How to Hand Cancel Mail (and Why You Might Want To)

What does it mean to “hand cancel mail”, anyway?

When it comes to wedding invitations, hand-canceling is a term you’ll see thrown around a lot. Ideally, you’d be able to pick up your invitations from the calligrapher on Monday night and pop ’em in the mailbox Tuesday morning. But wedding invitations, being big, bulky, and expensive, usually require a little more TLC than that. One way to ensure your invitations are delivered in one piece is by having them hand-canceled at the post office.

What does “hand cancel” mean?

Nowadays, most post offices use machines to sort mail and mark each stamp so that they can’t be re-used. But when it comes to irregular or delicate items, you may want your stamps to be marked by hand (with a special stamp provided by USPS) rather than going through the sorting machine.

Why should you hand cancel wedding invitations?

Mail sorting machines can rip, tear, smudge or stain oddly-sized or delicate pieces of mail. Things like large wedding invitations and wax seals are more likely to be ripped or torn, so it’s recommended that you hand-cancel the postage on these items. By using a hand-stamp, you’re essentially ensuring that your invitations arrive unblemished and in one piece.

Who hand cancels envelopes?

An employee at your local post office should be able to hand cancel mail for you. But since most post offices are understaffed (and overworked!), they might ask you to do the hand-canceling while they oversee the process. In that case, they’ll give you a stamp and let you go to town while they help other customers, then come back to verify your work before placing your invitations in the outgoing mail.

Be forewarned, some postal workers refuse to hand-cancel altogether. In that case, I recommend either talking to the branch manager or taking your invites to another branch (you can always call first just to make sure they’ll do it before driving all the way out there.) At the end of the day, it’s a service that post office may decline to do.

How much extra postage do I need to hand cancel envelopes?

As of 2020, hand-cancelling requires an extra $0.21 postage for each envelope, but it’s not always enforced. Therefore, if your envelope is less than 1-ounce and only requires 1 stamp ($0.55), you will need to provide a total of $0.76 in postage.

If your envelope weighs between 1 and 2 ounces, you’ll need to provide $0.91 in postage.

For up-to-date postage rates, click here.

Does hand canceling take longer?

Yes. Since the post office usually uses a machine to sort and cancel mail, doing it by hand will certainly take a little bit more time. Whether you’re doing the stamping yourself or a postal worker is doing it for you, it’s best to plan a visit to the post office when they’re least busy. Mid-morning is usually a good bet, but it may be worth asking your postal worker what time of day is the slowest at their particular branch.

Oh, and it never hurts to tip! Just sayin’.

Do I need to hand cancel my return envelopes?

Nope! It’s best just to send those through the sorting machines so you don’t (a) waste your money or (b) confuse guests and deter them from returning their RSVP card.

Although it sounds complicated, it’s not, I promise! And a lot of my brides can vouch for that, too. If you’re still unsure of how the whole process works or what current hand-canceling rates are, it’s best to reach out to your local post office for an expert opinion.

Did I miss anything? We’d love to hear from you so leave your questions in the comments.

The information contained on this Website and the resources available for download through this website are for educational and informational purposes only. I am only sharing what worked for me, and as such, I cannot guarantee that any products or processes will give you the same results.