I'm not sure if you know about this, but in case not --
sendgrid is dirt cheap for transactional emails. And there's tons of offerings for marketing emails; I'm partial either to sendinblue or ses depending on your use case.
There really isn't much reason to roll your own, particularly with ses.
Rather than depend on a single person's experience about running email systems, you might check out the Mailop mail operator's list:
I'm starting a new company where email connection to my user base is essential. From time to time I also need to sen all users certain notifications which looks kinda like marketing email but isn't.
Could you contact me as I would like to ask your opinion on the configuration that I'm trying to set up. I would also like to discuss your experiences.
If isn't too much, you can reach me by email at [email protected].