PTA Christmas shopping evening - help needed.

[RosaLuxembunting]

I know, I know, but I need to get the planning organised before we break up. What we are hoping to do is to have a ladies cheese, wine and shopping evening in early November and get local traders to take stalls - eg the mums who do Virgin Vie, Pampered Chef, local crafty people, etc etc.
What I don't know is how the money side of it works. We will be charging admission with free glass of wine included and doing a raffle, but I assume we would also expect a contribution from the people who are selling at it. Would it be a flat fee or a percentage of profits or leave it up to them to decide on a donation? And if a fee, how much would be appropriate. I want to do a letter this week so we can start approaching people to take part, any suggestions, hints, tips very welcome!

We have had 2 of these, very successful.

We charged a £20 fee to each stall holder, with £10 being paid up front.

We then asked for a raffle prize form each stall holder, and then sold raffle tickets.

We advertised on Netmums for stall holders, and got quite a few.

We do a Xmas bazaar at school and have vendors - they pay an upfront flat fee.

Not sure how much you should charge though.

don't forget chocoholics lady and phoenix cards

I had a lady do the body shop and another do phoenix cards at a do like this. both claimed to have sold vry little and i had a job to get a fiver each out of them. so the policy became £10 a table upfront and then they know what to pay and you know it's guarenteed

We did a similar night with our NCT group. I think they charged a percentage of sales. We also had a homemade cake stall and members donated cakes (either for eating there or taking home) and that made a huge amount of money. One member also took along her chocolate fountain and we bought fruit, marshmallows, etc and charged £1 a go. That made a decent amount of money for very little outlay and was very popular. Agree that you should get stallholders to donate raffle prizes too.

We charged £45 per stall last year including a £3 refreshment voucher (enough to buy a huge pork/turkey roll and a cuppa). Independent school so maybe people are prepared to pay more. Some people come back year after year; some people don't so obviously some people do well and others don't think it was worth the fee.

We charge £10 a stall, plus a small raffle prize.

£45 a stall!! that's steep.

We've done this quite a few times now, good money spinner. £15 a table plus donation to a raffle. Free bottle of wine with ticket in (think it was £1 to get in)

they pay a quid to get in and get a free bottle of wine!!!! where is this event of which you speak and can I come in 15 times please - that's my christmas presents sorted!

Ours is £10 per stall plus donation for the raffle(payable upfront)

Ticket price last year was £4.50 (this included a glass of wine and cheese and biscuits)

I want to go to the free bottle of wine evening !

gawd

ooops is of course a glass

Thanks guys, there are some great suggestions here. Looks like £10 per stall is a popular option - and asking for a raffle prize is good thinking.

We've done this a couple of times now and had cards, chocolates, a cake decorator, Usbourne books, pampered chef, a wooden puzzle maker, a hand painted glass stall, handmade jewellery, and other various craft stall.

One year we combined it with a pamper sessions where we had a hairdresser, indian head massager (?) etc.

We charged them £10 a stall and asked for a raffle prize for each. We didnt charge parents entry but charged for coffees, mulled wine and mince pies and raffle tickets.

Our hall holds about 15 nicely so we knew we would make at least £150.

Good luck.

You can get 15 people in your hall Mrs Weasley? Is it quite an exclusive school then?

Sorry I meant 15 stalls

I'd like a school for just 15

Wouldn't it be nice
We have to charge admission I think, because we can't sell wine, it has to be free with entry. I reckon we could fit 15-20 stalls in our hall too.

ues you may be right we didnt do wine

It also a good idea to sell tickets in advance to have a rough idea of the numbers. One year we only had 6 parents out of 250 families turn up. In fairness the weather was dreadful with gale force winds and driving rain.

Only six!!! What a disaster. Yes, tickets in advance a good idea.

Yes it was very embarrassing for us as organisers. It was a really stormy night but nearly all the stalls came back the next year so they weren't put off too much, thankfully!