Return to Sender - Address Unknown

I have always loved stationary, and, well, correspondence in general. I loved signing up for pen-pals in school, and always wrote thank you cards, birthday cards, letters, etc. to family members and friends. In my mind, nothing can compare to a good, old-fashioned letter (even if my handwriting sucks). So, the stationary aspects of our wedding hold a special little nook in my heart. Who knows - maybe that's why they're proving so difficult/ annoying for me? More on that later, I suppose.

Anyway, since I have become a bride-to-be, I catch myself starting to over-analyze the teensy, weensy things that normal people (ie guests) will never in a million years notice. Let's just call it the bridal crazies. So, naturally, one of the first wedding purchases I made was a customized return address stamp. Damn you, Martha Stewart, for planting the idea in my brain (but just kidding, I love you, please don't stop posting "good things").

{From Martha Stewart Weddings}

Let me just add at this point that I like to justify most of my expenses as "wedding purchases" so that I don't feel bad about spending money. At the same time, I justify them as non-wedding purchases, so I don't have to include them in our budget. Because, duh, I'll use it again after the wedding, right?? Does no one else do this? No? Okay, I have a problem.

{Stamp by Primele}

Seriously, though - I started thinking about all of the correspondence I'm going to have to do for this wedding. Thank you cards. Save the dates. Invitations. Thank you cards. More thank you cards. Can you tell that I am slightly nervous about the volume of thank you cards I will have to do? Yes. I am terrified.

{Stamp by Emilie Friday}

Since Mr. CA and I had just moved to our new place in NJ, we didn't have those handy return-address labels that various charities send you in the hopes that you donate. So I started freaking out about having to hand-write our return address on all of those thank you cards. In case you haven't noticed, I panic easily.

{Stamp by Emilie Friday}

I managed to convince myself that we need a customized return address stamp. More than anything. Ever. So I did some digging around, found Emilie Friday's beautiful, beautiful calligraphy, and I bought a stamp! I felt about four seconds of remorse when I remembered that we're just going to be moving again next year, but I thought the amount of envelopes I will be sending out more than justified the purchase. Thus, the remorse passed quickly.

Seriously, this stamp is amazing. I heart it so much. We used it for our STDs. I use it for returning vendor contracts. I use it for bills. What? Who doesn't want to receive a piece of mail with a nice, calligraphed return address on it? Everyone wants that.

{Stamp by Emilie Friday/ personal images}

It seriously pains me to blur out the calligraphy on our stamp. Because it is so amazing. And the blurring totally removes everything. And I want you all to see the beauty. Alas, Mr. CA would kill me if I posted our address on the internet. We don't want no stalkers.

And yes, I realize this is all very silly, because no one will even notice the stupid return address on the envelopes of our STDs or thank you notes; they'll just get ripped apart and recycled anyway. But I notice.

Just FYI, there are also some great self-inking options out there (because let's be honest, having to get the ink onto the stamp is a pain in the butt. I'm lazy, though). Some with calligraphy. Some without. There are tons of options, guys! If you're using a calligrapher, you could also get them to write out the address in fancy script, sell you the digital file, and then you could make a customized stamp yourself. Or, just download some fancy fonts, design your own label, and have the stamp made that way.

{Stamp by Emilie Friday}

{Stamp by Plurabelle}

{Antiquaria}

Did you use a return address stamp? Do you justify random wedding expenses, one way or another, like I do?

After writing this post, I trawled a bit through archives and discovered that Mrs. Eggs Benedict already wrote a post on these stamps, with almost the exact same title. Actually, I see now that quite a few Bees have written on these awesome stamps (I'm sure I probably missed others, but my unoriginality started to depress me). Sigh. And here I thought I was being original. Also, I now have the Elvis song stuck in my head from the title of this post. Great.