Perhaps I was misinformed, but I have always been under the impression that sending wedding invitations is easy and almost pleasant when done through your local post office.
"They have machines that do the special postage!"
"The postal workers will hand cancel them for you, so your invites don't get crushed!"
"It's really easy, you just hand them one, they weigh it, they charge you the total, you give them the rest and walk out."
LIES.
Today was "mail the invitations" day. The post office nearest to our apartment employs...let's say less than pleasant workers, so we decided to go to the big fancy post office downtown. We figured they would be the most well-equipped to handle this process. We were wrong.
We handed the woman one envelope. She weighed it and told us what it would cost to post it. Fine. Then she took the 4 international envelopes (begrudgingly) and weighed them, and put special postage on them. She then proceeded to hand us 134 41cent stamps, and 134 61cent stamps, and told us to "go stamp them ourselves" and hand them back to her when we're done. Um....REALLY? I mean, it's fine - it's not like I haven't already stuffed, folded, sealed, and addressed save the dates, rehearsal dinner invitations, and wedding invitations. I'm not lazy...but, isn't this your JOB? Basically the work she did was this: placing the envelope on the scale, handing us stamps, and then holding a tray while we put them all in it so they could go to some special place. I wouldn't be surprised if 134 people in Singapore are invited to my wedding.
Moral of the story...I don't know. Don't use post offices in the city, I guess. Drive to the suburbs. They will DEFINITELY do it all for you there, and for sure won't be rude to you while they do it. It's worth the extra time.
(Side note: did you know that if you want to send a package in a box, you have to buy the box, the label and the PACKING TAPE and tape it up yourself? She claimed that's "the rules" because if the post office tapes up your box and it falls apart, then they're liable. YOU'RE THE POST OFFICE.)
