Did anyone get their invitations hand-cancelled?

I've been wondering the same thing! Do you just ask for it?

I did it! I asked with a big smile and said I could hand-cancel them myself and move out of the way while they dealt with other customers. That made them happy They just gave me the big stamper and pointed out the bucket for me to put the finished ones in!

I tried, paid extra and they still sent them through the mahine. GRRRRRR

I'm behind the times...what is this?

Okay..dumb question. What is hand cancel?

I had to, mine wouldn't bend and they were "hot dog fold" sized. It's free at my PO but I also had to do it myself.

I did! We asked, and they did it right in front of us. Our envelopes still got some wear on them, but it seemed to work, I guess. Anything going through the mail doesn't look too pretty at the end, but I figured if it was free and they were willing to do it, why not!?

@nikol I had to google it. It's stamping the stamps by hand vs sending them in a machine with the auto stamp of the post office. Or something like that. You know how you get mail and there's a stamped time/date of when received/mailed on the stamp.

@Nikol, ""Canceling" in postal service jargon is the little marking that goes over the stamps on envelopes and is used to prevent people from re-using stamps. Nowadays, the canceling happens through a machine, and for your gorgeous wedding invitations, there's a chance that your envelopes can get bent or even ripped when it makes its way through the machine. Also, if you choose to seal your invitations with wax, most likely, they won't be able to go through the machine—and you probably don't want them to even if they could. Many stationers and wedding planners recommend that brides hand cancel wedding invitations, which means that a postal worker will stamp the envelopes by hand, in an effort to ensure your envelopes are not damaged."

Hand cancelled envelopes have a stamp over the postage, whereas machine cancelled envelopes have those wavy lines printed over the stamp

Hand cancelled envelopes

I did but I called before to make sure they did it. The lady was super nice and showed me exactly how to do it. Some have a minimum they will let you do for free. Mine was 50.

Thank you! I think this is amazing!

Thanks Amanda. I had no idea.

I guess I don't get why you care so much about an envelope? You realize most guests will tear it up and throw it away, right? Why make more work for the post office?

Of course, my invitations are gonna be fairly casual (designing them myself!) As long as the insides make it all in tact so my guests know where to go and when, I don't care.

I think it depends on her post office. When we went to figure out how much the postage would be for each one, we were at a small neighborhood pharmacy with a USPS desk in the back. They offered to hand-cancel them but we didn't have them stuffed at ready. When we finally got them done, we went to a bigger branch closer to our house and they don't offer that service. All my invitations looked fine though when they got to the destination.

I didn't know this was a thing, but I am definitely asking to have my invites hand canceled!

I didn't even know what this meant.....I had to google it lol. I guess I don't care that much as my guests will be throwing their envelopes away anyways. Seems easier and faster to just send them through the machine! ...I guess I haven't ever noticed if wedding invites I have gotten were hand cancelled or not so it doesn't really matter to me.

I just wanted to update: I went into mail my invitations and when I asked if they could hand cancel the invitations, he said "sure why not?" And it took all of 25 seconds to do them all :-) however, he did say it doesn't guarantee that it won't go through the machine. Oh well I guess if only 5 minutes (driving to the post office and getting them cancelled) were "wasted" I'm fine with that! I got there JUST as the mail woman came to collect all the mail there too! Woo hoo! I'm so excited!!!

It was more of a concern about the imprint it would leave on the invitation than the envelope for me, which is why I wanted hand canceling. I wasn't going to lose sleep over it though. I asked when I had the invite weighed and when I brought them to mail and both times they said no, so shrug I guess?

I was able to have this done because the post office near my house is small and not very busy, fortunately. However, I think they still go through a machine at some point anyway. But the invitations were like my babies, so I had to take care of them as well as I could! Lol