How to quote a live embroidery event: hourly rate, setup, travel, deposit, plus the per-piece rate after

Quote a live embroidery event as the hours you are there at your hourly rate, with a three-hour minimum, plus your setup and teardown time, travel past a free radius, and any extra machine or helper. The hours include a set number of pieces. Every piece past that count is billed after the event at a per-piece rate.

A deposit holds the date. The balance is due the week before. That is the whole structure. Every published price list I read uses some version of it.

This guide is about the quote a host pays: a boutique, a company party, or a bridal shower. If guests are paying you piece by piece at a market booth, you are pricing pieces, and how to price machine embroidery is the place to start.

What do owners charge for a live embroidery event?

Published rates run wide. Set yours from your own costs and your market. A few real price lists, read in October 2026:

• John Oliver Designs in San Antonio starts at $450 per event hour with a three-hour minimum. Embroidery is included in that rate and the items are priced separately. The host can also supply their own blanks.
• The Crafted Camper in Tampa charges a $500 base fee for up to two hours plus $15 to $20 per item, with extra time at $150 an hour.
• Live Embroidery Events, a larger crew in Southern California, bills $250 per hour per person on top of a station base that starts at $5,000.

Those are two different models. One is hourly with the stitching included. The other is a base fee plus a price per item. Both work. Pick one and say it the same way every time, because a host comparing two quotes should be able to see what each line is for.

Line 1: the hours, with a minimum

Charge for the hours guests are there. Set a minimum so a one-hour booking is still worth loading the car. Three hours is the minimum on the John Oliver Designs page.

Then decide how many pieces those hours include. That number comes from your pace, not from the host's guest count. John Oliver Designs says it stitches about 10 items an hour, which covers roughly 30 guests in the three-hour minimum. Time yourself on a name from hoop to trim before you promise a number. If the host says 50 guests and your hours fit 30, put the fix on the quote: more hours, a second machine, or a per-piece rate for the rest.

Line 2: setup and teardown

Setup and teardown are working hours, so they go on the quote. Live Embroidery Events counts a four-hour party as seven crew hours: two for setup, four open, and one for teardown. The same page tells hosts to ask exactly which hours are billed, because hours that were never on the quote and then show up on the invoice are what hosts remember.

Put setup and teardown on their own line at your hourly rate, or fold them into a higher event rate and say that you did. The worst version is leaving them out and absorbing three unpaid hours every event.

Line 3: travel past a free radius

Most published price lists include the first stretch of miles and charge past it. The Crafted Camper includes the first 10 miles and charges $1 a mile round trip beyond that. John Oliver Designs has no travel fee within 10 miles and quotes mileage beyond that up front.

Round trip matters. If the event is 25 miles away and the first 10 are free, you drive 15 billed miles there and 15 back, so 30 miles go on the quote. A flat fee works too. Live Embroidery Events uses a flat $900 for anything outside its home region so nobody does mileage math in a contract.

Line 4: extra machines, a helper, and blanks

A second machine doubles what you finish in the same hours. It also means a second set of hoops and thread to manage. Charge for it as its own line so the host can choose it when the guest list is big.

A helper who takes orders and hands back finished pieces is a real cost. Live Embroidery Events bills crew per person per hour. A flat fee for the day is simpler for a small shop.

Blanks are their own line. Either you bring them at your price or the host supplies them. When guests or the host hand you their own pieces, the waiver and the extra-blank rules in embroidering customer-supplied garments apply here too.

Line 5: the per-piece rate after the included count

This is the line that protects you when 46 people show up to a party booked for 25. Every piece past the included count is billed after the event at a set price.

Price that piece the way you price any piece. My own formula is $1.50 per 1,000 stitches, $5 for each hooping, and a $5 buffer. A five-to-seven-letter first name runs about 2,000 stitches. On a blank the guest brings, that is $3 of stitching, $5 to hoop, and $5 of buffer. The piece comes to $13. If you supply the blank, add it at double its cost. The embroidery pricing calculator does the same math for a bigger design. For comparison, The Crafted Camper's per-item price is $15 to $20.

The deposit and the balance

A deposit holds the date and is not refunded if the host cancels. Published examples:

• The Crafted Camper asks for 30% to reserve a date.
• John Oliver Designs holds a date with $200.
• Elizabeth Davis Designs takes a $350 non-refundable deposit. The remaining invoice goes out before the event and is due in full before the event date.

Get the balance before the day. Pieces past the included count are the one thing you invoice after, because nobody knows that number until close. Make that invoice due in seven days or less. The deposits and payment policies guide covers how to say a deposit without it sounding like you expect to be stiffed.

A worked example

A boutique wants live embroidery for a three-hour customer night, 25 miles away, with about 30 guests. The numbers below are an example, not a recommendation, so swap in your own.

• Three hours at $200 an hour, up to 30 pieces: $600
• Setup and teardown, two hours at $200: $400
• Travel, 15 billed miles each way at $1 a mile, 30 miles round trip: $30
• Total: $1,030
• Deposit at 30% to hold the date: $309
• Balance of $721 due seven days before the event
• Pieces past the first 30: $13 each, invoiced after the event, due in seven days

The host sees one total and knows exactly what happens if 40 people come.

Terms to send with the quote

Written terms settle the arguments before the event does. These are worth writing once and sending every time:

• The deposit holds the date and is not refunded if the event is canceled.
• Guests order until a posted last-order time so every piece is finished before close.
• Hours start at the booked time whether or not the space is ready.
• An outdoor event needs a covered spot with power.
• Trademarked and licensed art is stitched only with written permission from the owner of the mark.
• More guests than agreed means more hours or a second machine at the rates above.
• Pieces not finished by close are finished after the event at the per-piece rate, then shipped or picked up.

How Broidry builds the host's quote

In Broidry, every live event has a Quote the host card. You type your hourly rate and your setup and teardown hours. Then you fill in how many pieces the hours include and the price for each piece past that. Travel goes in as a flat fee or as miles with your free miles. Extra machines, a helper, plus the blanks you bring each get their own box. Then you set the deposit as a percent or a flat amount and how many days before the event the balance is due. The card shows each line the host sees and the total.

"Send the quote to the host" emails it to the host. The email lists the deposit and the date the balance is due. Your terms go with it. The host pays the deposit from the quote's own page. Broidry starts you with a set of terms close to the list above. You edit them once. The Your pace card on the same event shows about how many pieces fit in the hours on your machines, so the included count is a number you can keep. Planning an event and the host quote are on the Maker plan. The live embroidery events page shows the rest of the day from the guest's QR order to the queue board.

The short version

Hours at your rate with a minimum. Setup and teardown on their own line. Travel past a free radius, counted round trip. A set number of pieces included and a per-piece rate for every piece past it. A deposit to hold the date, the balance the week before, and written terms that say what happens when more guests come than anyone planned.