There is a good idea buried in wedding stationery advice that almost nobody acts on: pick the Love stamp from a year that means something. The year you met. The year one of you was born. It is the same instinct as opening a bottle from a particular vintage at the reception, and it costs nothing extra.
The obstacle is that it takes some planning, because the stamp you want is almost certainly out of print.
The back catalogue is deeper than the rack
USPS has issued a Love stamp most years since 1973. Across that run the designs lean on a small set of motifs — roses, hearts, swans — which is why almost any year from the series still reads correctly on a wedding envelope decades later.
What you cannot do is walk into a post office and ask for one. Commemoratives print once. A year or so after issue they come off sale and the design is gone from official channels for good.
One thing to get straight about "Forever"
The Love series began in 1973, but Love stamps were not Forever stamps then — the Forever stamp itself did not exist until 2007.
The first Love issue printed in Forever form was Garden of Love, in 2011, when the first-class rate was 44 cents. Everything in the series from that point carries the Forever guarantee: whatever it sold for, it pays a one-ounce letter at today's rate.
So a 2011-or-later Love stamp is usable postage. An earlier one is a stamp with a printed denomination, and you need to make up the difference to today's rate — which is doable, but is a different exercise from just sticking it on.
Where the year plan collides with weight
Here is the practical catch. Wedding invitations are printed on heavy stock — 80 to 110 lb card, against the 20-ish lb paper in ordinary correspondence. Add a reply card, a details card and an inner envelope and the assembled suite runs between one and two ounces.
That means the invitation needs two-ounce postage, and Love issues are letter-rate stamps. In 2022 a two-ounce stamp cost $0.84 — the one-ounce rate plus one additional ounce, sold as a single stamp.
Two ways to still use your chosen year. Put the Love stamp on the reply envelope, which is a single lightweight card and genuinely one ounce — and which your guest looks at properly, because they have to handle it. Or run the Love stamp alongside a make-up stamp on the outer envelope, accepting two stamps instead of one.
The reply envelope is the better answer. It is the piece that comes back to you.
Weight and shape are two separate charges
Worth separating, because the source of most underpaid wedding mail is treating them as one thing. Weight sets the base rate — one ounce, two ounces, and so on. Shape adds a surcharge on top: square envelopes, rigid enclosures, anything that will not run through the sorting equipment.
A two-ounce square invitation pays for both. Buying a two-ounce stamp and assuming you are covered is exactly the mistake.
Postcards are the cheap exception — a save-the-date on a card costs less than any letter, which is why they are worth using for the announcement even when the invitation itself is elaborate. There is no wedding-themed postcard-rate stamp, though, so it will be a generic design.
Custom postage is gone
USPS ended its customised postage programme in June 2020, after sixteen years. Photographs of the couple on the stamp are no longer an option for individuals or for the companies that used to produce them.
The year plan is the closest substitute, and arguably a better one — it is a real stamp with a real design, not a printed novelty.
Best deals on Forever stamps
Retired Love issues — Hearts Blossom, White Rose, Love Flourishes — are all off official sale and all still valid postage if they date from 2011 or later. Marketplaces list them at a premium plus shipping, and slowly. A verified surplus channel is where retired designs go below face, which is the only place the year plan is also the cheaper plan.
Where to buy
Current-year designs from USPS or the counter. Previous years from a verified surplus channel such as Forever Stamp Center at www.foreverstampcenter.com — see the love and wedding range, or the full stamp catalogue if you are hunting a particular year.
The short version
Pick a year that means something, check it is 2011 or later so it is a Forever issue, and put it on the reply envelope where the weight works. Start looking early — the design you want left the post office years ago.
More on buying Forever stamps
- 👉 The Two-Ounce Stamp Exists Because of Weddings
- 👉 Roses on Love Stamps, 1988 to 2015
- 👉 When to Actually Mail the Invitations
USPS specialist based in Los Angeles with extensive experience in postal operations and customer service. Certified in mail management and trained at the USPS Business Mail Academy, she offers reliable guidance on Forever Stamps and practical mailing solutions.
