To Stamp or Not to Stamp?

I remember when I was sending out my wedding invitations (almost 5 years ago!), I went to the post office to have the invitations hand stamped before they went on their merry way.  I did this for the very important reason: my mother told me to.  I patiently waited in line, then proudly presented my enormous stack to the clerk who barely looked at me and pointed to the stamp.  Oh.  I do it?  Where on the envelope?  Like this?  And then I spent nearly 20 minutes hand stamping the darn things.

But why?  I asked some of my friends (google and yahoo), and it’s actually for a couple of reasons.  One is that to cancel typical mail, the post office puts it through a machine, which inks those squiggly lines you see on most letters.  The machine can also dirty up the envelope and even tear it.  Another reason is to give it a formal look.  Like, hey mailbox, this isn’t your average piece of mail!

Will you (or did you) hand stamp your wedding invitations?

Photo via here.