Hand canceled inviations

Hey girls- I'm going to the post office tomorrow to send out my invitations. I have 130 invitations going out and I was told that I need to get them hand canceled as oppose to machine canceled. Can you tell me how long it took to get yours hand canceled? I'm trying to figure out if I should go before work or during lunch (***** bc it's tax time so the post office is packed!). Thanks so much for your help!

Re: Hand canceled inviations

I went with my 90 invitations to the main PO in Brooklyn and the lady was happy to have them hand canceled for me, just not right then. She took the boxes and promised they'd be done and mailed by the end of the day. I took a deep breath and let them go... and by the next day local people had their invites already. It didn't cost me a cent. Hopefully your post office is as efficient and trustworthy too. Otherwise you'll have to go back with smaller batches because no one is going to hand-cancel 130 invites in front of you at once... at least no one in Brooklyn would. Good luck & let us know how it goes!

Re: Hand canceled inviations

We live in the city and I took them to Grand Central post office. I was told that they (and other post offices) no longer do hand canceling. They said most of the time, the invitations end up going through the machine anyway. Being it was 7:30 am and I was not going to schlep the 130 invitations back to my place, I dropped them in the big bin and am just happy the invitations are done with and have gone out!!! Don't know about the rest of you girls but that part for me was a big pain in the butt!!

Re: Hand canceled inviations

Wow I'm surprised they said they don't hand cancel anymore... now I wonder if the lady in the downtown brooklyn PO was just saying they'd be hand cancelled. So far no one has complained, though, so I guess it doesn't matter one little bit.

I haven't seen an invite that I mailed (except for one sans envelope on my friend's fridge the other day).

Congrats on getting it done and out!!!

Re: Hand canceled inviations

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Posted by jullei

We live in the city and I took them to Grand Central post office. I was told that they (and other post offices) no longer do hand canceling. They said most of the time, the invitations end up going through the machine anyway. Being it was 7:30 am and I was not going to schlep the 130 invitations back to my place, I dropped them in the big bin and am just happy the invitations are done with and have gone out!!! Don't know about the rest of you girls but that part for me was a big pain in the butt!!

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I went to the post office last week in farmingdale and inquired about hand cancelling process, and was told the post office will stamp it themselves... so places def still do it... whether they let you do it yourself i supposse to up to each ind post office

Re: Hand canceled inviations

the post office does still hand cancel, including the one in the city..if anyone tells you they dont ask for a supervisor-they're being lazy

Re: Hand canceled inviations

Went to the Bethpage PO and we did it ourselves about 80 of them took about 15 min

Re: Hand canceled inviations

What does 'hand cancel' mean?

Is this something I should know about?

Re: Hand canceled inviations

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Posted by JAAMS

What does 'hand cancel' mean?

Is this something I should know about?

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yea i don't know either.. you have to do this to send out your invites??

Re: Hand canceled inviations

I didn't have mine hand canceled but if your PO allows you to do them yourself you may want to do this. I had been chatting with a woman that works at the PO by my job in the city and she said that just because they tell you that your invites will be hand canceled, there is no guarantee that they will not still make it into the machine. I was surprised at the honesty to tell the truth.

Re: Hand canceled inviations

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Posted by paprika023

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Posted by JAAMS

What does 'hand cancel' mean?

Is this something I should know about?

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yea i don't know either.. you have to do this to send out your invites??

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I was wondering this as well...

Re: Hand canceled inviations

I feel like I just typed this somewhere else... but why not again...

When you send a letter, the stamps have to be cancelled so people don't just peel them off and use them again. Usually this is done with a machine that all the envelopes are sent through that prints marks on the envelope and across the stamps.

Since these invitations are important to us and we don't want extra marks all over our fine calligraphed envelopes (mine were printed on the printer and i didn't really care, but i didn't want them smushed either), we can request that the post office 'hand cancel' the stamps. They physically will use a rubber stamp on each envelope to make sure no one can use your stamps again.

Hope that helps!

Re: Hand canceled inviations

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Posted by springsandra

I feel like I just typed this somewhere else... but why not again...

When you send a letter, the stamps have to be cancelled so people don't just peel them off and use them again. Usually this is done with a machine that all the envelopes are sent through that prints marks on the envelope and across the stamps.

Since these invitations are important to us and we don't want extra marks all over our fine calligraphed envelopes (mine were printed on the printer and i didn't really care, but i didn't want them smushed either), we can request that the post office 'hand cancel' the stamps. They physically will use a rubber stamp on each envelope to make sure no one can use your stamps again.

Hope that helps!

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ooooooh, that makes a lot of sense!

thank goodness for LIW.. I never realized how clueless I was with wedding stuff lol

Re: Hand canceled inviations

Grand Central will not hand cancel

Another Post Office in NYC will but they charge 5-10 cents per envelope

I went to a local post office in NJ and did it myself with DH, took about 5 minutes to do 140 invitations with 2 stamps!

Re: Hand canceled inviations

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Posted by Jenn04

Grand Central will not hand cancel

Another Post Office in NYC will but they charge 5-10 cents per envelope

I went to a local post office in NJ and did it myself with DH, took about 5 minutes to do 140 invitations with 2 stamps!

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I was not charged at all at the Downtown Brooklyn main post office.

Re: Hand canceled inviations

I was thinking the same thing. I'm glad you asked the question

Re: Hand canceled inviations

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Posted by paprika023

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Posted by springsandra

I feel like I just typed this somewhere else... but why not again...

When you send a letter, the stamps have to be cancelled so people don't just peel them off and use them again. Usually this is done with a machine that all the envelopes are sent through that prints marks on the envelope and across the stamps.

Since these invitations are important to us and we don't want extra marks all over our fine calligraphed envelopes (mine were printed on the printer and i didn't really care, but i didn't want them smushed either), we can request that the post office 'hand cancel' the stamps. They physically will use a rubber stamp on each envelope to make sure no one can use your stamps again.

Hope that helps!

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ooooooh, that makes a lot of sense!

thank goodness for LIW.. I never realized how clueless I was with wedding stuff lol

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Without this site i would be lost

Re: Hand canceled inviations

I was told at the post office on E 70th that the first 50 are free then they charge some nominal fee after that. The clerk told me to just bring 50 a day until I am done.

Re: Hand canceled inviations

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Posted by paprika023

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Posted by springsandra

I feel like I just typed this somewhere else... but why not again...

When you send a letter, the stamps have to be cancelled so people don't just peel them off and use them again. Usually this is done with a machine that all the envelopes are sent through that prints marks on the envelope and across the stamps.

Since these invitations are important to us and we don't want extra marks all over our fine calligraphed envelopes (mine were printed on the printer and i didn't really care, but i didn't want them smushed either), we can request that the post office 'hand cancel' the stamps. They physically will use a rubber stamp on each envelope to make sure no one can use your stamps again.

Hope that helps!

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ooooooh, that makes a lot of sense!

thank goodness for LIW.. I never realized how clueless I was with wedding stuff lol

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I wish my post office used a stamped. They just took a pen and scribbled over the stamp like a kindergartener.

Re: Hand canceled inviations

ladies...this is very good info... never thought about it before.