We desire to offer a lower price for those who sign up early, and then have pricing increase as we get closer to the reunion (including at the door) to encourage folks to register (and pay) sooner rather than later.

That will give us confidence in covering the total cost of our event and also help encourage more people to go.

We have been preparing our reunion announcement using the Event planner tool, but it only seems to give one "price" option.

Is there a way we can forgo the one price option and have staggered pricing, something like the following:

"Please, for the optimum pricing (and to encourage others to go), purchase your tickets early:

* Before May 1, 2015, tickets are $55 per person

* Between May 1 and June 1, 2015, tickets are $65 per person

* After June 1, 2015 (including at the door), tickets are $80 per person"

Surely others must have desired to implement the same approach before??

Just create three ticket prices, only activate the current ticket when the date range is right for that price

I have successfully run our reunions since 1999. When we announce that we are starting to plan, we ask for a $20 deposit per person to give us funds for deposits. This $20 is non-refundable. When people put down $20 and they find they can't make it, they don't mind losing $20 and feel like they contributed. If they come to the reunion, they pay the balance by the date I give them which is usually one month out. There are always last minute guests because we do a night before event that makes everyone want to attend the next night as well. We also do what we call a 50/50 raffle. We sell arm lengths of tickets at the check-in for $5. Towards the end of the night, we do the drawing. We keep 50% and divide the rest into 3 or more prizes depending on how much we make. We usually end up with at least $600 which we use for our startup costs. I have never raised the price of our reunions and they are extremely successful with a lot of people.

That's good. I never thought of doing it in reverse. Yes, that gives you funds, early, with a pretty definite count. A thought -- For the $20 they could download an elaborate registration ticket but one not to be confused with the "paid up " one. It gives them something tangible to put on the refrigerator door.
Thank you. That peeks my imagination.
Barbara