Curated Postage

To trend or not to trend... I'm not usually one to jump on the bandwagon for trendy things. I don't mind a few new and passing things to add to my collection or event, but mostly, I'm a southern traditional gal. I guess my style could be described as transitional. When my daughter was getting married, I researched things (a lot of things) and realized we liked the idea of using pretty and maybe meaningful postage for the wedding invitations. We paid a lot of money for engraved invitations, so we might as well invest a little more for some stamps. I actually enjoyed being a temporary stamp collector.

One thing I noticed was that when it comes time for someone to purchase forever stamps, there might not be any you like in the current offerings of the post office. Right now, they have some decent tulip flower stamps that work, but what if they don't?

We decided to find stamps that carried some meaning—South Carolina stamps, Kansas stamps, and Tennessee stamps (representing the states they grew up in and then met). It became sort of a fun game to find unique stamps that would fit the colors and feel of a wedding and then add up to the amount needed to actually mail the invitations. I took a finished invitation to the post office to find out the exact postage needed. (If you have a scale and know how to look it up online, you can save a step, but I didn't want to take any chances.)

I purchased different shapes and different variations to make each invitation mailing unique. I loved when an English teacher noticed the Shakespeare stamp we intentionally placed on her invitation. I'm sure some just ripped the envelope open and didn't notice the extra detail, but many did notice. What a fun way to set your invitation apart. And, you will have started your own stamp collection for when you are old and need a hobby!