongue.

She took my two boxes, stacked high with thick, filled envelopes and took them… somewhere. I’m not sure where. And that was it. Now I can’t wait for RSVPs!

Did you have trouble handing over your invitations?