The wedding invitations have finally been mailed, and not a moment too soon. I was a woman obsessed. For a solid week, I complained to anyone who would listen about how the United States Postal Service had raised its rates from .41 to .42 without offering a single wedding-worthy stamp design. This left me choosing between a Forever stamp, a Flag stamp, a Frank Sinatra stamp, or the deeply inelegant .41 plus .01 combination.
“Go with Frank Sinatra. He’s classy,” a friend advised, prompting a lengthy discussion about Sinatra’s attitudes toward women.
I visited more than a few post offices trying to track down the elusive .41-cent stamps that had once been designed for wedding invitations. I heard rumors of another .41 stamp featuring spring blossoms. Finding none, I sent postal clerks digging through dusty caches of old stamps in search of something remotely winsome.
“I have a .41 stamp commemorating the Chinese New Year. It’s a nice shade of red,” one clerk offered, to my amused horror.
I ultimately selected the .41-cent “Pollination” series paired with the .01-cent Tiffany Lamp stamp. The Pollination series proved semi-acceptable to my inner Bridezilla, except that one of the images features a bat pollinating a flower. The pollinating bat bothered me. I carefully assigned the bat stamp only to guests I felt would either be oblivious to stamps or open-minded enough to appreciate an invitation featuring a pollinating bat.
“What’s wrong with bats?” Mr. P asked, prompting an argument about whether a blood-sucking flying mammal, commonly associated with creatures of the night, is an appropriate symbol of our love.
