School fundraising Pamer Evening event ........ please help

[Flossydrop]

Hi, in an attempt to raise some funds for new fencing at our school I am organising a Ladies evening. So far we have agreed on a £5 entrance to include a glass of (good quality) wine and some nibbles. We have sold 10 tables to stall holders selling quality items with Mothers Day in mind. I have 5 therapists coming to cover manicures/pedicures, reflexology, reiki, indian head massage, eyebrow threading & mini facials.

My main question is has anyone organised a similar event ? and if so did you prebook the treatments ? I only have a total of 36 treatment slots and I am worried if I send out the form I composed to the whole school I may get too many people for each therapists and then have to send their money back to them etc.

Any advice on the evening would be appreciated. It is proving difficult as we have never held such an event so I don't know how popular it will be but I want to make it a success.

Thank you
Floss

We run a similar event every year and do allow prebooking of appointments. It takes place in the playground at drop off and pick up over 2-3 days, and we have to be strict about only taking bookings with full payment so prewarn people to bring their cheque books.
It helps the stallholders as they know in advance that they have at least a certain number of appointments. The downside is that it might put-off some potential guests from outside the school community who wouldn't be able to book in advance although there are always some appointments available on the night (we have about 10-12 treatment sellers). We've never found a way around that particular problem despite much discussion!
We raised about £1000 last year at our Pamper Evening. One thing that worked was suggesting to mums that they use the bar for a bit of a social with their friends! You could also consider a raffle.
Hope that helps.

Thanks corriewatcher,

I have put together a prebooking form that would be sent via parentmail asking people to send money into the office as I just dont think booking at school drop off/pick up is ideal. I guess one option is to ask people to go into the school office to book and pay. Thats if the office are willing to help that is !!!!

I have written 50 letters to local businesses to ask for raffle prizes so hope to offer a good selection of prizes and to make good money from the raffle.

£1000 would be amazing ! I only have 8 therapists but as we are using the church hall we are restricted in size.

If you think of any other tips please do let me know. We have never had such an event and I have taken sole responsibility of the initial organisation, although I do have help for the event.

I have been to a Pamper evening. It sounded very similar to what you are planning in terms of entrance fee and glass of wine. We had Indian head massage, manicure, Virgin Vie, Pampered Chef, candles, books etc. We didn't have pre-booked slots, so just jumped in when someone was free.

What we had was someone who gave a presentation (it was on having a capsule wardrobe and getting your colours done). It gave a focus for the evening, and was very good. Five years on, I still haven't gotten round to implementing the suggestions.

It was a lovely evening. I hope your one goes really well.

Hi thank you for your reply.

I did try and get a colour therapist but couldn't find anyone who was interested. It is a great idea and something I have always wanted to do (like you I probably wouldn't get around to actually doing as I was advised !!)

Lets hope its a success !

Thanks again
Floss

Word of advice - don't go into your school office & ask them to do something time-consuming this week - especially Thursday - that's Census Day!

ha ha thank you ! I already got told NO WAY !

Have been to a couple of these and the treatments weren't prebookable - you just add your name to a list on the night. It worked well for the event as it would mean you'd end up with (eg) 30 minutes to kill between treatments so would go and look at the handbag stall (or whatever) which might otherwise have been neglected if you'd prebooked and got all your treatments in a row.

So if you advertise it that treatments can only be booked on the night, first come first served, it might encourage people to get there early and end up spending more time and money there.

Another tip I'd give you is to get there first and put signs out at each place, for all the therapists, so when they arrive they can easily see their place and you are not trying to point everyone in the right direction at the same time. Also put a black bin bag with a nice note asking them to leave their space tidy at the end of the night.

Hope it goes well!