What should you set up before the app can send?

Choose the AWS region first. Verify the email address or domain you will send from in that region. A domain identity lets you send from addresses on that domain after you complete its verification steps.

In the regional sandbox you can send to verified recipients or AWS’s mailbox simulator. Request production access in the region before sending to unverified customers. The sending identity still has to be verified after approval.

How do you see a success and a bounce without emailing a customer?

Use the AWS mailbox simulator with a disposable sender and test configuration. Before any test request, verify the region, sender, credentials and where bounce and complaint notifications go. Check that any bounce email would go only to a test address you control. If you turn off email forwarding, verify and apply the isolated event configuration before sending. If any route is unclear, compare the expected results on paper.

Check the event destination
Set up and apply a test configuration set, a group of rules for where SES publishes the message events. Check that the event receiver is disposable and records both delivery and bounce events.
Compare the two simulator outcomes
Use only success@simulator.amazonses.com and bounce@simulator.amazonses.com, the addresses AWS provides for these outcomes. The bounce address simulates a rejection and does not add that address to the suppression list. Send one fictional receipt to each, with no copied recipients or live links. Match the returned message IDs to the two test events. This checks event handling. It does not verify that a real mailbox would place a receipt in the inbox.

What can stop sending even when a message looks valid?

The sandbox quota is up to 200 recipients per 24 hours and one recipient per second in the region. SES counts recipients for these quotas, so sending one message to three addresses uses three units. Production quotas vary with the account and region.

Simulator sends do not reduce the daily quota, but the sending rate still applies and AWS bills them like normal sends. The pay-as-you-go outbound list rate is $0.10 per 1,000 recipient sends, with a separate attachment data rate. Check the terms for your region, plan and any added features.

Where can you tell whether a receipt was accepted or bounced?

A successful send request means SES took it for processing. A Delivery event means the receiving mail server accepted it. A Bounce event is evidence of a delivery failure, and the suppression list may show a reason SES skipped another attempt.

Configure and store message events before relying on them for support. Keep the event history in the destination you set up, and retrieve your regional account suppression list through the documented listing command before a move. Save the templates and sending settings in a form you can rebuild.