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Frequently Asked Questions
Baby Card Expressions is located in Sacramento, CA. We work best communicating via email (click here). Our toll free number is available as well for your convenience, although we cannot always get to the phone. We are closed on Saturday, Sunday and all major holidays. You will most likely be in contact with the owner, Stacey. Please keep in mind that she is a single mother of two, who works at home. Being a small business owner, she is always trying to balance work and her two young children. If at any point, you are not able to reach her by phone, please be sure to leave a voicemail message, or send an email letting us know that you would like a call back. She does her best to return phone calls the same day. If that is not possible, she will return your call the next business day. Thank you for your understanding. Also, please note that we are on the WEST COAST. If you are on the East Coast, and you are looking for a return call, please keep our time difference in mind. Stacey does not take any calls prior to 9:00am Pacific. 
STEP ONE Look throught our galleries of announcements and invitations and choose the design that you would like to order. Be sure to write down the name of the design that you want to order, as you will need that information for the order form. STEP TWO Click on the "How to Order" Link below, or click here to be taken to our online order form. Complete the form. Once you have completed the form, you will receive an instant automated email that will give you instructions on how to send your photos to us, so that we may complete a first round proof of your photocard. Follow the email instructions, and either upload or email your photos to us. Note that we will not begin work on your proof until we have all of your photos. STEP THREE Await your first round proof via email. Our normal turnaround time on gallery proofs is 1-2 business days (typically one business day). We do not work on the weekends, so if you submit your online order form and photos over the weekend, you will have a proof most likely by the end of the day on Monday. Your custom proof will be emailed to you, and you will then have the opportunity to make changes and edits to the proof, via email. Proof edits are normally turned around within 24 hours (usually the same day). STEP FOUR Once you have a proof that you are satisfied with, we just need an email stating that you have approved the proof for printing. A simple "approved" in your email will be fine. Note that once you have approved your proof - changes may not be made. We often send files out for printing, within an hour or sometimes less, of recieving approval emails. We do suggest that you look it over very carefully before you approve it for printing, as we cannot be responsible for any mistakes once the proof has been approved. It might be good to have a second set of eyes look over your proof. STEP FIVE Process your payment. Once you have approved your proof, you will receive instructions via email on how to make your payment. We can either email you a Paypal invoice, or you can call us during our normal business hours at (877) 916-2229 to make a credit card payment. We will forward the exact total of your order to you at this time as well. STEP SIX Once your payment has been processed, we need approximately 1-2 business days (excluding Sat/Sun) to complete your photopaper card order printing and approximately 4-5 business days (excluding Sat/Sun) for your cardstock order printing. See the Pricing page for additional product timing details. We will then ship your order via Priority Mail through USPS, which normally takes approximately 2-3 days to arrive to you. 
Most of the details are outlined above in the "How Do I Place My Order" section. Please see the pricing page for lead times on each particular product. Our photopaper photocards have the shortest lead time. All orders are shipped via US Priority Mail, and typically take 2-3 business days AFTER THE PRINTING LEAD TIME, to arrive to you. 
Can I see more than one customized proof with my pictures and information added and shown? You will receive one proof per order. You may make up to five text and photo changes to that proof until you are happy with it. If your order is for over $100.00, if requested, we will provide up to two (2) seperate initial first round proofs for your review. Changes (proof edits) will only be made to the design of your choice after receiving the two initial proofs. With an order of $100.00+, if you would like to see additional proofs above the first two, there will be a $15.00 per design charge, that will be invoiced prior to beginning work on the additional proofs. This design charge covers the time spent by our designer on your additional proofs. If your order is under $100.00, we only provide ONE proof for your review. If you would like to see additional proofs above the first proof, there will be a $15.00 per design charge, that will be invoiced prior to beginning work on the additional proofs. This design charge covers the time spent by our designer on your additional proof(s). This is subject to change at any time. 
Can I make changes to my proof? Absolutely! Nothing is sent to print until we have final approval from you. We want you to be happy with the finished result. We do have a limit of 5 rounds of proof changes (text or photo) per order, so please make your changes with thought! If you need changes above the 5th proof, there will be a $5.00 per additional proof charge. 
Please check your spam and/or junk mail folder! Please email us if you have not receive a proof within two full business days after submitting the proof order form and photo(s). Occasionally, emails with attachments are marked as spam or junk mail by your email provider. If you have been waiting more than 1 full business day for a revised edit proof to be done, please send us an email so that we can check the status. 
What is your minimum order? We currently require a minimum order of 20 photopaper cards, or 50 cardstock cards. This is subject to change at any time. Can I order less than your minimum? Sorry, we must strictly adhere to our minimums. You are not only paying for the prints, but the designers time. We cannot accept orders for less than our minimum order. 
What are your photo requirements? We will need a full size image directly from your digital camera. Please do not send us blurry or grainy photos, as you will be unhappy with the printed outcome. Your images should be at least 1200x1800 pixels at 300dpi to print out crisp and clear. The higher the resolution, the better. If you are using a digital camera, please be sure that it is set on the highest resolution possible when taking your photos. Also be sure that your date stamp is turned off. We can remove the date stamp in most cases, but it is best if the photos are taken without it. When sending your photos to us, please do not crop them. It is best if we have the unaltered original files from your camera. Feel free to send both the original file, and a cropped file so that we can see what you have in mind as far as cropping. If you are unsure about the size and quality of your photos, please send them to us and we can review them and let you know if there will be any problems with the images. We can only work with what we are given. If you’re unsure, please email the image to us and we can determine if it will work. Can I send you a photo to be scanned? We do not offer this service at this time. If you need to use a scanned photo, you can take your photo to a Kinkos or similar company and they can scan the image for you. Be sure to have them scan it at 300dpi. It can then be emailed to us directly. How can I send my pictures to you? Photos may be emailed as an attachment to PHOTO SUBMISSION. Or you may click on the photo submission link at the bottom links section on our website, or here. Please only send 2-3 photos per email if you are ordering a card that contains several photos. IF YOU ARE ORDERING A COLLAGE CARD with 6+ photos - you will receive very specific instructions via email on how the photos should be sent. Please refer to this email prior to sending your photos to us. In order to place the photos in the correct order on the card design, the photo files will either need to be renamed in order (1st position, 2nd position, 3rd position, etc), or we will need a list of image names with corresponding photo order of how they should appear on the card. We cannot begin work on your collage card until this has been done correctly. Please let us know if you have questions on submitting your collage card photos. I have photos from a professional photographer, can you use these on my card? Please read our terms of use. By submitting your photos to Baby Card Expressions you assert all legal ownership of your photos. You must obtain copyright permission from your professional photographer. Can you turn my photos from color to black and white or sepia? YES. We just need your original high resolution color files and we can do this for you. Can you remove red-eye or distractions that should not be in the photo? In most cases, yes. If your photo needs very heavy editing or busy background edits or removal, there may be an extra charge for this service. This amount would be quoted to you prior to beginning work on the edits. We would just need the original file and we can determine this. Can you remove date stamps from photos? In most cases, yes. It is best if you do not use the date stamp feature on your camera. We will have to see the photo to determine if there will be any issues. If the date stamp is on a main photo, and covers over skin and edges of body parts, it is harder for us to remove the date stamp and have it look natural. Our best advice - turn off the date stamp! 
What forms of payment do you accept? We accept both Paypal as well as all major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX). At this time we can only take a credit card by phone during our normal business hours. Charges on your card will appear as BABYCARDEXP. We can also accept money orders. The money order must be received prior to shipping your order, and will cause a delay in shipping. You will receive detailed instructions on making your payment as soon as you approve your proof for printing. Note that if you are paying via Paypal, and you pay with an e-check, your order will not go to print until your e-check has cleared (can take up to 4 business days). 
Standard Shipping Method We ship orders within the U.S. via U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail. Cardstock cards are sometimes shipped via UPS 3-Day Select. Pricing is based on the quantity of cards you are ordering. 50 cards and under is $9.00 for USPS Priority Mail Insured. 51+ cards are $12.00 for USPS Priority Mail Insured. The prices are the same if we choose to use UPS 3-Day Select for cardstock cards. (Shipping method for standard shipping for cardstock card cannot be chosen by the customer between UPS and USPS - we will determine which method will be used at our discretion.) Expedited Shipping Method - Rush Shipping Express Mail is an option for shipping through USPS via overnight shipping. Please email us for information and pricing for this overnight option. Overnight service is not available in all areas. If you are ordering cardstock cards, UPS Overnight is available. Overnight shipping is quoted based on the destination zip code and quantity of cards being ordered (weight). Also note, this does not affect our printing and processing time, only the time it leaves our hands to ship to you. Do you ship outside of the U.S.? We're sorry, we currently only ship within the United States. 
Can I get envelopes ahead of time so that I can address them before my baby arrives? Yes. The charge is 25. cents per envelope, and a $9.00 shipping charge. The cost of the envelopes will be deducted from your order once it is placed (minus the shipping). If you pre-pay your entire order, we will ship your envelopes ahead of time for FREE. Click here to pre-order your envelopes. Do the cards come with envelopes? Yes. Standard white envelopes are included in the price of the announcements, invitations or notecards. 
Privacy Policy and Terms of Use By accessing or using our web site at babycardexpressions.com, you signify that you have read, understand and agree to be bound by the Terms of Use which can be found here. VERY IMPORTANT - Cancellation Policy Do you accept returns or offer refunds? Due to the custom nature of our products, we do not accept any returns, and there are no refunds - all sales are final. Once payment has been processed, the sale has taken place, and no refunds may be processed at that point. We are careful with your order, and will do everything possible to check and print your order. We do ask that you check your proof very carefully, and possibly have another person proof read your proof for any spelling, grammar and layout issues before you give your final approval. If requested, we will provide you a hard copy proof via regular US Mail, prior to placing your order. This can take anywhere from 2-10 days to print, and will only be shipped via regular US mail (additional time), and will add to the lead time of your order. Any printed proofs sent WILL be printed with the text "PROOF" across the card. Colors may slightly vary from hard copy samples. We are all human and can make mistakes or miss things. So please look over your proof carefully! What if there is an error on the final photocard? If there is a mistake made by us, after you have approved the final card, we will rush new cards to you at no charge. If you have approved the final proof, and an error was not caught by you, we cannot be responsible for this. We will re-print and new revised cards to you at 50% off the regular price. You will have to pay shipping charges again as well. We may ask you to return the original shipment. We require that you notify us of any issues within five (5) days of receiving your order. My order arrived and the cards are damaged - what do I do? Please notify us immediately if there has been any damage during shipment to your order. We require that you notify us within 5 days of receiving the order. PLEASE DO NOT THROW AWAY ANY OF THE PACKAGING or the order itself, as We may ask you to return the original shipment to us. NOTE ABOUT COLOR: Slight variations in the printing process may occur. Actual colors shown on our website and in emailed proofs may vary from the finished product, as all monitors display colors differently. 
Can I order more announcements or invitations later? YES! We keep your card design on file for 6 months. Can I buy a digital file and print the cards myself? We're sorry, but we do not offer a print yourself option at this time. Can you do custom designs? CLICK HERE for details on custom work. Do you offer return address labels? Yes. All designs have coordinating labels available, even though they may not be shown on the website. Please see the pricing page for details and pricing. Do you offer local pickup? If you are in the greater Sacramento area, we can offer local pickup at a prearranged location in the Citrus Heights area according to our schedule. Sometimes it is faster to just have the products shipped, as our schedule is busy. During the month of December, this option is not available and all orders will be sent via our regular shipment methods. Thank you for visiting babycardexpressions.com |
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