Behind the Scenes: Party Balloons 2014

Last week I posted about the Strawberry Shortcake party we had for Baby Girl's 5th birthday.  (You can read more about that here).  As promised, today I will walk you through how I created my balloon bouquets.

Traditionally, balloon bouquets are helium filled and float upright with the ribbons beneath them attached to a weight.  I like to do things a bit differently; I air fill my balloons instead of using helium, and I suspend them upside down from the ceiling instead of floating them...they can't float without the helium of course...;)

There are a couple of reasons why I do this, one is the difference in cost, another is the greater flexibility I have in when I can begin decorating.

Let me explain.  When I worked in a florist shop, we sold plain  solid colored latex helium balloons for $1.25 each.  Mmmhmm.  That's one dollar and twenty-five cents for each balloon, which is only going to float for approximately 24 hours. That means that for this party, where I used 24 balloons, I would have spent $30....on balloons...that would be thrown away within a day...yuck!  Now I could rent a helium tank and fill them myself (which would be a bit cheaper) but that wouldn't change the fact that I would still have to inflate them the day of the party.

And that brings me to my next point.  Helium balloons, when inflated properly,  have a nice sheen, solid coloring and are firm to the touch.  As I said, they float for about 24 hours or so (sometimes longer with additives such as highfloat, a liquid plastic), but do not retain a nice appearance.  Instead they shrink a bit, become soft and look sort of fuzzy.  Not a good look for a spectacular party!  That means I would have to wait until the day of the party to pick them up, struggle to get them into the truck, get them home, untangle them and then decorate.  No thank you! I have tons of things I need to do the day of a party and rushing through my decor is not one of them.  I prefer to take my time and enjoy the process ;)

So what do I do instead?  I wait until the kiddos are asleep the night before and start air pumping my balloons.  I take all the time I need to arrange them (and rearrange them :D) until I am satisfied with the look.  This way they are done, out of the way and last overnight/throughout the party. I spend my time the day of the party working on the last minute details without having to run around, and Baby Girl gets to wake up to a decorated house. Everybody's happy!

Now that you have my every thought regarding balloon inflation (giggle), let's look at some photos....

The tools: 

A couple bags of balloons (pink and red), pink curling ribbon, 

green crepe paper streamers, a Sharpie and an air pump.

First I inflated the balloons and tied on a good length of curling ribbon.  I like to use long pieces of ribbon so that I have plenty of room for adjustment when creating my hanging bouquets.  Any ribbon left over can be curled and left in place, it just adds to the festive look ;)

Next I added a couple of pieces of the crepe paper streamers to serve as strawberry leaves. I just tied them on at the neck of the balloon using the same curling ribbon.

I used a Sharpie to make polka-dot 'seeds'.  I took this photo about halfway through, so the dark spot is close to the camera and the only one visible from this side.
The more faded looking spots are on the other side of the balloon.

Finally, I clustered the balloons together in large bunches of
 red with a few pink tucked in here and there.

And there you have it, and inexpensive and simple way to add balloons to any party.

Hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Jennifer Adams Flowers 2014