Thursday, March 11, 2010

Embracing the Polar Bear

Well here I sit, as do the Save the Dates. I know, you've been checking your mailbox daily, hourly, but alas. I indicated our non-starter status in my last blog, we've made some progress since then, but have hit a few roadblocks as well.

Roadblock number one? Postage. As we discovered in prior research, the only 28 cent stamp currently available is this lovely polar bear:


And he is lovely, right? The first thing I think of when I think of weddings and summer is polar bears. Of course we could spring the extra almost 20 cents and have a wide variety of postal designs to choose from, but that would defeat the budget-friendly postcard. 

Our stroke of brilliance came in the form of more stamps and less postage per stamp. A not entirely original idea of using three of these far more design-friendly 10 cent stamps.


Great plan, stamps were ordered prior to the arrival of the Save the Dates last week. Save the Dates arrived and as previously noted, were smaller than expected. Combination of three 10 cent stamps and an address label result in tragic overcrowding. 

So cue the polar bear.  It doesn't really matter, right? It's just postage, who cares? Who looks at stamps anyways besides crazy brides and bespectacled stamp collecting kids from the movies who also happen to be heavy breathers. (Do they exist in real life? Any philatelists reading this blog?)

Wha whaa whaaa - so resigned to the polar bear are we. D. brought in our reams of clock stamps to exchange this week, but lo and behold, the post office accepts no exchanges. Make your stamp decisions wisely chickens, otherwise you'll be stuck with the suggestion our postal worker provided D.: "Stick 'em all on a big package." 

We may or may not take his advice. Maybe they'll show up on larger envelopes later, but for now, it will be the polar bear who serves as our ambassador, carrying our message of "Save the Date" to your doorstep. Welcome him warmly.