For some reason I built up having our invitations hand cancelled and manually sorted as a big, scary thing. For one, I’ve heard some horror stories about post offices refusing to do it, or charging more money. Secondly, I wasn’t able to find a lot of information about the hand cancelling process in Canada (except for Miss Eagle’s post, which was a relief for me to read!).
Personal photo-another little spoiler! The white envelopes are for our photographer, and for the people who gave us their addresses AFTER I wrote out their envelopes with the wrong address. Whoops.
With 26 invites stamped, addressed and ready to go, stacked into a little cardboard box, I entered the post office with trepidation. I made Mr. Dragon go along with me for moral support (I also made him go with me when I sent out our passport applications—I guess I have a Canada Post fear).
See, when I sent out our save the dates, I just chucked them in the regular mailbox outside our house. I had sent one out to BM Ashley in advance so I knew they’d make it through, and I didn’t really care about something like hand cancelling. But then, FSMIL Dragon told me that they use a hammer to cancel mail at her post office, and I really didn’t want a hammer going at the invitations I had toiled over for weeks (although it sounded kind of cathartic).
When we got to the front of the line I glanced down at the sheet that came with our Picture Postage, which reiterated we should ask the clerks to hand cancel and manually sort whatever mail the postage was stuck to, and nervously said, “I guess we’re supposed to hand cancel these…”
The wonderful, reassuring, lovely clerk smiled, looked down at the box and brightly said, “Okay! We’ll cancel them right along the side.” And then she took the box away from me, put it on the back desk and told the other clerk that she’d have something to do later on.
When I threw in an “Oh! And manually sorted, too!,” she just nodded her head and smiled. Totally chill. Her only comment the whole time was, “Wow, you guys spent the big bucks!” after seeing how we used two custom stamps per invite.
Seriously. That was that. No trauma involved. We didn’t even have to do anything.
Miss Eagle’s photo—from her post, I was expecting we’d have to cancel & bundle the invitations ourselves!
What a relief! Except now I’m terrified that I somehow screwed up and things won’t get to where they’re supposed to go…or I put the wrong invitation in the wrong envelope…or I got the postage wrong…or they’ll forget my invitations on the back desk…or the mail truck will explode or something. And then, after that, if we don’t get RSVPs back, the same thing all over again. I can’t wait to be done with this mail rigamarole!
Did you hand cancel your invitations? Was it a challenge at the post office, or an easy process?
What a relief!! I have been so worried about the invitations after reading all of the nightmares American brides have had with the USPS.
I plan on taking them to our little small town post office, as opposed to one in the city (where I work), just because I assume they will be much more accommodating… and the lines probably won’t be as long.
Glad to hear it was a breeze! Hoping for the same kind of luck!
We’re located in the US and FI dropped our invites off at the post office. He said asking for hand-canceling was easy and all out invites arrived happily at their destinations.
Lucky lady! Our post office was going to charge an additional ten cents per invitation to hand cancel, so we didn’t end up doing it. Glad to hear your process was so easy.
We just sent ours out three days ago – it sounds like they made it ok (I asked about hand canceling, however we ended up having to pay additional postage for it to not go through the machine.. I’ll have to ask a few of my family members to save the envelopes to see how the stamps turned out).
How easy! Apparently in St. Louis they don’t hand cancel anymore – everything gets sent to the big post downtown where it’s all ran through a machine, no matter what. I’ve heard horror stories of local brides literally being LAUGHED out their post office for asking for their invites to be hand-cancelled.
FI and I are just going to go with a simple, flat-ish invite and hope for the best. 
I’m glad my post helped you! I wonder if the difference was size of city/post office. We mailed ours at the post office in downtown Calgary which I’m sure sees millions of pieces of mail in a week.
Yay on sending them out! Can’t wait to see them.
I PLEADED with the clerk at the main postal office here in NYC to hand cancel my invites. She was like “sure, I like these stamps!” then she called me back to her and punctuated her sentiment with “there is no guarantee that these will be hand canceled”, again I just pleaded with the woman. The postal machine really chews envelopes up and I spent SO much time on getting vintage stamps, getting calligraphy for the envelopes etc. I’ll soon find what my outcome was when my parents receive their invites…
Before coming here & reading the blog & various board posts I didn’t know a thing about hand cancelling & sorting … I’d have thrown my invitations in the regular mail!!
We’re going to hand deliver a majority of ours (saves on postage) as 50% of the guest list is his family & all live in the same small town we grew up in but for the rest that will be mailed I’ll be visiting Canada Post.
At least one has made it to its destination!!!
@raspberry bride: Good call! I live in a tiny town and I think that had something to do with it.
@Miss Eagle: That’s probably the difference! I’m in our post office so often everyone knows me, and our town is population 5,500 so… no big rush.
@ddavila2001: Eek! I was happy to have my letter from Canada Post explaining they should be hand cancelled, just in case.
@MrsN2Be: I actually could have hand-delivered 9 of them, but the stamps were special, so…
I’m nervous about this. You can’t hand-cancel in Chicago. Our invitations will be pretty flat and thin, so I’m hoping they’ll be OK. Glad your post office was helpful!
I’m so glad they were easy on you! I didn’t even ask for them to be hand canceled because I’m so intimidated by the post office employees.
It’s so weird… I’ve received probably 25-30 wedding invitations in my life, all of them processed through the regular mail, and none of them have ever been chewed up by the post office. Even if a corner of an envelope was dinged, I didn’t care because, well, as a guest… you just don’t care about these things.
Y’all girls need to chill out a little on the hand cancelling and the ohmygodmylifewillbesooverifthepostofficedoesn’thandcancelmyweddinginvites. It’s just not worth the stress!!
@Katie: My biggest concern was the stamps FMIL paid a lot of money for — she told us we should hand cancel them, the post office told us we should hand cancel them, and in the grand scheme of things it took an extra five minutes to hand cancel them, so why not?
I’m totally picturing that sweet lady.. I miss Canadians..
I only spazzed out about hand cancelling with the first set of invitations. With the second set…I really didn’t care a whole lot. I just tossed them at the guy behind the counter. He, in turn, tossed them in a bin behind him. So far, we’ve been getting a steady stream of RSVP’s.
“that they use a hammer to cancel mail at her post office, and I really didn’t want a hammer going at the invitations I had toiled over for weeks (although it sounded kind of cathartic).”
lol. this line is hilarious!!! thank you for the laugh
@Katie: Now now…. invitations are one of the most important parts of setting the tone for a wedding. We are allowed to be all “ohmygodmylifewillbesooverifthepostofficedoesn’thandcancelmyweddinginvites!”
The first time I heard about hand canceling was about a month after we sent our invitations out… oh well they made it to everyone fine.
I never even THOUGHT about hand cancelling. I would have just thrown them in the mail. I’m thinking SO and I might try to hand deliver most of them seeing how many of our attendees are local. But, I’m not sure if there are any etiquette rules against that. I guess we might just end up having to deal with hand cancelling. Hopefully, they don’t charge and arm and a leg for it in CA.
@Miss Unicorn: Hah! I imagine if I had to do two rounds I’d be chucking mine in a bin, too.
@lovelynan: Maybe I’d machine cancel them if I could wield the hammer myself!
@Miss Eagle: Honestly, if they didn’t hand cancel them I would’ve just sent them as is and heard about it after the fact from FSMIL. 
Mrs. Dragon, Sioux Lookout/Brockville, ON Age and Occupation: 24, Journalist Fiance's Age and Occupation: 35, Graphic Designer Engagement Date: August 22, 2011 Wedding Date: September 2012 Venue: Mother of the Bride’s Residence About Me: I moved to Northern Ontario for a job, expecting to be single for the year I'd be there. Within one month I was dating a co-worker, and now, more than two years later, we’re planning a wedding and I’m still a Northern girl. I’m a reporter and a photographer for a small-town newspaper, and I get to do all kinds of fun, exciting, and sometimes weird things at work. When I’m not getting the scoop, I’m cooking, adventuring, playing with our three black cats, or blogging.
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