Yikes, Postage is going to kill me...

[ladyciel]

So, I had a random thought last night that now has me realizing that when the time comes, postage is going to kill my invitation budget. Half of my family lives in Canada, and we live in the US. So, normal US postage right now is $0.41 for under an ounce, $0.58 for 1-2oz. Bad enough when you''re sending invites out with stamped RSVPs inside, right? I just realized that for all my Canadian relatives I''ll have to pay $0.63 or $1.00 for the same weights to send them to Canada. I also have to buy Canadian stamps to put on the RSVPs so they can mail them back, which are equivalent (right now) to $0.87 in US dollars. Supposing I can keep my invites under an ounce (anyone have any idea who possible that might be?), my Canadian invites will cost me $1.50 each just in postage. The more likely scenario is they weigh more than an ounce, in which case it''s $1.87 each.

I''m thinking my save the dates are gonna have to be E-mail or postcards....

 

[xapora]

Oh jeez, tell me about it! I''m about to send my save the dates out today and I was just thinking about all the things I could buy with the amount of money I''m spending on postage...a nice dinner, some great new shoes...haha.

 

[piccolascimmia]

Haha, I feel your pain! Just wait until you send the blasted things, then mail out a newsletter (only to those folks who don''t regularly use the internet...otherwise they''re getting it via email as was my save the date), and then start mailing out thank you notes! The post office must be happy to see wedding invites!

 

[neatfreak]

Mine were under an ounce! I just had a simple card and RSVP card and envelope from weddingpaperdivas.com. They looked great and WPD was super fast. I think they were under 1 ounce because I didn''t have an inner envelope OR ribbon, etc.

 

[door knob solitaire]

I realize this may be a silly plan...but is there any family member you can send a parcel of the invites to that will in turn drop them in the candian post at a regular rate?

Surely it would cost you under $10 bucks to mail the parcel...the invites would be already post paid...they would just not include the international added US to get there. Only the rate to return.

Too silly?

DKS

 

[DivaDiamond007]

Ohhh....I feel your pain too. My invites were printed on heavy paper, lined envelope and inner envelope plus response cards. I think it was more than $1.00 USD per invite and there were more than 300. Ugh. They were so pretty though! Good luck with your wedding!

Jess

 

[ladyciel]

Hmmmmmm.... ACTUALLY, we aren''t that far away from the border (we live in Ann Arbor, just west of Detroit. I wonder if it''s legal to carry them across the border and mail them from there....

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 7/31/2007 4:18:33 PM
Author: ladyciel
Hmmmmmm.... ACTUALLY, we aren''t that far away from the border (we live in Ann Arbor, just west of Detroit. I wonder if it''s legal to carry them across the border and mail them from there....

Ohh do that! I don''t think there is anything in the slightest illegal about that. An American is certainly allowed to mail things abroad and you are paying the USPS to handle the item. So if they don''t handle it, they don''t get the $. Makes sense to me!

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I did RSVP postcards and thought they worked out great.

 

[ladyciel]

Date: 7/31/2007 5:09:15 PM
Author: neatfreak

Date: 7/31/2007 4:18:33 PM

Author: ladyciel

Hmmmmmm.... ACTUALLY, we aren''t that far away from the border (we live in Ann Arbor, just west of Detroit. I wonder if it''s legal to carry them across the border and mail them from there....

Ohh do that! I don''t think there is anything in the slightest illegal about that. An American is certainly allowed to mail things abroad and you are paying the USPS to handle the item. So if they don''t handle it, they don''t get the $. Makes sense to me!

One thing I thought of is if I did this I don''t think I could use my US return address. I guess I''ll have to figure out how much it''s really going to cost once we get our total invite count together, and if need be maybe I can use my grandmother''s address for the return addy just in case any invites end up returned to sender.

 

[labbielove]

I got killed with postage as well- don''t forget to take into account the size/shape.
If you have square invites generally they will be more on top of that.
Mine were 6.5 inch square invites, it cost .97 to mail, but I of course had to have matching stamps and wanted the Forver Liberty Bell stamps so I put 3 at .41 each on the front, plus the .41 for the RSVP card.
Crazy brides- why did I care that the stamps matched (of course my only other option was the panther head or the ram)