Party City is closing due to the Coronavirus – I’m still open!
I’m happy to deliver balloons and leave them at your front door, or even better create a yard piece for you to display outdoors at your preferred location. No physical contact required, which keeps all of us safe and healthy.
Most of these designs would be suitable for indoor or outdoor display.
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On a personal and family level we are limiting our daily activities to what is absolutely necessary, and our regular hand washing and general cleaning routine is nearing OCD levels at this time to try to prevent spreading the virus.
A Black Friday sale all month long, for all of your events in 2019 & 2020:
A $50 deposit before December 1 will reserve your date in my calendar AND get you 10% off your total order!
Whether it’s a corporate event, trade show, wedding, prom, graduation, birthday, or retreat in 2019 or 2020….whether you want balloons, hotel room decor, a wedding arch, or a backdrop – simply pay a small deposit on your decorations now and you have half of your planning already taken care of.
Don’t know exactly what you want yet? No problem! We will work out the details as we get closer to your event date.
If you’re planning an event in 2019 or 2020, call or text 865-223-5865 today to take advantage of this great offer!
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*Cannot be combined with any other special offer. $50 deposit is a non-refundable retainer.
It is time for another #spreadthelove post, today at Opening Closed Doors Knoxville. There are several #blessingsboxes located throughout the #Knoxville area – this particular one at 2928 Sutherland Ave. Additional boxes are located at
198 W Woodland Ave, Knoxville, TN 37917
2910 W Emory Rd, Powell, TN 37849
941 Virginia Ave, Knoxville, TN 37921
1008 Beaumont Ave, Knoxville, TN 37921 4005 Tazewell Pike, Knoxville, TN 37918
206 Timothy St Knoxville,TN 37914
Anyone can fill them with donated items like food, water, personal hygiene items, and anyone in need can take something from the box. Give what you can, take what you need – no need to go big: one toothbrush, one bar of soap, one can of tuna, one bottle of water can mean the world to someone who’s struggling.
I think those boxes would be a great idea all over #EastTN!
Don’t forget to tell me who I should visit next!
And if you’re planning an event in Knoxville, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, Gatlinburg, or the Smoky Mountains, please give me a call – I’d love to help you decorate it.
Nearly everyone is involved in a fundraiser today. Whether you organize one, participate in one, or donate to one – hardly a day goes by without hearing about a fundraiser for your local school, youth group, church, mission trip, animal rescue, food pantry, hospital, or fire department.
Fundraisers now pay for everything, from basic everyday needs to special dreams.
Are you tired of selling chocolates, candies, candles, and cookie dough? Tired of washing cars or cleaning other people’s cast-offs for your garage sale or silent auction? Days or weeks of work for only a few dollars in return?
I have a fantastic way to raise funds for your organization or event, and you’ll earn as much as you give – up to 50% of the proceeds!
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Examples:
Spirit poles for new students or graduates
Decorated cups filled with candy, school or craft supplies
Seasonal centerpieces for delivery
Sponsoring deliveries to veterans, foster families, or volunteers
Raffle off decor or bouquets during pep rallies, kick-off games, homecoming…
Balloons on a stick to give out to donors at your event or location.
Latex-free and helium-free designs are no problem. Want your logo, name, or mascot on the balloon creation? No problem.
Give me a call today at 865-223-5865 to talk about how I can help you raise funds for your organization!
By far the most frequent questions I get is: “how much do you charge for this (arch, wall, bouquet, garland, tunnel, centerpiece, etc.)?”
My most common response, right after I ask what, when, and where is the event, is: “what budget did you have in mind?” It’s not a popular question, and some people prefer not to share this information with me.
I ask for a budget range because many decor requests are sent to me with beautiful pictures found on social media. Nearly everyone contacts me after spending at least some time looking at pictures of incredibly stunning balloon decor.
I love it when you share pictures with me because it shows me exactly what you have in mind! Your general budget range helps me come up with a design that will come close to your dream while still making the decor affordable for you – I love to decorate and I try to work within most everyone’s budget, whether that’s $100 or $1000.
Well, but “how much will it cost?”
Let’s dive right into the numbers, in this case let’s use a baby shower or first birthday as an example. Something that’s often requested and very popular these days on social media for many events, including weddings, anniversaries, or product launches. Something like this:
(image by “K N”, Wedding ideas board, Pinterest. If you know who owns the copyrights please let me know so I can give proper credit)
Most people look at this picture and see “a bunch of balloons” and they are very surprised when I quote them over $1000 for a design like this.
Here’s what I see when I look at this picture:
100s of balloons (many invisible to you) to achieve the nice, full look.
4 different sizes of balloons (many of them 2 and 3 foot diameter).
Each size must be ordered in at least 4 colors.
Not all of these colors are actually available from balloon manufacturers, which means I create these manually by putting a darker balloon inside a lighter balloon and then inflating them to get “just the right shade”. This is done, for example, in the lilac balloons in this photo. So now we’re at 6 balloon colors, each in 4 sizes.
Making the gold confetti balloons by hand.
Plus the gold stars.
All the material required to make everything stay in place, plus custom-made frame.
As a professional, I buy double the amount of nearly EVERYTHING because even decorator quality balloons can pop and I will not leave you hanging on your big day with pieces missing from the decor.
Several hours of inflating balloons and very, very many hours of decorating to recreate this picture “just right”.
Then consider the time it takes to source all of that, order it, then load everything into the van, transport it to your venue, install it, and remove it again after your event (because I come back and clean up! My service doesn’t end with delivery).
All of this is reflected in the price.
Can I do it cheaper? Yes of course I can, that is NO PROBLEM at all. I’ll be more than happy to do that for you!
However, I won’t be able to make that exact design at a fraction of the price, for all of the reasons I listed above. What I can do is simplify the design to make something like this:
These are much skinnier designs, they require 3 or 4 standard colors in 2 to 3 sizes. They will make your party just as Pinterest- and Instagram-worthy, especially once you add your beautiful, smiling guests to the photos. It will make your event stand out and still keep you on budget, if your budget is around $350-$550.
We can slim that down even more with some very reasonably priced options, like these designs in the $150-$350 range:
(C) Taylor Made Events & Costumes, (C) Balloontastic, (C) T and M Balloon Designs
So if you want balloons for your event, then by all means please do send me those beautiful Pinterest and Instagram pictures. I love them just as much as you do! Please do keep asking “how much for this?”, but please also let me know what you hope to spend, because that will allow me to come up with a design that will come close to your dream while still making the decor affordable for you.
PS: The first photo in this post, with the silver and white balloons with lights and bows in them, was a project that I worked on jointly with The Smoky Mountain Balloon Company. It was for a large event and the balloon decorations took 4 people working together for 4 whole days to inflate, create, and install the decorations. That doesn’t include the time required to measure the installation site, draw up the designs, and order all the materials, which took another full day.
April 22 is Earth Day, and here in East Tennessee, the Knoxville Botanical Gardens & Arboretum celebrated Earth Fest with environmental education, speakers, demonstrations, music, food, and craft beer.
Maybe you are wondering why I am writing about Earth Day. I’m a balloon decorator, after all, and balloons are bad for the environment – or so we are told – just like plastic straws and styrofoam packaging, along with everything else that’s not “natural”.
One thing you should know about me is that I’m pretty big on being “green”.
I drive a Prius. I recycle. I eat (mostly) organic. I bring my own grocery bags. I keep bees and chickens and I’ve raised Monarch butterflies. And when I told friends that I’d create balloon decor, they responded with “YOU do WHAT?! But you’re such a tree-hugger!”
Well – I think it’s possible to love the environment, to protect it, and to still use balloons to decorate events.
How?
Because I’m one of only 2 balloon decorators in East Tennessee that fully composts all latex balloons.
The vast majority of balloons that I use are made from 100% biodegradable latex. And all of the balloons that I use in my decor end up in the large “digesters” of the Sevier Country Solid Waste Facility. There are only 5 facilities like it in the whole world. They use state of the art technology to compost waste at much higher temperatures than can be achieved in a regular compost pile at home. And with the help of bio-solids, all latex balloons (and all the waste from Dollywood and all the other attractions) break down into 100% pure “black gold” Grade A compost within just a few days – which I have picked up by the truck load to put into my vegetable garden.
If you ever get a chance to tour the facility, I’d recommend that you go see it. It’s certainly very smelly, but it’s also very impressive and highly educational. It’ll give you a whole new outlook on waste management and a great appreciation of modern technology and engineering at work to save the planet.
Aside from composting all latex balloons, I also reuse all my framework and base plates, and I recycle the few foil and plastic balloons that I do use in my designs. I avoid helium whenever possible. And of course I don’t do balloon releases, because releasing a balloon is littering, no matter how pretty it might look as we watch them fly into the sky.
So, if you’re planning an event in Knoxville, Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, Gatlinburg, please give me a call – I’d love to help you decorate while protecting our environment, including our beautiful Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
Are you planning a destination wedding in Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, or the Smoky Mountain National Park in East Tennessee? Are you planning a small and simple wedding in a cabin or hotel?
Are you and your guests driving or flying in for the big day? You probably don’t want to lug a ton of decorations with you through the airport or fill up valuable trunk space with breakable items. And you definitely do not want to spend your valuable time at the local craft store looking for all the supplies.
Not to worry, there is a solution: You can rent my draped & fully decorated backdrops, arches, and other decorations for your ceremony and photo session to transform even the simplest venue into a magical setting for your wedding album.
No work, no stress, and beautiful memories on a budget – isn’t that what every bride and groom is looking for?
Pink wedding arch and backdrop
Backdrops and Arches
White wedding arch
Closeup of white floral wedding arch
Pink wedding arch and rose petals
Pink floral centerpiece
White wedding arch floral draped
Pink floral stair decoration
Pink backdrop and lights
wedding arch and backdrop
Staircase decor with pink floral accents
White wedding arch and backdrop
Pink backdrop and lights
Choose from white, pink, or red flowers.
White draping and white lights are always included.
The arches are 7.5 feet tall and 4.75 feet wide.
The backdrops are 10 feet wide and up to 8.5 feet tall (height is adjustable).
Additional colors, pillars, lanterns, candles, rose petals, centerpieces, chair and table rental, as well as honeymoon hotel room packages also available.
Contact me at 865-223-5865 if you have special requests or to reserve your backdrop or arch today!
I really needed a break after February’s 28 days of #spreadthelove, but now it really was time for another Spread the Love delivery today at Shining Light Equestrian, Inc. in KnoxvillePowell.
The founder Sara McGinniss provides horse therapy, therapeutic riding, and horseback riding for disabled and non-disabled people ages 4 to adult.
Want to see Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs on a Clydesdale? Come to the Grand Opening on May 11 from 10 am to noon at 2724 Lakewood Lane in Knoxville!
February is the month of love and I am visiting a different community group every day to thank them for the wonderful work that they are doing.
With last weekend’s weather, I felt that day 28 of #spreadthelove was a good time to thank the Sevier County Electric Company linemen for working for us day or night (sometimes day AND night) to restore our power.
Send them or your local electric company’s linemen some love at www.sces.net by letting them know what a great job they’re doing in any weather to get our power back on.
I didn’t get to speak with them directly but am told they enjoyed the balloons, thank you card, and the bag of candy bars I left for them. I have a feeling that if I asked them how we can help make their job a little easier, they would tell us to cut our trees under and near our power lines (or at least allow them to be cut by the utility companies), and as a balloon decorator I have to add: don’t release balloons because they can get tangled in power lines and cause outages.
This is my last #spreadthelove delivery for now, because it’s the last day of February. I plan on doing these videos a few times a month from now on, so stay tuned – and don’t forget to let me know who to visit next!
February is the month of love and I am visiting a different community group every day to thank them for the wonderful work that they are doing.
My family loves animals, so on day 27 of #spreadthelove we were a little distracted by the cute and adoptable pets at the Sevier County Humane Society. Sable and Ruby are so smart & sweet – It was very hard for my my daughter (who takes these videos) to not take them home to with us. Send some love to the Sevier County Humane Society staff and volunteers, tell them what a great job they are doing for the animals, bring them some treats (for humans or pets – either will be appreciated!), and find yourself a new furry family member that will give you unconditional love.
(image by “K N”, Wedding ideas board, Pinterest. If you know who owns the copyrights please let me know so I can give proper credit)
One thing you should know about me is that I’m pretty big on being “green”.
