Ever since I sent out my own engagement party invitations, I’ve been a little obsessed with stamps.
Actually, I hadn’t given them a thought till I got to the post office and was suddenly faced with the very real possibility of having ondeh-ondeh stamps on my envelopes. On any other envelope I would have let it slide, but these were hand-calligraphed envelopes for my engagement party. And the ondeh-ondehs on the stamp kind of looked like green testicles. It just wasn’t going to happen.
Thankfully, the girl behind the counter finally produced some lovely stamps with Blue Pea Flowers on them, which I was thrilled about….till about an hour later, when I remembered that the scientific name for Blue Pea Flowers was Clitoria Ternatea. So much for dodging stamps with weird sexual connotations.
Moral of the story? Be prepared. If you don’t mind spending a little more than the actual value of the stamps, vintage stamps are a gorgeous option. Admittedly, they’re a little easier to procure overseas, but Singapore’s Philatelic Museum is an excellent resource for local brides, as is the customizable MyStamp (though a majority of the options border on cheesy, and why they couldn’t just do this, I’ll never know).
Brides who aren’t into teddy bears or overpaying for stamps might make out the best by just hitting up the main post center as they apparently have the widest selection of current stamps around. It might take several trips and a lot of waiting in line before you find something perfect, but pretty much anything beats awkwardly suggestive stamps on your wedding mail…unless you’re into that, of course.
