Policies & Guidelines

PenDance is dedicated to providing high quality calligraphy and engraving services to both individual and corporate clients.

We want both you and the recipients of our calligraphy and engraving to be delighted with our services.

General Guidelines

  • Our minimum order is $45 for any order.
  • Customers provide the items to be calligraphed or engraved, unless purchased form our online store.
  • Customers are required to approve all font styles, designs, layouts, and scheduled shipping/delivery dates prior to order fulfillment.
  • PenDance will not be held responsible for any spelling or address errors found after the proof sheets have been approved by the customer.
  • We will correct any errors on our part at no additional charge. However, if a customer needs to make a change to an item that we have already completed, the customer will be charged for our redoing that item.
  • PenDance reserves the right to not offer refunds for work already performed or for customer downpayments.
  • Sales tax is charged to Texas residents for calligraphy and engraving services.

Availability of Service

  • Computer Calligraphy services are almost always available, unless PenDance is closed for holidays or vacations.
  • For hand calligraphy, we recommend that you book our services early. After you receive confirmation that we can fulfill your order in the available time period, a  nonrefundable downpaymen will be due to add your job to our schedule. We regret that we cannot “hold your spot” on our schedule until after we receive your deposit.

Start and Due Dates

  • PenDance keeps a full schedule regarding hand calligraphy jobs so that we can comfortably serve as many customers as possible. We respectfully request that customers provide their address lists and items to be calligraphed on or before the agreed- upon start date so that we can fulfill the work on time.
  • If a customer does not deliver the necessary items to start the job on time, then PenDance can’t guarantee that the job will be fulfilled by the agreed-upon delivery date; rush fees may apply to fulfill the order on time, if it’s still possible to do so.

Deposits & Payment

  • For hand calligraphy services, a nonrefundable deposit for each order is due prior to adding your order to our work schedule. The balance is due before the completed items are shipped or delivered to you.
  • Computer calligraphy services do not require a deposit unless the order is $500 or more.
  • If you decide to cancel your order before we start, the deposit will act as a cancellation fee.
  • Deposits are calculated separately for each project (invitations, envelope addressing, place cards, etc) since each project has a separate due date on our work schedule.

For instance, a client may request both envelope addressing with one due date, and at the same time request place card fill-ins that have a later due date. If this client decides to cancel the place card fill-ins order before the envelope addressing is paid for, the deposit for the place cards will NOT be credited to the envelope order; it will act as a cancellation fee.

  • PenDance accepts payment by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, PayPal, personal or corporate checks, money orders, and cash. We do not accept AMEX.

Shipping (Long Distance Clients)

  • PenDance defines the Due Date as the date your item(s) will be shipped to you, not the date you actually receive the item(s).
  • Please allow one week’s time for shipping your items back to you when determining the due date for your order.
  • PenDance usually keeps 3-5 extra envelopes or place cards in the event any errors are found upon inspection of the completed items by the client. If a client discovers an error made by PenDance, PenDance will correct the error and ship the corrected items by Priority Mail to the client at no additional charge to the client. However, if the client prefers to receive the items sooner, then the client will pay the difference in cost to upgrade the shipping. PenDance will not be responsible for shipping charges over and above Priority Mail rates in these cases.

How to Order (Request a Quote)

  • Please contact us for a quote for your project!

Communication with Our Customers

  • The best time to call us is Monday – Friday between 9am – 5pm CST. We also check email throughout the day so feel free to email us with your questions and comments. Our fax number is (281) 558-5512.

Rush Orders

  • In most instances, a rush order is categorized as any order with a due date of less than 7 days from the date the items are received by PenDance. The rush time period may vary based on the size of the requested project.
  • We will notify you in the RFQ if a rush order fee would be applicable for your order. The rush fee is 25% of the total cost of the order.

Invitation Design

  • Please allow 2-3 weeks ahead of the printing due date for custom designs.
  • For invitation design services, customers will be provided with proof sheets of all information to be printed for the invitation ensemble. Customers will need to review and approve the proof sheets prior to PenDance fulfilling the order.
  • PenDance will not be held responsible for any spelling or wording errors found after the proof sheets have been approved by the customer. Additional changes requested after the final proofs have been signed will be billed according to our price list.
  • The price of the design includes up to two changes. If you still need additional changes after the second edit, a additional design fee will apply.

Envelope Addressing

  • Please allow 1 week per 100 envelopes to be addressed (conservative estimate).
  • Plan to provide at least 10-15% more envelopes than needed, or a minimum of 10 additional envelopes (for orders of 50 addresses or less), or whichever is more. The additional envelopes allow for additional names to be added, or address changes or errors. We’ll return any unused cards.
  • PenDance currently does not offer stuffing and mailing services.
  • See also Address Formatting.

Place Cards & Escort Cards

  • Please provide 10-15% more cards than are needed for the number of guests on your list. We’ll return any unused cards.
  • We recommend not using titles on place cards, just the first and last names.
  • For escort cards, we suggest dropping the middle names so that the names can be written or printed larger on the cards.

Engraving

  • Unfortunately we are unable to engrave antiques, one-of-a-kind items, or family heirlooms.
  • We prefer not to engrave on sparkling wine bottles due to the chance that they may explode. If a customer requests engraving on sparkling wine, and the bottle explodes, PenDance will not be responsible for replacing the bottle or for any damage that may occur to the client’s person or property as a result of the breakage.
  • Engraving plated metal surfaces can sometimes cause the plating to chip due to inferior quality of the plating. PenDance may require the customer to sign a release form which states that PenDance will not be held responsible for replacing the item should the plating chip during the engraving process.

Refunds

  • We can only engrave bottles that are delivered to and picked up from our studio in Houston, Texas. We do not have a license to ship alcoholic beverages.
  • Since all specifications for each project are signed off by the customer, we are confident the we can meet the customer’s expectations based on those specifications.
  • If for some unforeseen reason we are unable to fulfill a scheduled order, we will notify the customer immediately to ask permission to either hire a subcontractor to fulfill the order or return the items and deposit. The customer will be able to view the subcontractor’s work prior to agreeing to the subcontractor fulfilling the order.

Privacy Policy

  • PenDance keeps all contact information provided by our customers private and confidential. We do not give away or resell this information to anyone. Pinky promise!
  • Further details can be reviewed here.