The Stamp Mishap

After about 72 hours of straight invitation printing, cutting, stamping, pasting, addressing, drawing, scanning, fixing, photo shopping, inking, stuffing and sealing, Landon and I ventured out into the 92 degree heat to walk a mile to the post office where I'd finally get to say good-bye to our labor of love invitations. Yay!

Walking to the Post to mail the invitations!

Landon and I finally made it there, sweaty, but excited to have these beautiful, little masterpieces hand stamped. After all, why would I walk a whole mile to the Post if they weren't going to end up hand stamped? I could have just dropped them at the corner Post box, or give them to the local mail delivery woman! I stood in line waiting to be helped, trying to cool off. The new supervisor came over to me, and asked me if I had any special requests (odd), I told her that I wanted to have these 47 invites hand stamped because I didn't want them going through the machine. She informed me that even if they were hand stamped they would still go through the machine, so I might as well just put them in the machine anyway. ::Sigh:: Mission One, failed.

Mission Two was to buy 4 international stamps for two invitees living outside the country, two for the invites, and two for the Responding Envelopes. First the rude woman at the counter informed me that they were simply out of international stamps. Mission Two, failed. Then she looked at my small Responding Envelope and half smirked. "Are those your RSVP envelopes?! I hope 'day not in aalll dose invitations, cause you gonna need an extra 20 cent on dose!" What?! Shit. Wait, what?!

The envelopes that may never see their way back to Atlanta...

That same supervisor who told me there was no point in hand stamping came over after the woman called to her, "Maybe you can explain to her what's goin' on!" Well, here is what was going on. The envelopes, like the woman said, were to small, and apparently they cost an extra 20 cents to mail. I stared in disbelief. "Can you open them?" The supervisor asked me. NO, I CANNOT OPEN THEM! I JUST SPENT 72 HOURS ON THESE THINGS! THEY ARE SEAL, AND WAX SEALED, HAND ADDRESSED, ON HEMINGWAY-PAGE-LINED ENVELOPES! ... No, I did not say that to her, though I thought it. I said, "Well, no, that's just not going to happen." To which she replied with attitude (I think trying to shift the blame, though, I wasn't blaming anyone), "Well your Printer should have told you!" ::Deep Breath:: "I AM the printer!" I said, "But, I'll make sure I go ahead, and tell myself that next time!" She laughed. I didn't. Shit.

So, where does this leave me? With three options:

Option One: Mail and additional 20 cent stamp to every invitee with a note appoligizing for the mishap, which will also require another 44 cent stamp to get to them.

Option Two: Email out to everyone that RSVPs are now online, because I didn't know that the envelopes require and extra stamp.

-or-

Option Three: Call all 75 guests on the "Due Date" of July 1st and tell a funny, little story about today, apologize and then ask, "Accept? Decline?" and "Chicken, Fish or Vegan?"

I'm thinking that option three will be happening, I'll let you know about the delegation of that task soon! ::Hysterical Laughing:: Oh, goodness. Please still fill your respond cards out and mail them back to us, so we can see if MAYBE they will still get back here. Where does my hope come from? I went back to see if the fact that they have a Forever stamp on them would help. The one sweet woman there told me that she's seen many come back, if they get to their Post Office they'll deliver them. We shall see! Cross your fingers and toes, maybe it will all work out.

At least I had a good 2 mile walk today, and the invites are on their way!! Watch your mail for them, and once you all have them in hand, I will post about how we made them. I hope you love them as much as Derek and I do. Truly.