Isle of Man Post Office was approached by Lynda Corkill, who was married to Mark Smith on August 1st 2015. Bride-to-be, Lynda, had wanted to create a unique and personalised postmark to go out in the post on the wedding invitations to celebrate their special day.

Isle of Man Post Office specialises in bringing people together and the postmark design team jumped at the chance to go to Lynda’s aid. Lynda sent a copy of her requirements to the team who then devised the perfect solution - the postmark featured a heart containing both Mark and Lynda's names along with the wedding date, and two stamps, one with an image of Peel Castle, where the couple got married, and the other was the recently released 2015 Year of the Sheep stamp to reflect their time spent together in Hong Kong. Finally, it included the Chinese symbol of double happiness which represents two people becoming one, a very important image in Chinese weddings - a sentiment that transcends cultures.

The result was perfect. The invites were sent to over 100 guests primarily on the Isle of Man and UK as well as Asia in plenty of time for the guests to reply.

Commenting on the process and outcome Lynda Smith (nee Corkill) said: "I am very happy; the whole process was straight forward and hassle free, as well as value for money. I told the postmark design team exactly what I was looking for and they delivered on this with a truly unique and personalised postmark that will be a keepsake for years to come of our special day."

Photo - Linda Smith (Nee Corkill) and Mark Smith at Postal Headquarters standing in front of the machine that was responsible for creating the postmarks. Both are holding four invitations each containing the special postmark – eight signifies luck in Chinese culture.