Invitations not delivered !!!

Did you weigh them to make sure you had the correct stamp? Sorry this happened to you!

Whens your RSVP respond date? I'd text the people who have to fly in, but otherwise not stress about it until the RSVP deadline approaches.

Im having the same problem. I hate the usps. FFIL and one groomsman are the only two that I know of that haven't gotten theirs, I guess as I see people I will just ask them to make sure they got their invite

I would actually like to stick up for the USPS. I was a Rural Carrier for 5 years and I know (almost) all the ins and outs of the system.

When a letter (or in this case, wedding invitation) is mailed, it does a lot of traveling. First, it goes to a central processing center. Lots of larger towns and cities have their own. I live in a rural area and there is only one in about a 200 mile radius.

When it gets to this processing center, it gets placed into a machine the sorts far away mail into categories (so it can continue its journey) and actually sorts local mail INTO ROUTE SEQUENCE. These are very sophisticated machines. It will sort your mail directly next to your neighbor’s mail so that when that tray of mail gets to your post office, it is already in order. This means you get your mail faster because it is not all hand sorted. A lot of times local mail can arrive the next day due to the crazy work these machines do.

The mail that is sorted for destinations farther away gets sent on trucks by zip code to other processing centers so that they can be sorted into route sequence at their “home” processing center.

Then… mail is delivered to intended recipient.

Trouble happens for many reasons:

-People do not put in a forward when they move. If you do not fill out the form to have your mail forwarded to your new address, a couple of things can happen. If there is no forward information, the carrier doesn’t know that person no longer lives there. He/she may be continuing to deliver the mail because no one told the P.O. about the move. If the house is vacant, the mail may be delivered for a couple of weeks before the carrier can no longer fit mail in the box. At this point, the mail is brought back to the Post Office and a notice is left in the box informing the resident that the mail was brought back for safety/security and can be picked up at their convenience. If the house is still occupied, the mail is probably sitting on that person’s counter waiting to either go back in the box or be brought to the post office. This is where a lot of issues lie… human error. The person who lives at that address may have the wedding invitation for a week or more before he/she gets it back to the post office. At this point, even it if makes it to the post office, no one will know where it goes because there was no forwarding address on file and it is returned to sender… you can see how this would take a while.

-For the scenario when someone moves and DOES put in a forward for their mail, this is the process. The mail is sorted into route sequence by the machines then the mail gets to your letter carrier at the post office. When he/she is organizing the mail for delivery and comes across a letter for someone who has their mail on forward, he/she sends the mail to a different processing center called CFS (don’t remember what it stands for – maybe Central Forwarding System?). It may take a day or two to get there depending on where the letter is coming from. At this point, an actual person enters the address on the letter in to the system which will bring up any forwards on file. A yellow label is printed with the correct address and placed on the letter and then it is placed in out-going mail where it will go to the processing center for the new address and get sorted my machines into route sequence, etc…

A “forward” is only good for 1 year on periodicals (magazine subscriptions, etc) and 18 months on first class (letters, bills, etc) mail. Any bulk or “third-class” mail (think credit card offers, political mail, magazine offers, etc) is recycled. Third class mail is not forwarded because the sender did not pay the full postage rate in order to get the service of forwarding mail. If something says bulk mail where the stamp should be or the postage is less than that of a normal stamp, it is bulk/third class mail.

If a person moved and put in a forward but a piece of mail is sent to them after that 18 months, it will be returned to sender (sometimes with a yellow sticker that has the right address depending on how long it’s been since the forward expired).

If you insist you had the right address and adequate postage, the letter either got mis-sorted (and will arrive after it returns from another processing facility) or mis-delivered. Maybe that wedding invite accidentally went into the neighbor’s mailbox and he she hasn’t gotten around to returning it to the out-going mail. Maybe this neighbor doesn’t like the intended recipient and threw the letter away.

So many things can happen to mail but “getting lost” is very rare.

How did you address them? Label? Hand written? Calligraphy? Print on the envelope?

I've heard a lot of stories (and from the Post Office itself, too) that if the address isn't written clearly then it may cause a delay in delivery....in which case, although pretty, calligraphy may not always be the best way to go

@Maltese - If the machines can't read the address it gets hand sorted which obviously takes longer.

Sarahdell, thank you for that explanation. I always wondered how the PO system worked.

I sent out my bridal shower invitations at the beginning of February and I had 3 people that didn't receive theirs, correct address, adequate postage, and not returned to the sender. Now, I have 2 wedding invitations (that I know of, so far) that haven't been received by the recipient, both local. I even took them to a different close by post office from where I sent the bridal shower invitations out from to have them sent through there, thinking it would make a difference.

Now, I understand its only been about 2 weeks since I sent out those invitations, neither family has moved nor had a forwarding in years, so I suppose they could possibly come back or turn up at the recipients house? But my shower invitations are still nowhere to be found...

It is frustrating when you put money into these things, like extra postage, plus the rsvp stamp, plus the cost of the actual invitation (I know you would understand that) and its nowhere to be found...

ETA: my invitations were typed onto the envelope in script, very legible. BS invites were (clearly) hand written

Excuse me while I have a panic attack.

We sent our invites to the out of state family and friends and only half of them reached them. It's frustrating. I did order extra just in case this happened. So we send them those.

The only other thing that could have happened is that it was damaged in the sort machines. I really don't know the rate they are sorted at (hundreds per minute at least) and sometimes the machine will rip the mail - this is when people get half of a piece of mail in a bag with a "Sorry we wrecked this" note. Sometimes, the address is destroyed and it cannot make it to its destination in which case it will be returned to sender (is there is a return address that can be read) or destroyed if they can't find a home for it.

Hmmm, so strange. I don't like it lol

Also, a friend of mine had a birthday last month and I sent her a card. I transposed the numbers in her street address on accident (1318 instead of 1813). The mail was sent to CFS by the carrier because my friend's name was not related to that address (I only know this because it came back with a yellow sticker). The yellow sticker had "ANK" on it which means "Attempted, Not Known" meaning they tried to deliver and it did not belong there so it went to CFS and there was no forward on file so they returned it to me. It took TWO WEEKS for this to happen (me addressing it incorrectly and then it having to go to CFS). When I got the card back, I changed the address and threw it back in the outgoing mail and my friend got it two days later. Its a good thing, too, because there was $20 in lottery tickets in that envelope!

Oh no! I sent mine out a week ago and am so worried that this is going to happen! Eek!

This totally freaks me out because I have invitations that have bows on them so I paid the extra postage for them no to go through the machine. I did send one to my mom just to make sure it was delivered and in good shape. She received it but I'm curious when I go to send 150 invitation if they will all be delivered and in good shape when it gets to it's destination.

So Sorry this happened to you! But - why is $200 wasted because a few people's invites got lost in the mail? Can you grab a small pack of blank cards and write an invite to them? Or print a few sheets of pretty paper with the same info and hand deliver to those nearby?