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In researching different post offices and stuff I have found that not all Post Offices are created equal. Of course you get the occasional mean post office clerk, but that is the same with all types of businesses. What is really weird is how much they will charge you for things. Here are some things to be aware of when you mail your invitations:
1) The electronic postage system that some post offices have outside of the door cannot be trusted. It is not always calibrated correctly because the little kiddies like to mess with it. If you are right on the cusp of a weight limit, it is better to go to the postal clerk to have them measure it. You don't really want to chance 100+ invitations in your mailbox stamped "Return to Sender".
2) There is no charge for hand canceling. What is hand canceling? Hand Canceling is process of a postal clerk manually stamping the envelope to postmark the stamp and cancel it out so it can no longer be used. Generally the mail is run through a machine to do the canceling. People rather hand cancel delicate mail, like invitations, to reduce the wear on the envelope and contents inside. If a Post Office charges you for hand canceling, report them to the Postmaster General because it should be free of charge.
3) Not all Clerks are created equal. Each postal clerk will vary in the amount that they charge you. I went to mail through the electronic machine and it was 44 cents. I gave it to one clerk and she said I was right at the 61 cent mark. I gave it to another clerk at the same office and she said it was 44 cents plus 20 cents for a bump. Not everyone is the same. Measure it on the electronic scale first to get a gauge, then take it the post office clerk to try to get that amount. If one gives you a higher price, take it to another until you get someone who gives you the lower amount.
4) Bumps may not incur an extra 20 cent charge. The post office has a machine for which all of the mail is run through. If they can't run it through the machine, then they will charge you an extra 20 cents on top of the paid postage. This includes bumps, rigid articles, fragile articles, etc... For bumps, this is the most arbitrary of them all. It is all up to the clerk to determine whether or not the bump is major enough that it won't go through the machine. If a clerk charges you for a bump, you can ask her to run it through a slot that they have that mimics the opening of the machine. If the mail passes through that slot, then you are fine and do not have to pay that extra 20 cents. You may think 20 cents isn't a lot, but when sending 100 invitations, that is 20 bux and a good dinner.
All and all, just try to go to a post office that isn't busy and has nice clerks. If they aren't nice, go somewhere else. If they are busy, come back another time. A lot of couples spent a lot of time putting together the invitations, there no point in being hassled while sending them, so do yourself a favor and try to make it as easy as possible.
Ever get those RSVP cards with no names on them? They say no, but you don't know where da heck it came from. That is where the numbers game comes in. Every guest group is assigned a number. That number is either printed or penciled on the RSVP card. Now you know who is who without them actually writing so. You might think, "How often does this happen?" And you know what I was thinking the same thing. But low and behold we got a our first one, 3 days after we sent out our invites. The first blank NO came back. Thank god for numbers is all I have to say.
Number your RSVP cards and save yourself a headache.
So I guess you can invite Obama to your wedding. So how cool do you think it would be it you did that and HE CAME! I would totally give Obama seating up front with my family.
But I hear that the Pres responds with an 'Out of the Office' or traveling or something like that. What a crock. What does the president have to do anywayz.
I think we are going to send him one just for the heck of it.
If you are one of those people who are doing DIY invitations or cards or what not, you always need that pretty Serif or Script font. I was looking all over the place for the free fonts and they never fit the bill. Let's face it, if they are free, how creative do they really want to get when they can sell the good stuff for moola. So I stumbled upon this site, www.myfonts.com. This site has tons of pay fonts and allows you to scale to pretty large sizes. You can type in what you want to print out on the site and it will render it in the site. They also have tags on the fonts so you can find all the Script fonts or invitations fonts, etc...
So you may be asking, what is a cheap a$$ like myself doing on a site where you have to pay for stuff? Jacking it of course. You may gasp, but just treat it like you do music. If there is a way, then why not take it. Soooo, here come my instructions on how to get your font from MyFonts.
Instructions for Photoshop
1) Get your font up with what you want (bigger size, better results)
2) Right click on the font and select 'Copy Image'
3) Go into Photoshop and paste the image onto your canvas. You will notice that it shows up black
4) Use the Magic Wand with a 10 tolerance, uncheck 'Continuous', check 'Anti-Alias', and select the black part then delete it
5) Deselect the area and change to the Paint Bucket
6) Select the color you want the font to be
7) Set the Paint Bucket tolerance to be 20, higher if you chose a smaller font size and there are a lot of thin lines, uncheck 'Continuous', check 'Anti-Alias', then paint the font
Bam, you now have a font in your color and that you like.
I know with the bigger fonts this gets tedious, but the amount of quality fonts that they have, it is super well worth it.
I got to be able to sell my wedding invitation templates. For all those who don't know, we are DIY on our invites. I am wedding invitation layout number 7 and I think it is going to be final. Now granted I didn't think of this stuff by myself. I took liberties with invites I found on the web and in store and put some personal touches on it. I bet with these 7 invites, I can open up shop and have a collection of simple wedding invites. I can already envision my web site name: InvitesSuckSoBuyMine.com. Our motto will be, "If you find it, we can jack it and make it for cheaper!" I am Chinese, so it is in our blood. I hope this mess ends soon or else people are only coming to our wedding by word of mouth. I actually don't know if we have to send out invites since people are finding our wedding website now and grabbing details from there. Let's hope this madness ends soon.
This is what I am thinking. All the hours you sit, looking at websites, magazines, trying to figure out flowers, trying to make invitations, etc.., etc.., is it actually saving you money? It is true that you probably aren't working while you are doing this, so it is technically time that you aren't making money, but lets try to work this out with an example.
Making your own invitations:
Research & Design: 10 hrs
Creation: 24 hrs
= 34hrs
Now lets say you make $10/hr at Starbucks = $340 in labor. Now that doesn't include the materials. So materials may cost you upwards of 3-4 bucks depending on how elaborate you get.
So say it is for 100 invites, then that = $350 which is a total cost of $690.
Now wouldn't it be easier to buy them? You save time, you spend a little more money out of pocket, but you could also be vacationing in Hawaii while the stuff is done for you.
Something to ponder....
So now that you got the venue, you have to start looking at other things to do with the wedding. One of the things that is quite appearant is wedding invitations because we get them all the time. What makes a good wedding invitations? My parents like the chinese ones with the gold letters, red paper, and double happiness sign. But we aren't doing a chinese wedding. So then another choice is the american style invitations. But we want to put a little chinese influence for all the guests. So what do you do?
I would like to have a wedding invitations on off white paper maybe with double happiness character in light red so it looks superimposed with indented lettering and some semi see through paper. Maybe add a bow or wrap around for more substance. All I know, our invitations are going to be the best, I just got to figure out how to do that.
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