My daughter asked me to repair a cutting board that had failed on all but one glue line after a trip through the dishwasher. After gluing the board back together, there are minor discrepencies in the flatness of the board. Normally I'd use a surface plane to flatten the surface, but one one side of the cutting board is a large laser engraving with her's and her husband's name and the date they were married. I don't think it will take more than a couple of passes to plane the board flat, but I'm worried that I might tear out around the laser engraving.

Any opinions on whether I can safely plane the surface, or should I just be safe and sand the board flat?

Dave