Question about mailing out invitations - Triangle Brides

Jess87657 · March 2011

Knotties,

I have seen on various websites that I should request USPS to "hand cancel" my wedding invitations instead of running them through the machine. Is this a normal request? Do you know of a Raleigh area post office that will do this without a lot of fuss?

TIA!

tarheelbabs · March 2011

I just dropped my invitations yesterday at the Crabtree post office. I had square invitations, so I was concerned about that issue, too, and asked them to hand cancel them. They told me it was their policy only to do so if they had a slow time in the front and that that is the county wide policy--or I would have gone to a different post office. I handed them over in a big ole shopping bag. No clue if they were hand cancelled or not. I do know that several folks have received the invitations and they appear to have arrived without any problem--even as far away as Albemarle within 24 hours.

Hope that helps and good luck.

BOXERPUMA10 · March 2011

So glad you posted because I was wondering the same thing myself regarding hand canceling. Does anyone happen to know if any other surrounding counties do hand cancel for invitations?

aleighk1 · March 2011

I've heard you have to go at the right time and get the right person to be able to do it. It's a hit or miss type thing.

HillShmill · March 2011

I have a friend who called the Five Points post office in advance to see if they'd hand cancel her invitation. She was told they would if she came in during a slow time. She visited during a slow time as requested, and was treated horribly rudely by the people working. The said they'd do it, but would charge her $0.20/invitation (I believe this is illegal). Needless to say, she went elsewhere. So, if you're looking to get your invites hand cancelled in the Raleigh area, avoid the Five Points post office!

tarheelbabs · March 2011

I will say the Crabtree folks were very nice. I previously had asked the New Bern Avenue folks downtown and they said there would be a charge. Since Crabtree is close to my house and I have a PO box there, I thought I'd try there instead. So, it seems to be a uniform policy--they do it if they can.

I agree with the suggestion by boxerpuma about checking surrounding counties. Something tells me a smaller community might be more service oriented and willing to help out. So, if it's important it might be worth the trip.

meredithl618 · March 2011

I'm pretty sure that even if you get them hand cancelled they will still be processed by machines somewhere down the line. The entire USPS systems uses machines, so don't think that if you do this, you'll avoid them going through machines. You'll probably get them hand cancelled by a person and then they'll dump them in a machine and get sorted.

They shouldn't charge extra to do this either, it's just whether or not the people are too busy to do it. And, it doesn't even matter at all, because if they're stamped and addressed correctly, they'll make it to where they need to go just fine without hand cancelling.

kernvalerie · March 2011

What exactly is hand cancelling?

I had square invites as well. Just dropped them in a drop box and people started receiving them the next day (which I thought was super impressive).

tarheelbabs · March 2011

Update on my inviites. One thing I didn't mention above was the postage snafu. I had gotten an envelope and inserts from the stationery store and taken them to the post office to be weighed. 1 oz. Oversize envelope, so postage was $.64. I ordered custom postage from zazzle while the invitations were on order because I was cutting the drop date so close. Completely my bad.

So, the invitations come in and the envelope is a much heavier weight that the one that I was given to take to the post office and the whole package weighs in at 1.3 oz--$.81 postage. Oops. So, my lovely custom stamp needs a booster, which turns out to be the blue ram. My State grad and employee FI thinks I planned it that way!! Upshot is, I missed three of them because I was having a bit of a meltdown in my postage panic and they were returned to me today in pristine condition, along with one that had been cancelled. (That one is inexplicable as to return.) The cancellation appears to have been done by hand. It's a red circle, rather than the black lines we're used to--also helps I have black envelopes possibly. In any event, it appears they may have hand cancelled at my request at Crabtree.

I got the the invitations there around lunchtime on Friday. It wasn't very busy. I gave them about 140 envelopes in a bag, if this is helpful info, and asked them to hand cancel them. They took the bag and said they'd try. The four invitations that came back all look great and will go out again tomorrow.

andrea01012009 · March 2011

yep. like i mentioned earlier post...regardless of the hand stamp it still gets sent up to north raleigh to be flown through the first sorters at the speed of sound. if the mail leaves the triangle then it will be subjected to many more sorters as it progresses..

Question about mailing out invitations - Triangle Brides

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