Message-in-a-bottle pen pal letter

so cute! what a great idea. nice change from junk mail and bills :)

That is such a neat idea. But my concern is can you really mail a bottle like that?

This sounds fun but like someone said "can you really mail a bottle without wraping it. Let me know I would like this.

why of coarse you can!!! my mom works at the post office at the airport you can pretty much mail anything!!!! I'm doing a similiar swap right now too...

apparently you can mail unwrapped whole coconuts.. haha. read it on your countries post website.

www.canadapost.ca is mine. so funny.

and I will say too this is a wicked cool idea. I would love to see my mail carriers face. Also it will be interesting to see what kind of water bottle shows up. I assume it is okay to leave the original label on it? Peace, raven

YOU CAN ONLY SEND COCONUTS FROM HAWAII AND FLORIDA... MY MOM SAID SOMEONE MAILED A ROCKING CHAIR WITHOUT ANY PACKAGING THE OTHER DAY JUST A LABEL. I WONDER THOUGH ABOUT OTHER COUNTRIES??? ANYBODY KNOW? I AM SENDING MY SISTERS KIDS VALENTINES IN BOTTLES JUST TO MAKE 'EM SMILE THEY ARE SO-OOOOO FAR AWAY FROM ME!!!

Accourding to the US post office you can't mail a plastic pop bottle because of their scanning machines. Otherwise the idea sounds cool.

Email i recieved from USPS.

"Thank you for contacting us about mailing a plastic pop bottle without a box. I apologize for any inconvenience.

No, you have to place the bottle in a box, because the machines scanning the mail are programmed for packages and letters, not for articles.

Your bottle could get damaged if not placed in a box.

If I can be of assistance to you in the future, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thank you for choosing the United States Postal Service®.

Regards,

Marta P"

This isnt quite true my mom and dad are both postal my mom works at a huge air mail facility.... if you go to your local post office and try to send them they just charge a bit more shipping and throw it into the hand cancel only bin.... it does cost more to send. Im mailing my niece and nephew bottles today that weigh about a pound... I'll repost later and let you guys know what it cost.... ask your local post master aside from bottles there are endless ideas for packaging that dont require boxes or envelopes.... you could send a bag of goodies with the bags sewn shut or a see thru cookie container. this is all about being creative.

Officially... the post office just wants everything to be machine sorted, its quicker and more efficient.

I love this idea of putting the letter in a bottle! I love writing letters and usually join the letter swaps. This is a GREAT TWIST!

One question, will there be any limitations on who can join according to their rating? What about number of "no sends/not received" ratings? Hate for anyone not to receive their letter in a bottle.

Check postsecret this week for a visible example of a plastic bottle sent through the mail.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

hey... Just so you know about what this will cost ya...

I sent my niece a bottle of goodies today. I used the automatic postage machine at the post office.

I used a half gallon water bottle, it wieghed 1 lb. 7.5 oz.

I was going to mail it parcel post (takes 8 days to get) but it would have cost me $12.50, but to send it priority mail which gets there in 2 days so instead it cost $6.05 (which didnt make sense to me)

I'm glad we've got so many comments and questions here. Thanks especially to Sarah for checking things our for us.

Yes, I think they hand cancel it, because it doesn't go through the machines.

Well, I'm willing to give it a try. I was thinking of using a small 16 oz. water bottle.

I have sent many things inside a plastic water or pop bottle. The bottle is the packaging.

I think maybe the post office may not want you to actually send a bottle of water or any other liquid thru the mail without other protective packaging.

it really shouldnt cost that much.... the bottles I sent were stuffed with goodies and were half gallon jugs...

I am ready to get an address already...

Shelly Rawlins, your bottle is being mailed out Tuesday!

Carnialbleeding your message in a bottle was sent today. I hope you enjoy it when you get it. Hugs

This was fun! I want to do this again! I might send some \"bottle letters\" even outside this swap, or for some of the other letter swaps I join. It makes for interesting mail. And as my postal clerk said today, \"At least I don\'t have to ask you what\'s in it! I can SEE what\'s in it!\" ha ha! :)

I'm looking forward to hearing when we start receiving our bottles...I bet it'll be so interesting to see/hear how people sent their bottled letters...decorated, plain, extras, just a letter... so do tell as you get yours!

I mailed mine to my partner a week ago and haven't heard whether it was received yet. I sure hope it arrives soon. My partner is in Colorado so I'm sure that bottle is seeing lots of interesting weather conditions! :)

Sending my bottle today.

I wonder if my partner has received the bottle I sent to her yet? Hope you had fun with it!

Got a bottle in the mail yesterday myself...lightly decorated bottle with a small single-paged letter in it...thank you.

My partner recieved her bottle and said she liked it. I am still waiting to recieve mine and I hope it comes this week. This was a fun swap for me to do

I received my message in a bottle. :)marie