Often, when I show friends and family the latest invitation I’m working on, one of their first reactions is “they’ll deliver this?” to which I confidently reply “sure they will!”

It’s easy to take for granted the incredible feat of delivering documents across the country in just a couple days for 44 45 cents. I, for one, have some pretty indecipherable handwriting, yet my mail pretty much always gets there. That’s with great thanks to the USPS’ Remote Encoding Center.

The Wall Street Journal has a great article about the REC and the lengths the Service goes to to deliver barely-decipherable mail. Go read it and then come back.

I’ll wait.

I wonder how many wedding invitations, with their incredibly artful calligraphy, have to pass through the REC before arriving at  their destination. With the USPS experiencing so many challenges as of late, I think it’s plausible that a program like the REC may soon be on the chopping block. How many great calligraphers’ work is completely unreadable by USPS computers? What would happen to those invitations?

I’d hope that, should the REC program shutter, it would only be because digital deciphering had risen to a level where they weren’t needed. If not, I wonder if calligraphers might have to be a bit more conservative in their approach in order to ensure legibility.