My First Corporate Christmas Party

Hi there I just found out that I got a gig for a large Corporate Christmas Party in December.
Now I haven't done one before, but thought why not. I quoted them $150. per hour for the first two and $75. an hour for the following hours. They said maybe 12 to 4 or 4:30, 75 to 125 children and all may not want it done. Plus we get to eat and drink as well.
I give the contract to the lady that hired me tonight with an ingredient list of the products I use.
Any advice or suggestions would be great.
I figured the easiest thing to do would be to come up with a dozen designs having to do with either the Holidays or Winter. I also figured to write out the list instead of photos, so if we are falling behind we could make the designs simplier, and no one would could say it doesn't look like the photo. Although I always tell the person being painted that I use a Artistic license in doing my designs, none come out exactly the same. lol
The lady said they may want something else not on the list, I said within reason, okay, but hopefully they will like the list. Presents, wreaths, holly, tree, snowperson, Red nose reindeer, snowflakes, and others along that line.
So what do you think? Did I price it okay? I figured higher then I normally do for a regular party and threw in gas as well. I really didn't expect to get it. Oh and now she wants to come watch me do a gig before hand as well.
We have done festivals with so many we couldn't keep track going from 9 in the morning till 5 at night. So this should be fairly easy, right?
Wish us good luck!

Great gig! I wish I could offer some advice, but since I'm new I'll stick to just offering support :-)

Sounds like a great gig! YEAH!!!

I find that kids want the same things, so don't spend too much time making special designs just for the event(though making special designs is fun & stretches you). Kids usually end up not getting the usual. This said, for Christmas you could do Christmas & snow butterflies, candy cane crowns, etc. Basically incorporate holiday colors(Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa) into your already existing designs. Boys will still want the usual.

I also like to use wordart for these big events. This way there is no pic to make the design look "just like".

I agree with Psalmbook. I just take some of my regular designs and make them Christmas like. I always invite any client booking me to come to another public event that I have going on so that they can see me working with the kids. That way they see that I am a nice lady and not some witchy, hateful, hag that yells at the kids LOL I hardly ever have anyone show up to watch me though.
Kids always want what the other kids have so make the first few designs something that you want to paint a lot. If you are fast and good at snow angels or Christmas butterflies then don't be afraid to suggest that design to an "Undecider".

As far as your list and her asking for something else, then I would take it on a case by case deal. If you don't want to be painting Nickelodeon characters all night then I would just be honest and up front. It sort of messes up your groove if you have painted 12 snowflake princesses and one kid wants Dora on her cheek. I mean the color palette is a little different right? I think you handled it nicely by stating that they could have a request within reason.

Awesome for you to get a nice event booked so early in the season!

Congrats! The Snaz US photo pages have lots of Holiday designs you may want to check out.

For my corporate Christmas bookings (I've been doing about half a dozen LARGE company events for about 9 years now) I put up my regular festival table top display (over 170 photos/designs)and simply add my Christmas Design Idea sheet (16 designs) to the display. Kids pick what they want and we paint them.

My two biggest parties now hire three painters (I hire two of my regular "assistants" to paint with me) and we are pretty steady.

The designs tend to be a mix of the Christmas designs, and regular designs with "add-ons" like making a red and green tiger or Spidey with holly.

And we've never had anyone complain or even comment on it "not looking like the photo."

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and advice.
Let's hope it goes great.
The lady does want to view me in action, so to speak again. At the moment I don't have anything, working on changing that though.
Thanks again.

congrats...if they hire you, you priced it just fine! It's more than I charge, but I am sometimes afraid I'll lose the job to another company if I charge too much! I think what you asked was fair, though!

Yes, they did hire me, I received the deposit in the mail yesterday. Yea!!
I priced them almost $50. more then I've been quoting, hoping to raise my prices.
When the lady picked up the contract, she said she hoped it would be the beginning of a long relationship.
Whoot!!

sweet! I have 2 good, large, profitable companies I have been working with while, multiple events in a year. It's the best! One of my holiday parties ordered $2,250 in services!

Holy cow paintedyou! Is that for one event?

I just booked my first "big" corporate event. I have done some smaller ones, but this one is beyond what I had hoped for.

yup.

WOW!! I would love that! I am so hunting for new places and introducing myself around more.
Good luck to all and happy hunting. lol

Feeling very Megamind right now. Argh, I hate you all
Can't wait until I get more gigs!