Postage Options and How I’m Letting Things Go

Postage Options and How I’m Letting Things Go

January 4th, 2011 @ 1:14 pm by Mrs. Hippo
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I’ve spent my days off around the holidays working on our wedding invitations. They will be mailing out in mid-January, so I’ve been printing and cutting and gluing (oh my!) a little at a time for weeks now. I’m finally at the point of assembling everything together, and like many a bee before me, I am sadly disappointed with my stamp options…not for the actual invitation (I haven’t gotten that far yet), but for our RSVPs.

See, we’ve decided to go with RSVP postcards instead of traditional RSVP cards and envelopes. The 16-cent postage savings wasn’t what helped me decide. It wasn’t the savings by not having to purchase RSVP envelopes, either. Those extra few bucks were just a bonus. I really just liked the idea of an RSVP postcard. I’ve been to many weddings, and I’ve never RSVPed on a postcard. I figured most of our guests hadn’t either, and I’m willing to bet that very few, if any, of our guests have researched wedding trends, so they will be fooled into thinking I’m completely innovative and creative by inventing the concept of an RSVP postcard. Sweet.

Just like Mrs. Jellyfish, I quickly discovered that the United States Post Office makes only one 28-cent postcard stamp. One. This lovely looker:

Postage Options and How I'm Letting Things Go : wedding dallas postage Img 10501 IMG_10501

28-cent Polar Bear stamps

Really? A polar bear??!?

That’s my only option? Bummer. Sure, I could add on extra postage so I could get something more wedding appropriate like these 44-cent stamps….

Postage Options and How I'm Letting Things Go : wedding dallas postage Stampm stamp+m

First-class stamps

…but it’s an RSVP card. I’m sure no one will really notice the polar bear, and I think the people who would notice would be the same people that would wonder why we spent an extra 16-cents if we used the nicer stamps. Sure, a better option is way overdue (hint, hint, USPS), but it doesn’t exist, so I’m letting it go.

What little details have you decided to let go?

Tags: dallas, postage |

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38 Responses to “Postage Options and How I’m Letting Things Go”

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Member

ValerieJene1022 (message) 141 posts, Blushing bee

You sound exactly like me this past week. We are also doing postcards and much to my disappointment the post office only carries the polar bear stamps. I had myself pretty set on ordering custom stamps instead until looking at the $60 price difference and just letting it go. Its just stamps, right? Really who is going to remember that or even care other than me.

1/4/11 @ 1:19 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Spaniel (message) 6,792 posts, Bee Keeper

We also used polar bears. Wedding rings on the invitations, and polar bears on our beautiful letterpressed postcards. I thought it looked ridiculous, but it wasn’t worth stressing over… oh well. Another option would have been nice.

1/4/11 @ 1:21 pm (reply)

Member

Maggie Mae (message) 649 posts, Busy bee

At least the polar bears are kinda cute…… I mean it could always be waaaay worse……… I like the bears!!!

1/4/11 @ 1:22 pm (reply)

Member

solaneoh (message) 217 posts, Helper bee

I used the polar bear stamps for STDs. I asked a handful of friends and family if they noticed the postage and all of them said no. Oh, the little things we stress about….

1/4/11 @ 1:23 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Eggs Benedict (message) 339 posts, Helper bee

Yeah, we used the polar bears for our save the dates, but we used the new pine cone forever stamps for our invites. I love those!

1/4/11 @ 1:23 pm (reply)

Member

808mjm202 (message) 764 posts, Busy bee

Ditto - I “let it go” and used the ugly Polar Bears on our postcard RSVPs. Using the Wedding cake 61 cent stamp for the main invite envelopes. To be mailed out within a couple weeks …can’t wait!

1/4/11 @ 1:28 pm (reply)

Guest

jsk

i bought “vintage” 29 cent stamps off of ebay that weren’t too bad. it took a lot of “watching” items and waiting for deals to pop up… we might have paid an extra $0.05 or so per stamp, which is saved us money over using a $0.44 stamp. we used them on our save the dates and plan to use them on our rsvps as well.

we used the “love world” stamp shown here for our save the dates: http://www.etsy.com/listing/60824335/a-world-of-love-unused-vintage-postage

and are using the “love letter” stamp for our rsvps: http://cgi.ebay.com/2618-LOVE-HEART-ENVEL-29-50-FULL-MINT-SHEET-LOOK-/380124080952?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5881292b38#ht_517wt_1140

1/4/11 @ 1:32 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Elephant (message) 6,182 posts, Bee Keeper

We used the polar bear stamp too! They sort of blend in with our postcard so I figure no one will notice.

1/4/11 @ 1:40 pm (reply)

Guest

Caitlin

I felt the exact same way when I found out the post office only offered Polar Bears! I ended up buying personalized stamps from Zazzle when they were having a postage sale and only spent about $30 more than I would have for the .28 cent polar bears. I also bought the stamps through Ebates (www.ebates.com) and got cash back on my purchase. It made me not feel as guilty about spending the extra money on the postage by buying them during their sale. But there was no way I was using Polar Bears for an outdoor Spring wedding!

1/4/11 @ 1:44 pm (reply)

10.

Guest

jsk

i could not get over the polar bear stamp, so we bought “vintage” 20 cent stamps from ebay. it took awhile to wait for deals to pop up, but i started looking/bidding/buying about 6 months out… we’re using vintage stamps for our invites too, and stuck with a theme… we tried not to pay more than 5-10 cents over face value and turned out only paying about $20 total over face for all of our stamps (for the save the dates + invites + rsvps).

we used the “love world” stamp for our save the date postcard: http://www.etsy.com/listing/60824335/a-world-of-love-unused-vintage-postage

and will be using the “love letter” stamp for our rsvp postcards: http://cgi.ebay.com/1994-USPS-vending-pak-Sc-2618-unopened-pack-NR-/380304499793#ht_2294wt_1140

1/4/11 @ 1:47 pm (reply)

11.

Member

jmc (message) 882 posts, Busy bee

We actually built our entire invitation suite around the polar bear. (Yes, we had polar bears on our invitations.) I really like the polar bear. Of course, we had a winter wedding so it worked.

1/4/11 @ 1:49 pm (reply)

12.

Member

asdf (message) 256 posts, Helper bee

I read an article the other day about how the USPS is going to offer new stamp options in 2011 including new wedding stamps. Has anyone seen when those are being released?

1/4/11 @ 1:55 pm (reply)

13.

Member

asdf (message) 256 posts, Helper bee

@asdf: Nevermind. I just looked it up, and they’re rolling out throughout the year. I was hoping they’d be effective Jan. 1. Oh well, it looks like I’ll be going with the polar bears too!

1/4/11 @ 1:58 pm (reply)

14.

Member

Little Lulu (message) 108 posts, Blushing bee

We used the polar bear for our postcard too. It didn’t match the wedding cake stamp we used for our invitation envelopes and aside from the fact that it had blue in it, it didn’t match our carnival themed invitations at all….but I let go too. We just didn’t want to spend the money on a more expensive stamp or even custom stamps for something that people were just going to be sending back to us anyway. Everyone thought the invitations were awesome and if anyone thought the polar bear was weird, they didn’t mention it. Besides there are uglier stamps out there than a polar bear.

But you’re right, the postal service really needs a better option considering how popular rsvp postcards are these days.

1/4/11 @ 2:00 pm (reply)

15.

Member

Kelly H (message) 61 posts, Worker bee

I was so annoyed with the polar bear that I used 3 of the 10-cent clock stamps on each postcard. I figured that the Save the Dates and the RSVPs were both “time” oriented, so it worked for me. With the number of themed stamps that the postal service offers I was really surprised that there was only one 28-cent option.

1/4/11 @ 2:06 pm (reply)

16.

Member

chrispygal (message) 1,198 posts, Bumble bee

What about Zappos? I know you can “make” postage stamps with any pictures you want and maybe they allow postcard stamps. Granted you’ll pay more for them than the 16 cents I’m sure, but they’ll be what you want.

1/4/11 @ 2:07 pm (reply)

17.

Guest

menobride

I’m not even doing STDs, nor am I doing RSVP cards. That’s two of the MANY joys of having a small wedding!

If you look around online, you can indeed make your own stamps. But they aren’t cheap!

1/4/11 @ 2:22 pm (reply)

18.

Bee

Miss Hippo (message) 1,009 posts, Bumble bee

@chrispygal: Zappos? Like the shoe store, Zappos?

1/4/11 @ 2:25 pm (reply)

19.

Guest

oliviaoblivia

My options in Canada for a spring wedding were big red foil christmas ornaments or holocaust rememberance stamps. I paid more than double for pink flowers. so annoying!

1/4/11 @ 2:27 pm (reply)

20.

Guest

shyunj

LOL I had the exact same problem. My invitations and RSVP cards are gray with pink flowers so a blue polar bear doesn’t exactly match but oh well. I keep telling myself, it’s just an RSVP card, right? It will end up in the recycling bin after everything’s all said and done anyway.

1/4/11 @ 2:56 pm (reply)

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