Monday February 27, 2012

Dear horrible lady that hates her job at the post office,

There are many things I can handle but you acting like it’s no big deal to “add” an ugly stamp on our wedding invitations isn’t one of them! Especially when YOU told me on Thursday that one stamp would be enough (that’s why I came in and got them weighted so we WOULDN’T have this problem). Now today when I drop them off it’s .65 cents….really? Well guess what …HELL NO I am not adding an ugly ass George Washington, teapot or clock stamp to my beautiful invitations. And NO I am not paying $40.00 for a pack of .65 cent DOG stamps because you can’t do your job… oh what’s that you want to roll your eyes at me? maybe you didn’t hear me? They are my WEDDING invitations… and if I even get ONE sent back with a big “return to sender” on the envelope you are going to be so sorry… ughhhhhhhhhhhh hold me back.

I better not see ONE of these stamps on my invites!

So…today wasn’t such a good day for wedding stuff, which totally stinks because Friday was so perfect.

We finally got our invites and we absolutely LOVE them. They are so perfect for us. We ordered them through wedding paper divas and working with them was so enjoyable. They were so professional, friendly, affordable and timely. They sent me 3 different proofs and each time in less than 24 hours. They also worked with CMYK to match our colors perfectly. Their attention to detail was impressive and once we approved the final product we go them (in Hawaii) in 24 hours (which if you live in Hawaii you know this is almost a miracle especially for an off island company). I was so excited to have them in my hands and I really couldn’t wait to start stuffing!

I had already got really cute return and address labels to spice up the envelopes but Colt really wanted to do something cool to close the backs. We decided to look into the wax stamps and of course we loved them. Since the whole kit with shipping online was almost $100.00 we decided to look locally instead. Maui is the red headed step child for these kinds of things (finding good wedding stuff has been so hard)! I really didn’t think we would be able to find them so instead of running around I text Anu. She works in town and drives right by the mall everyday so I asked her to run in and take a peek so we wouldn’t have to take a pointless ride. To my surprise she was able to find exactly what we were looking for! It was so exciting that we quickly planned a stuffing, wine and pizza party so we could get them done. She also surprised us with the most beautiful “S” stationary. I can’t wait to write her a thank you card with it! Anu really has been my god send during this whole wedding planning process, I am so very thankful to have her as a friend.

Thank you Anu

Since I already had the invites I decided that I better take them to the post office to be weighed. I didn’t want to deal with any postage issues and I wanted to get pretty wedding stamps (my mom had send us a package of 20 and I wanted to get the same ones). I went into the post office that Thursday and got them weighted. The lady at the desk informed me that they would only require one stamp and would be good to go (she also said they were a bit under weight). I asked her for a book of 30 wedding stamps but she informed me she did not have them. I asked if she had anything wedding friendly and she gave some that said “Love.” They were cute and I really liked the color and playfulness it added to the invites so I decided that would be fine and bought them.

Friday was finally here and it was time to stuff! We ordered pizza madness (our favorite) and busted out the wine. We had a great dinner, cleaned up and then started our “assembly” line. We had Anu front and center stuffing the envelopes, Eric putting the return stamps and address labels on the return cards, me doing the big front label with the family and friends address and stamps and Colt waxing and stamping the backs. Eventually Anu finished her duties and jumped in as the “stamper” to help Colt out. It was a true team effort and we got them done in about an hour. The final product was awesome and we couldn’t wait to get them out! On our way home Colt and I laughed about how relieved we were for the help. If we didn’t have them helping we would still probably be on invite number 10 and in the mist of world war III but instead we were happier than ever and popping a bottle of champagne to celebrate (it was 12:30a.m.) which meant it was officially 6 months until the BIG day. We took a cheer, colored more in the wedding meter and hit the sack.

Stuffing Pizza & Wine Party 2.24.12

Saturday morning I was up early and ready to get our beautiful invites in the mailbox. I couldn’t wait to get them out and have everyone start receiving them. I decided to send all the ones going to Maui and Oahu first since I didn’t want the ones going to the mainland to sit in the post office mailbox for two days and get wrecked. The rest would get sent on Monday.

Today I came into the post office on my lunch break, waited in a 15 minute line so I could mail the invites direct with the clerk (can you tell I really didn’t want them to get wrecked in the mailbox) as she took and weighed them she said the postage was fine. As she flipped the envelope over and saw the back she then changed her story and said there would be a .20 cent charge for “stamping” because now because of the wax they couldn’t run it through the machine. I not only didn’t like this answer but I really didn’t understand it so I asked what that meant. She bitchly told me that she was making me apply .20 cents to each invite because she didn’t want to take the time to hand stamp each one of them. I took a deep breath and asked what my “other” option was because adding a stamp wasn’t going to work. She rudely (rolling her eyes) told me if I wanted the invites to be sent that I would add the additional stamp. I told her that wasn’t happening took my box of invites turned around and walked out the door. Annoyance, anger, and yup all the sudden panic, I had already mailed out 8 invitations on Saturday morning, my stomach tightened they were getting returned……

I quickly picked up the phone and started texting Anu like a crazy lady. This wasn’t happening. I didn’t have time to wait for them to get returned, order new envelopes, labels, stamps, wax etc. Since Anu wasn’t home and couldn’t check the mail I quickly text my mum and sister. They would have got theirs today if they went through. My sister wasn’t home but my mom said she would go and check. I anxiously waited for her to text back. My stomach sunk again when the response was “ALL I got was bills want them…” I was so upset. Colt tried to cheer me up with his positive-ness about EVERYTHING and the “nothing we can do about it” attitude but that of course just pissed me off even more! The lady at the post office clearly messed up not me so why did we have to suffer for it? I went into bummer mode and tried to carry on with my work day.

At 6p.m. I packed up my work stuff and got in the car. As I took my phone out to call my mom and tell her all about my horrible day (yes I am 27 and still do this often) I noticed that I had a missed call and message from Jen. As I picked up the message I heard:

“I AM CORDIALLY INVITED THANK YOU VERY MUCH….”

My heart leaped from my chest, could it be true?!!? She got my invite!!!! I called her and immediately began to go through my shit show of a day as she told me that she did receive it! All that stressing, texting, bumming and flipping out for NOTHING! That lady at the post office clearly didn’t have a CLUE! They went through! HIP HIP HOORAY! Shortly after getting off the phone with Jen I got a text from Anu who also received the invite and later from my sister. I got home kissed Colt, got the rest of the invites and put them right in the mailbox, it was such a great feeling after such a crazy day!

So (drum roll please) I am officially officially announcing that INVTIES are OUT…it’s time to start pacing your mailboxes!