The rule of thumb for mailing invitations to a wedding or other significant event, is to mail them 6-8 weeks in advance.  If you are including a reply card, your requested reply date should be about one month after the mail date.

Before you go out and purchase your stamps, bring one fully stuffed envelope to the post office to have it weighed for the correct postage.

Most rectangular invitations with a few enclosure cards will cost about 63 cents to mail.  If your invitation is square, it may be in the ballpark of $1.  Don’t forget to include stamps on the reply card as well!  That can be an embarrassing mistake.  Reply stamps are just the standard first class postage (or slightly less if you are using postcards for your reply cards).

Collecting Your Stamps

usps.com or your local post office

www.zazzle.com for custom stamps

www.PhotoStamps.com for custom stamps…you can upload photos!  I’ve seen some really cute baby stamps.

I highly recommend requesting “hand canceling” of your invitations…especially for wedding invitations with bows, twigs or embellishments.  Hand canceling means the post office hand stamps the post mark on the envelopes instead of sending them through the machine.  Many post offices no longer offer this service, so make some calls in advance to locate one which does.  You may need an appointment.  In my experience, post offices in smaller towns, less busy post offices, and post offices inside grocery stores are more likely to help you out.

A Fun Fact

There is a small town in Oregon called Bridal Veil where for years brides have gone to mail their invitations.  The Bridal Veil post office, founded in 1887, is the second smallest post office in the country…and postmarked 200,000 wedding invitations last year.

I do live in Oregon…so if enough of you contact me to do this, I may be willing! 

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