And they're off!

It's official!

I took the invitations to the post office today. They're typed, glued, stickered, addressed, and stamped. Now they're zipping across Tennessee and Pennsylvania and Texas and even California. It's for reals, y'all. This isn't just some event we're hypothetically planning. People will actually be coming.

The invitations weighed in for a normal 44-cent stamp, but I still wanted to hand-cancel. After all, I had heard that hand-canceling was an important part of sending fancy-pantsy invitations. There was just one problem.

What exactly is hand-canceling? And why is it so important to do it?

Well, kiddos, this is how it rolls. An envelope is canceled when they stamp the round date and location logo over the postage. Usually this is done by feeding it through a machine, but that can crumple or tear an envelope. So when you have delicate wedding invitations, it's better to do it by hand rather than letting the machine do it.

I went into the post office in the early afternoon with a big plastic bag full of invitations. I got some funny looks, until I explained that I had wedding invitations and I wanted to hand-cancel them. The very nice postman handed me a red self-inking stamp and pointed me to a table where I could stamp away. Five minutes later, I popped back up to the counter, handed him the bag of invitations (and the stamper), and off they went!