Party Decorations – How to Avoid Common Mistakes, Part II
In “Decorate Your Party: Avoiding Common Mistakes: Part I” we discussed some of the selections you can consider to enhance the look of your party (such as colors, room size, ceiling height). This time, let’s talk about some of the technical details of party decorations and what you can do about it.
1. Production time.
You need to know when your room will be available for your party. Many times, it is only two hours in advance. Be sure to tell your decorator about this at the beginning of your conversation. That doesn’t mean you can’t use extensive balloon decorations! But it must be taken into account. There are several ways to do it:
a) Sometimes the place where you are renting the room (whether it is a hotel or a community hall) can provide a back room for the production of party decorations and then only need to do the installation in the two hours.
b) With the help of your decorator, you can choose party decorations that are quick to produce and still look amazing.
c) Decorator can get extra help, but also can charge you more due to time constraint.
d) The decorator can rent a truck and bring parts to assemble on site quickly. This may also cost extra as it is due to time constraints at your location.
2. Ceiling sensors.
Some places have sensors on the roof, so if a balloon goes up, an alarm sounds and a fire truck shows up 20 seconds later. Expensive for the owner and may be for you.
Do not panic! You can still use balloons. Almost all party decorations that can be made with helium-filled balloons (the kind that fly) can be made with air-filled balloons in a frame and don’t need to be near the ceiling.
3. Do it the day before.
If, for some reason, you have to make balloon decorations the day before, keep in mind that regular helium-filled balloons (11-inch round) will be half-dead in the morning and on the ground in the middle of the day.
If simple balloon bouquets are all you need, you can ask the decorator to use a tall float. This substance prevents the balloons from deflating much longer. If you have more elaborate party decorations, use air-filled balloons in a frame, as I mentioned in the previous point.
4. Transparent balloons.
Just keep in mind that they look great at first, especially if you have shiny balloons inside, but in a few hours they will be less transparent, a bit dim, and become duller and duller as the party goes on.
5. Balloon lights.
This is a very effective technique for low light parts!!! For regular light or daylight parts, they are barely noticeable. If this is the case, one has to use much stronger lights with larger balloons, group the lights and so on.
6. Bases for centerpieces.
Centerpiece stands, as well as long and low floral centerpieces, are sometimes creations of art, as well as a notable part of your party decorating budget.
One thing though – they sit at the table together with the food. In some cases, the provider puts so many dishes on the table; the food is so colorful and plentiful, that the basics are lost. Actually, the smaller the base, the easier it is for the caterer and the less it gets in the way of your guests and the food.
So when you plan to spend money on balloon bouquet stands or other centerpieces, talk to your vendor first.
7. Balloon ceiling (balloons with ribbons on the ceiling)
Things to keep in mind:
a) If the ceiling is a rough surface, many will explode during production, many more during the party.
c) A balloon occupies less than one square foot. So if you are in a large room, you will need a considerable budget to cover the ceiling completely. If you do, it will work, though I’d check out the alternatives for the money. If you only partially cover the ceiling, the air conditioner or fan will blow the balloons and rub them against the ceiling. In most cases this will kill a large portion of them.
8. Balloon Drops
The perfect party decorations for the theater-like room. That is, a room with a very high ceiling and a relatively small area. Then the balloons on their way down “have time” to fly in all directions and cover everyone in the room.
In a normal size room, we’ll be lucky if we can cover the dance floor. In addition (and this is a personal opinion) the hanging net full of balloons does not do much for decoration, apart from letting everyone know what is coming. On the other hand, if someone isn’t looking in the right direction at the time the balloons are released, you can miss everything.
One solution to these problems are the so-called “exploding balloons”, also known as “popping balloons”.
Chill out! No real explosives are used! It’s all one big balloon (3ft or larger), stuffed with smaller balloons and sometimes with confetti (check your contract with the venue! That can be a big “NO-NO”!) or even prizes lottery. One or several of these balloons are placed on the ceiling and when the time comes, they all burst at the press of a button.
You can spread these balloons around the room if you want to cover everyone, or use a few in a strategic location if you want. No more heavy hanging nets and not a single person can guess what’s coming!
Here, it is worth mentioning that one can put these balloons together to make a wall and then blow up the whole wall… Let’s talk about that next time.