From your photo to a finished stone; in six weeks.
No phone tag. No sales appointment. No "we'll quote you after we take a rubbing." A clear process, in writing, with a timeline you can hold us to.
You send us a photo and the basics.
Day 0 · 2 minutes
Use our online quote form to send your request. We need three things: a clear photo of the existing headstone (or the lot if there is no stone yet), what you'd like carved, and the cemetery name and town. That's it. Add your photo before submitting. You can write the new inscription in plain English; we'll handle formatting.
If you don't have a photo on your phone, that's fine; tell us the cemetery and the family name and we'll often be able to look up the stone in our records or coordinate a site visit.
We send a written quote, within 24 hours.
Day 1 · Email
A single email with the exact letter count, the math ($300 plus $15 per letter), the total, and the cemetery permit pass through if your cemetery charges one. The number you see is the number you pay. There are no follow up calls to "discuss your project."
If your job involves custom relief carving, photo etching, or other work that doesn't fit the standard formula, we quote the add on separately and disclose it in writing. We don't have undisclosed fees.
You approve. We proof the layout.
Days 1 to 7
You reply to the quote with a yes. We send you a scale layout proof of the inscription as it will appear on the stone; exact font, exact size, exact positioning. You revise. We revise. We send the next proof. You sign off.
Nothing gets cut in the cemetery until you've approved the layout. That's the most important sentence on this page.
We file the cemetery's permit.
Days 7 to 14
Every cemetery in New England has its own engraving permit process. Boston Catholic cemeteries (St. Joseph, Holyhood, Mt. Benedict, New Calvary) require a permit through the Archdiocese. Mt. Auburn, Forest Hills, and Mt. Hope have their own forms. Town and parish cemeteries vary widely.
We handle the paperwork on your behalf. We pay the cemetery's permit fee out of the pass through line item in your quote (typically $50 through $200, varies by cemetery). You sign one form to authorize the work on your loved one's stone. We do the rest.
We carve on site, photograph, and clean up.
Days 21 to 42
Portable engraving equipment. We arrive at the cemetery, we set up at the grave, we cover the surrounding area to protect the lot, we carve. The stone does not move. The grave does not get disturbed. The work is hand finished where hand work is required; most fonts and most jobs use a combination of stencil and sandblast (for crisp letterforms) and hand tooling (for finishing and detail).
Same day, we photograph the finished work and email you the photo. Then we clean up; the lot, the surrounding stones, the path, all left exactly as we found them. Most families never visit the cemetery during the work itself; they see the finished stone next time they're there.
Six weeks, April through October.
For orders placed during the working season (roughly April 1 through October 31, weather permitting), we commit in writing to having the work completed on the stone within six weeks of the order date.
For orders placed off season (November through March), when New England weather makes on site cemetery work unsafe or impossible, we schedule the work in writing for the first available spring window; typically the first or second week of April depending on the year.