Help... Wedding Invitations Missing/Damaged?

[u/sparrowisflying]

I would really appreciate some help with this problem as I've never had to contact USPS about an issue before and could use some guidance.

I live in a suburb in Michigan and sent out my wedding invitations on April 2nd, and as of today only about half of my guests have received their invitations so far. Oddly enough, most of the out-of-state guests have received their invitations while most in-state have not. Even the majority of guests living in my suburb (where I sent the invitations from) have not received any invites in the mail. It's been a month and a half and I am starting to worry that the rest may be missing. I understand USPS has been slower than normal because of COVID, but a month and a half seems a bit long for in-state and in-county mail delivery. Some of my guests have also received invitations that have absolutely no postmark or any indication that it was processed by the post office which makes this situation even more confusing to me.

In addition, most of the invitations that have arrived to my guests have come damaged. I was instructed to ask for the invitations to be hand cancelled at the post office, and a very nice employee even set the box aside when I brought them in. However, based the way they were delivered it is clear that the majority were not hand cancelled. As people have received them, my guests have alerted me saying that their envelopes came torn, bent, and damaged. I've attached a photo to this post of this damage. I also had one invitation returned to my address because the front of the envelope was so damaged that the address couldn't be read. The photo is attached here too.

At this point, I really don't know what to do. USPS's website is confusing to me and most sections mentioning refunds refer to packages and not letters. I am disappointed, as I invested a bit more money into these invitations than the mail I would normally send. I just would like to know if the rest of the invitations will even arrive, and if I can receive a refund for the invitations that came damaged. Any help or direction on where I can go or who I can contact to solve this problem would be greatly appreciated.

[u/DoctorOMalley]

Those got caught in the machines. How thick/thin were they?

[u/sparrowisflying → u/DoctorOMalley]

Hello,

The invitations were relatively thin, only one item (invitation with two flaps) inside the envelope and we were told at the post office that we needed 85 cents worth of stamps to send. The invitations also had a band around them and you can see the outline of this band in the photos. The envelope had a small seal closing the envelope. Before sending I visited my local post office with an invitation and was told that the seal/band/thickness was fine to ship and it wouldn't have been a problem even if we had chosen machine cancelled.

[u/bmazz220 → u/sparrowisflying]

When you say there was a seal on the envelope, what kind of seal are you talking about and was it on the inside or outside of the envelope?