DIY Bride

The U.S. Postal Service charges extra for letters that are square or have an unusual shape. At this writing, it’s $0.12 more for a letter of 1 ounce or less. Their defined dimensions for square and unusual can be found online at USPS.Com.

I strongly recommend that you take two of your finished invitations and ask your post office to weigh them and quote a price so that you know for sure before you affix your stamps to them. Why two? Differences in the weight of paper, ribbon, glue, embellisments, etc. can vary from card to card. By taking two samples, you can get an idea if there are any variances in your designs, saving you a major headache of returned invitations . If you base your postage on an 1.0 ounce letter and all of your invitations actually weigh 1.1 ounces, the PO will not deliver the invites with insufficient postage.

The US Postal Service is also proposing a postage increase this year. If approved, the rates won’t actually increase until 2006. However, expect a 10%-15% increase.