Get A Romantic Postmark For Your Valentine's Card

Every Valentine's Day U.S. postmasters play the part of Cupid in towns with names like Bliss, Loveland, and Romance. After finding just the right card to express your love, and picking out the perfect love-design postage stamp, getting a romantic postmark for your valentine card shows you care enough to go the extra mile. Your valentine will be delighted.

To get a romantic postmark, place your stamped, addressed Valentine's Day cards in a larger envelope and mail the package to:

Postmaster (Town name)
Valentine re-mailing
City, State ZIP code

The post office will stamp your envelopes with their special Valentine's Day postmark and forward the card to the recipient. Make sure to allow enough time for the extra processing and transportation.

With a population of 59,563 (2005), Loveland (80538) ranks 14th in population in the state of Colorado. During the valentine season, the city decorates light poles and other city fixtures with red hearts inscribed with personal valentine messages.

Each year the local newspaper holds a contest to pick the year's valentine verse. The winning verse is then hand-stamped by volunteers onto the thousands of cards received in their valentine re-mailing program. Loveland postmarks more than 200,000 valentine cards every year from all 50 states and over 100 countries.

Though it lacks exact boundaries, the population of Romance (72136) was counted as 1,732 in the 2000 census. The community was named for the romantic view from the nearby bluffs.
 
The Romance post office postmarks about 7,500 valentines each year in its valentine re-mailing program. Unaffiliated with the postal service is a recent trend toward wedding services. A local clergyman is on stand-by to renew vows on Valentine's Day, and a justice of the peace is available to perform marriages with a two-hour notice. Two weddings took place at the post office on Valentine's Day, 2008.

Valentine, Texas (79854), named for the date of its February 14 founding in 1882, is a tiny town of  187 residents (2000 census). The post office has been offering a valentine postmark since 1983, and stamps about 40,000 Valentine cards each year. In recent years, a young Texas man proposed to his girlfriend in the lobby.

Valentines, Virginia (23887), was named for its first postmaster, William Henry Valentine. A subsequent postmaster, Willie Wright, started hand-stamping envelopes "With Love." In 1995 the post office hosted the official day-of-issue ceremony for that year's Love Stamp.

The Valentine post office postmarks about 25,000 valentine cards from all over the world each year, and one year it hosted 15 weddings.

An unincorporated community, Juliette, Georgia (31046), was named for the daughter of a railroad engineer. The movie Fried Green Tomatoes was filmed there; after the filming, the movie sets were turned into a tourist area. The attractions include the Whistle Stop Cafe, where you can, indeed, dine on fried green tomatoes.

The Juliette, Georgia, post office stamps around 4,000 valentine cards from around the country each year.

The village of Romeo, Michigan (48065), on the outskirts of Detroit, has a population of 3,721 (2000 census). The post office's valentine re-mailing program stamps about 4,000 valentines annually. Postmaster Stubbs offers a special addition to the delivery of Express Mail valentines within the village -- he dons a tuxedo and delivers free chocolates.

For more than 15 years, the post offices of Romeo, Michigan, and Juliette, Georgia, have teamed up to offer a special Romeo and Juliet postmark for Valentine's Day. Valentine cards in both towns' re-mailing program receive identical postmarks.

• Bliss, New York 14024
• Darling, Mississippi 38623  
• Eros, Louisiana 71238
• Hartville, Wyoming 82215
• Heart Butte, Montana 59448
• Kissimmee, Florida 34744
• Lovejoy, Georgia 30250
• Loves Park, Illinois 61111
• Loveville, Maryland 20656
• Loving, New Mexico 88256
• Loving, Texas 76460
• Loveland, Ohio 45140
• Valentine, Nebraska 69201

Cards aren't the only Valentine's Day tradition. The U.S. Census Department has compiled some fun Valentine's Day statistics about valentine gifts and relationships.