Another Postcard

...And everyone is, and everyone is - in the mail.

That's right, we officially sent out our Save the Dates this morning.

Before going to the post office, I called to confirm that I could have the postage hand-cancelled, so that way the postcards and the text weren't ruined.  The gentleman that I spoke to told me that yes they did do it, but it would cost $0.60 per card!  I couldn't believe it!
 
Well, still in a state of disbelief, I decided to go to the post office to ask in person.  I showed the woman at the counter the cards and said that I was interested in having them hand cancelled and asked how much it would cost.  She explained that that was a free service that they offered to anyone that asked and pointed out that my postcards were probably too thick to go through the machine anyways.

So, after a small amount of confusion (and shock) I was able to get my Save the Dates on their way to all of our wonderful guests.

Tip:  When mailing out invitations, save the dates, etc. mail one to yourself.  That way you will know (1) what condition the guests got their invitations in and (2) when exactly you should expect your guests to receive it.  

P.S. Save the Date

As I talked about here, we are doing postcards for our Save the Dates (unfortunately we don't get to save on postage because we chose over-sized postcards - reduced postage only applies to standard sized postcards).

As a reminder, here is the back side of our postcard.  Our return address was also printed in the upper left-hand corner (I just cropped it off, so I could post it on here).

The challenge was addressing the post-cards.  We were considering two options: (1) hand-writing the addresses or (2) buying the clear stick-on address labels that we could print the addresses on.  Looking for the easy way out, we had settled on option 2, but weren't sure if the labels would look tacky.

Then, my fiance came to the rescue with his brilliant idea.  Why don't we just print directly onto the postcards.  Why didn't we think of it sooner?  However, the postcards were too thick (we ordered the heaviest cardstock option so that it wouldn't get destroyed in the mail) and we couldn't get them to run through our printer.  Even better idea - have someone do it for us.  We took our Save the Dates and our list of addresses over to Office Max and told them what they wanted.  They said it wasn't a problem at all and that they would have them done in 1 day.  All we had to do was provide the addresses in an excel document and they did the rest.

And is was surprisingly inexpensive.  (Drumroll please....) It cost us $3.57 to have addresses printed on all 50 of our Save the Dates!  Maybe this will also work for the wedding invitations.  Fingers- crossed.

Save the Dates - Great Deal

We have officially purchased our Save the Dates.  

Staples currently has a 40% off of custom prints offer, PLUS 6.5% cash back through EBates, PLUS if you buy 250 colored prints you get another 250 free.

So, that means you can get 500 colored cards for around $80 including tax. And you get free shipping (cards arrive in 7 business days). What a steal.

I opted out of the colored prints (we wanted black and white) and got 250 prints for $65.

In case you don't know, EBates is a free way to earn cash back. You create an account (which automatically earns you $5) and then you earn a certain percent back on on-line orders (this varies by store and changes throughout the year).

If you're not already a member and want to sign-up I would appreciate if you use the link below (everytime someone uses your link to sign-up you earn another $5). It's a great site and everything adds up. And then every so often (I believe every 3 months) the site just sends you a check for the amount that you've earned.

Anyways, once you have your account set up (or if you already have one) just type in Staples Copy and Print into the search bar (you will see a 6.5% next to it), CLICK on this. On this new page you will see various coupons/coupon codes. The top one says 40% off custom prints (exp. 10/31/12). Click on the corresponding button that says shop now and you will be taken to the staples web-site. Start your oder and you will automatically get the 40% off and 6.5% added to your EBates account.

Again, here's my EBates link. Click on it to start an account (plus you'll earn $5 for yourself and $5 for me). Start saving today!

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=eNcveycFWNI5MG2O02eRNQ%3D%3D