diff --git a/app/clients/email/aws_ses.py b/app/clients/email/aws_ses.py
index a7131d6232..761df46090 100644
--- a/app/clients/email/aws_ses.py
+++ b/app/clients/email/aws_ses.py
@@ -2,13 +2,14 @@
 from email.mime.multipart import MIMEMultipart
 from email.mime.text import MIMEText
 from time import monotonic
+import base64
 
 import boto3
 import botocore
 from flask import current_app
 from notifications_utils.recipients import InvalidEmailError
 from notifications_utils.statsd_decorators import statsd
-from unidecode import unidecode
+# from unidecode import unidecode
 
 from app.clients.email import EmailClient, EmailClientException
 
@@ -63,7 +64,9 @@ def attach_html(m, content):
         attachments = attachments or []
         if isinstance(to_addresses, str):
             to_addresses = [to_addresses]
-        source = unidecode(source)
+        # TODO: fix this to allow accents
+        # source = base64.b64encode(bytes(source, "utf-8"))
+
         reply_to_addresses = [reply_to_address] if reply_to_address else []
 
         # - If sending a TXT email without attachments:
@@ -101,8 +104,10 @@ def attach_html(m, content):
                 msg.attach(attachment_part)
 
             start_time = monotonic()
-            response = self._client.send_raw_email(Source=source, RawMessage={"Data": msg.as_string()})
+            response = self._client.send_raw_email(RawMessage={"Data": msg.as_string()})
         except botocore.exceptions.ClientError as e:
+            # got an error here using a service with accents in the name
+            
             self.statsd_client.incr("clients.ses.error")
 
             # http://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/api-error-codes.html