Something Old: Vintage Postage for Your Wedding Invitations

If you swoon over the look of vintage postage stamp sets on wedding invitations, you may be a secret philatelist (aka a lover of stamps.) For the budding philatelist, here’s my guide to using vintage postage for your wedding.

Where can I buy postage for my wedding invitations?

I always advise clients to buy stamps from reputable sources like USPS.com, Walmart (shockingly good options!), or a trusted vintage dealer like Little Postage House or Champion Stamps. There are only a few authorized dealers of current circulation postage and vintage postage should only by purchased from reputable dealers that have good reviews and don’t discount their stamps below face value.

More and more sites are popping up on the Internet in the past few years selling pretty stamp options and targeting bargain hunters with sales and discounts. Amazon is a particular culprit of allowing sellers to advertise stamps for a seemingly good deal. Often these discount sellers are not selling legitimate stamps, but cheap counterfeit reproductions made in China.

How to tell if a stamp is counterfeit?

If you see stamps for a discount or on sale from the list price (which is $0.68 per Forever stamp as of Jan 1, 2024) they are most definitely counterfeit. Unlike other products, you can’t buy stamps for less than the retail price from the government so there’s no way for a business to make money selling stamps for a discount. The only reason to discount them is if they printed them off in China, which is illegal. Unfortunately Amazon has been flooded with counterfeit stamps these days from China.

Most of the time, sending a letter with a counterfeit stamp won’t get caught. But, here’s why you shouldn’t risk it. If your stamps are suspected of being fake, the post office will DESTROY the mail and stamps. So all it takes is one post office employee to know something is counterfeit to ruin your mailing. It’s just not worth risking the hundreds or thousands you spent on nice invitations to save $5 on stamps.

Ignore couples in Facebook groups who claim to have gotten a great deal on white rose or love stamps. They often swear that they weren’t counterfeit because their wedding invitations mailed without a hitch. But just because their stamps weren’t caught, doesn’t mean yours will skate by unscathed.

The more popular counterfeit stamp dealers become, the more likely the government is to start cracking down on counterfeit stamps in the future. You don’t want to be caught on the wrong side of the law with this one. Especially after spending 100’s or thousands on wedding invitations.

Can I use Vintage Stamps?

Don’t get scared off from using vintage stamps because you’re afraid of counterfeit ones. You may be curious if you can use vintage stamps collected by family members or purchased from a stamp collector.

The answer is yes, you can use out of circulation postage or vintage stamps on your envelopes. It gives a pretty look and allows for more options for stamps.

It doesn’t matter how old the stamps are. You can use stamps that 10 years old. Or even 100 years old. As long as the stamps are in good condition, you can use them.

Do Vintage Stamps Need to be Hand-Cancelled?

If you use vintage stamps, they will need to be hand-cancelled. Sometimes your post office will charge an additional fee for hand canceling. There isn’t a universally applied rule about whether the post office will charge for hand canceling, or allow you to do it yourself with a hand cancelling stamp (or bopper as they are affectionately called!) You’ll need to ask your local post office about the rules.

Fun story, my post office even has different rules depending on who is working that day! Some of my post office workers hand cancel for me without a fee, some refuse to let me hand cancel myself while others hand me the bopper, and some newer employees don’t even know what hand cancelling is when I ask about it. This is where a seasoned professional in stationery can really help you out with mailing services. I am in my post office every day and have a good relationship with all of the employees.

Quick tip: If you’d like to avoid hand canceling altogether, you can combine current circulation stamps with vintage stamps to get the look of vintage without the extra work at the post office.

How Many Stamps do I Need?

For vintage stamps you’ll need at least $0.68 face value worth of stamps (as of Jan 1, 2024) or if your mail is over 1 oz you may need more postage. This doesn’t mean that you only need to spend $0.68 on each suite since vintage stamps are sold often at multiples of their face value and are often worth less than $0.68 each, unlike the current circulation Forever stamps. Expect to pay $3-10 per suite for enough vintage postage per envelope.

My Favorite Curated Vintage Stamps

Here are some of my favorite vintage stamps for weddings and where to find them!

Something Blue Curated Set from Little Postage House

This is a gorgeous set of curated stamps from Little Postage House. I love how the different shades of blue work together in this set. You can purchase it from Little Postage House here. The face value of this collection is equal to $0.70 so that will cover invitation suites that are under 1 oz and regularly sized. If you have an irregularly sized, lumpy, bulky, or heavier envelope, you’ll need to add additional postage. The whole set will cost you about $3.25 per set (as of January 2024).

2018 Rifle Paper Company Love Stamp

I’m a big fan of Rifle Paper Company designs and products. In 20218, they partnered with USPS for this delightful love stamp, called “Love Flourishes.” It is an extremely popular stamp and therefore hard to find or expensive if you don’t know where to look. I found some at one of my preferred stamp purveyors, Champion Stamp. But at nearly $4 a stamp it’s definitely a splurge. What’s great about this stamp though is that it’s a Forever stamp so the face value of it is always the same as the current face value of Forever stamps. In many cases, you’ll only need one stamp on your envelope to mail your wedding invitations.

Not sure how to calculate how much postage you need? Check out my ultimate mailing guide here.

2012 Love Stamp

Another vintage Forever stamp option. This one is just as pretty as the 2018 stamp I mentioned above but at a much better price point. You can find this stunning red stamp at Champion Stamp for $1.13 each and because they are Forever stamps they equate to $0.68 in face value. You’ll only need one for most invitation suites under 1 oz. Here’s the link to purchase.

In Summary

If you’re feeling down about the options at the post office these days, vintage postage is an excellent place to look for beautiful, thematically-aligned options. After reading this guide, I hope you feel more informed about how to use vintage postage for your wedding invitations. Still have questions or want to work with someone to curate a custom set of stamps? Connect with me and discuss how we can make an amazing first impression on your friends and family that goes beyond the basic invites you typically see online.