WordPress + SMTP + SES + Gmail

Hello AWS,

I'm a noob so please go easy! :-)

Multiple questions here.

TL;DR Can I have WordPress and Emails via Gmail using EC2 and SES?

I want to move all my websites from a VPS server I have (single point of failure) to AWS.
The plan was for each website to have its own EC2/Lightsail instance. (independent points of failure).

OK, so far I've spun up an EC2 instance and a Lightsail instance.
I've installed Bitnami WordPress from the marketplace.
https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B00NN8Y43U?ref=cns_srchrow
and changed external DNS, I can see my websites. All is good so far!

Problem #1 - WordPress is not sending any emails
Contact forms, password forms, registration forms etc, are not sending out any emails!
I looked through the Bitnami WordPress installation and spotted the preinstalled plugin WP-Mail-SMTP.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/
I guess once I have SES working it will just a case of configuring this plugin to get WordPress working.

Problem #2 - No Email Server
After reading the docs I appreciate SES is a gateway and not a Mail Server.
So what's the missing piece?
Lambda?
WorkMail?
Some Mail Server from the marketplace instead of SES? or as well as?

Problem #3 - Configuring SES is awkward
Started up SES.
Verified the domain by adding DNS records.
Verified an email address.
I'm stuck here!!!
Where did the verification email go?
How do I verify? I've no email client at this point in time.
This is confusing!!
The AWS SES documentation is terse.

UPDATE Some progress.

Verified a Gmail account I own.
Successfully sent a test email from info@mydomain.com to Gmail.
Replied from Gmail and it failed. with a 550.

This above part was really badly explained in every tutorial I watched.
I assumed I was trying to verify info@mydomain.com
This needs to be made more clear in the SES documentation.

OK, now I'm going to setup Receiving emails.

Problem #4 - Gmail as an Email client
Most of my customers use Gmail.
They have an existing someone@gmail.com account
And they just want to add their domain email info@somecompany.com as a secondary account.
So they waste no time learning the nuances of a new Email Client.
Is Gmail a compatible email client for use with SES?

Possible Solutions?

1. Install some sort of email server on every EC2 instance? Bloat???
2. Spin up an extra separate EC2 instance that's a dedicated email server handling all emails for every EC2 WordPress server that I create? Is this possible?
3. WorkMail seems to be too expensive. Initially cheap at just $4 pppm. The cost of WorkMail subtracts from the cheapness of EC2/Lightsail as you scale up the number of users.
4. SES and Lambda solution? Will this allow expected functionality e.g. reply to, reply to all, forward, CC, BCC etc?

I've watched multiple youtube videos and read many tutorials.
I can't find a clear step-by-step guide on how to set this up (if it's even possible?)
Surely I can't be the first person to encounter this scenario???
Is AWS a good solution fit for a solo web developer like me?
Any advice is welcomed.

Thanks in advance.

Edited by: LordLiverpool on Feb 2, 2019 9:56 AM