Be aware...

Lettres Stationery just received the word from our friends at the avon post office wanting to make sure we were aware of the postal rate increase going into effect this Sunday, January 22.

Because anyone mailing wedding invitations (or anything else, for that matter) needs to avoid the nightmare of having things come back for postage, I wanted to pass on the information from the US Postal Service about the new rates. 


The first class postage rate is going up one cent, so the new stamps will be 45 cents. The good news is for the second ounce (the amount required for mailing most wedding invitations) it will remain at 20 cents extra, so the new rate on those will be 65 cents. For those of you doing postcard Save the Dates or Response Cards, the new rate for postcards is a 3 cent increase, going up to 32 cents.

You are now armed with the information you need to go forth and mail. The only information I don't yet have is when the new wedding themed stamps will be available. It seems there's always a bit of a lag between when the new rates kick in and when those are available. But for those of you having custom stamps made for your invitations at least now you know the rates.

As a side note for those doing custom stamps for your invitations, I always recommend not ordering them until you've actually received your invitations, so you can take a fully assembled ensemble to the post office and have them weigh it and tell you exactly how much your invitation's postage will be. There are several things beyond weight that come into play, such as odd shapes (squares of any size), whether there is a ribbon on the invitation causing bulk, etc.. It is better to be safe than sorry!

As they say, forewarned is forearmed.