We try here to answer all your questions about paying for your ice sculptures. Very soon though, someone will ask a very good question that we didn’t think of, and probably an obvious one too 🙄 That’s why websites are nice; we can update them.
payment
We love making ice sculptures and we especially enjoy the reactions we get from our clients when we set them up!
If we could, we'd do them for free!
However...
why we take deposits
When you’re ordering your ice sculpture, we almost always need to get a deposit to confirm your order so that we can start designing and creating it. The deposit also ensures that we’ll be available for your event and that we’ve set aside time on our calendar for it. (And we’ll often invoice you or set up a contract prior to payment, see below.) When paying for your ice sculpture, it’s usually in 2 payments, the deposit and the balance.
At booking, we make a space for your sculpture(s) and your event on our calendar, we take it very seriously to ensure we’ll be there for your event and will provide the ice sculpture(s) that you’re expecting. (Our goal is to provide even MORE than you’re expecting!) So we take deposits so that we’re comfortable devoting a significant amount of time creating your sculptures and planning to set up and deliver them.
what’s your guarantee that we will provide your sculpture?
Especially for events that are some time in the future, we’ll usually set up contracts or send invoices that detail what we’ll be providing and when (and where too). This gives you a guarantee that we’ll provide the expected ice sculpture(s) and services.
Our reputation is also VERY important to us and we want you to tell others how happy you were with our ice art! So we always try to create the most spectacular ice sculptures that we can, subject to your budget and the requirements of the event, of course.
how we take payment
Over time, we’ve found that PayPal has been the easiest way to take payments and keep our customers comfortable with the payment process. But we also take payments via Square, and of course, you can always pay with a check (subject to certain limitations). And other forms of payment are accepted too, although not usually livestock.
🤣🐓🐄🐑
Wait. NEVER livestock 😉
Our PayPal link is the following (You have to enter an amount, which we will tell you before you pay.):
We can also create a PayPal invoice for you. Just let us know what works for you and usually we can quickly decide the best way to get payment taken care of. And please note, we always need to discuss your sculpture (via email, text, phone, etc.) before you send any money.
when is the balance due?
We often require the balance be paid before we deliver your sculpture. (This generally depends on the situation.) We do this for a variety of reasons, including that once we start sculpting your ice, there’s no going back. We put a lot of time and effort into creating our ice art, and if an event is canceled at the very last minute, we’re stuck with an ice sculpture that we can’t do anything with.
At the very latest, we require payment upon delivery of the sculpture. This is pretty much non-negotiable. We’d rather spend our time hanging out at 19˚F and making more sculptures than chasing money around. In the very rare instance where we don’t meet our obligations after final payment, then any necessary refunds are promptly provided.
what about Covid-19? (a personal note)
Covid-19 has thrown a big giant monkey wrench into almost everyone’s lives and, for some, the pandemic has been heartbreaking 🙁 I come from a family with several doctors and for a while, I thought I might someday become a doctor myself. In that vein, I have degrees in biology and chemistry and used to work in a microbiology lab. So I am taking it very seriously, to say the least. I’m closely following all the developments with the pandemic. And recently, I’ve even started working to try to help contain the spread of this devastating virus, since many special events are largely on hold for now.
If you book an ice sculpture with us and your event must be postponed or even cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions, we will do everything we reasonably can to accommodate your rescheduled event. In the case of a complete cancellation, it’s usually difficult to offer refunds. However, we offer a credit for up to 2 years from the date of your event, which should be plenty of time for things to get back to some semblance of “normal.” If it turns out that your elegant wedding sculpture needs to become a crazy ice luge for a post-pandemic party, then that’s what we’ll do!
All that said, if you’re confident enough to make firm plans for an upcoming event, don’t wait to book us! I honestly expect that we will see a bit of a special event explosion when (🤞) vaccines become widely available. Keep in mind that MANY weddings and special celebrations have been delayed and pushed back by a year or more. And charities in particular will be trying to restart the large scale fundraisers that keep their organizations going. I fully anticipate being too busy to create all the ice sculptures that people will want, once we get going again. People just want to live a normal life again, and there will be a lot of pent up demand for things that “feel” normal. Or used to, anyway.
Hopefully, this answers any questions you have about paying for your ice sculptures. If you have any questions about payment (or anything else regarding our sculptures and services) you can use our contact page, call or text us, or just email your questions. Thanks!