The Missing Post

As I explained in my last post the last 2 weeks have been a blur of bookings and preparations for yesterday's wedding fair. This post is basically a short and sweet one to show you all what I made for my 2 parties on 20th March. I always make a special balloon for the birthday child when I am booked to do balloons only so here are those models.

The first party was for a little boy who is Star Wars mad.  Strangely enough I ended up making tons of Light Sabres for lots of little boys. Thank goodness for the little girls at the party as they actually did want something a little more girly.

My 2nd party of the day was a Disney princess party for the younger sister of a family I have worked for in the past. It was lovely to see them a few years on.

Silly thing was with my Ariel balloon is that the head should have been made out of a heart shaped balloon for a nicer shape. I made mine out of a 5" round thinking I didn't have any and then discovered a couple of days later that I have about 80 of them!! Never mind I may have another try once I recover from yesterday.

First Ever Wedding Fair

Sorry about missing last week but I was so busy preparing for my 1st ever wedding fair I just didn't have time! I'll post what I should have last week after this one - a bit back to front but that is the way my head is today!!

I have been doing the balloon décor for a couple of years now but had been deliberately putting off venturing into the weddings market for 2 very good reasons. Firstly I wanted to build up my skills and confidence as your wedding day as a Bride is the biggest day of your life and the last thing I wanted was to go in a do a sub-standard job. I am sure naff balloons wouldn't ruin someone's reception but nonetheless I have no intentions of doing anything less than an excellent job for all my clients regardless of how big or small their booking is.  The other reason is because I knew that once I ventured into the wedding market I would have to attend wedding fairs and "sell" myself and for anyone who knows me that is way outside my comfort zone.

Anyway I decided to bite the bullet and booked in to exhibit at the wedding fair yesterday held at the Mecure Hatfield Oak Hotel. I booked a while ago so around all my other jobs I've been preping for yesterday. Not easy when you don't really have any printed promo materials in place and you don't have a clear plan of what you need, what you are doing and what you need to do.

As I have been very busy booking wise lately (not complaining by the way) it has been fun fitting everything in but I managed it. I didn't, however, get the new website, even in it's paired down state, up in time but there just was not enough time unless I wanted to forgo sleep to finish it. Hopefully, that will happen this week but I do have a lot of housework to catch up on that has been neglected over the last few weeks.

In a bid to be organised I arranged to drop off some bits the night before so I took along Bessie the life-sized bride and a couple of columns I had made that day.  The hotel were so impressed with Bessie that they offered her a room for the night! Here she is resting before her big day.

Bessie getting her beauty sleep!!

After helping my friend Roger of iGlobo based in Billericay (just in case anyone over that way needs a balloon artist at all) at his wedding fair 2 weeks ago, I roped him in to help me yesterday. We arrived around 8am at the hotel and set to work creating not only my stand but also some décor for the fair itself. Here's what we managed.

Our stand

Entrance way to our stand

  

Start of the Bridal Show

As you can see Bessie was rather popular and had her photograph taken a few times throughout the day.

Unfortunately, the turn out was not fantastic and my stand (although chosen by me out of 2 positions) was not in the best place. We were on the main route to the bedrooms and tucked round a corner a bit so I think we perhaps got missed by some of the brides who did make it. I am sure losing an hour's sleep had some effect on the turn out.

However, despite the lack of Brides I learned an awful lot and have not been deterred. I am already thinking about which fairs to attend after the summer.

Busy Busy Busy!

This week has been nice for special orders as I haven't started doing them properly yet but I had 2 requests none the less. I also did some balloons for a birthday and my 1st wedding fair.

On Wednesday I was asked if I would be able to make a life-sized replica of a colleague who was leaving as a "replacement" for him. It is a bit of a running joke in that department that when someone leaves they get replaced by an inanimate object.  The last guy to leave was replaced with a pot plant! Anyway after some very strenuous wrestling with the larger balloons I made this guy.

As you can see he was very well received and not allowed to fill his new post! He also later appeared on Facebook as a replacement profile picture.

The next one was a request for "a not too big Dolphin" for a friends birthday at the weekend. I adapted the shark I posted in the very first blog and made this guy. The client was delighted and I hope her friend was just as pleased.

Then my last job of the week was a present from me to my youngest brother for his 30th Birthday on Saturday. As he was in Paris for the weekend I didn't make him anything out of modelling balloons instead I opted for the big statement! Whilst he and his girlfriend were enjoying themselves I installed a 3ft tall "30" in his living room in plain view of all who walked past the window.  Here is a picture from the inside:-

Then to top off an already busy week I helped a friend out with a wedding fair. I have personally avoided doing wedding fairs so far because selling myself and my services is about as much out of my comfort zone as you can get but having booked to do my first wedding show on the 27th March I was quite relieved when my friend Roger of iGlobo asked me to come along and help him out on Sunday. It was a really busy day and very hard work (surprisingly so) but I think we were a hit as we were twisting as well as showing what we can do as balloon decorators. Below are pictures of our stand and a lady from the Premier Inn stand modelling a hat made by Roger and a guy from the mobile bar the other side of us in a Guiness hat both Roger and I made for him. I am now getting excited for my wedding fair in 2 weeks time so if you are near Hatfield do pop in and see us!

Well that is my adventures over the last few days and I'm off now to catch up on all the other bits I've neglected recently and to start getting prepared for the wedding show on the 27th!!!

Early St Patrick's Day Booking

A week ago last Monday I had an email asking if I was available to decorate a room for a Ceilidh that Saturday. As luck would have it I was able to fit them in around my existing bookings that weekend.

I also decided that as it was a very Irish theme (Shamrock printed balloons & gold weights) to make them a little Leprechaun to sit on the end of the bar.

I was delighted the following day to receive this email from the client:-

"Many,  many thanks for your brilliant balloon decorating yesterday. The room looked fabulous. It was a lovely surprise to see the balloon man sat at the end of the bar- my 12yr old son decided to take him home along with the one of the door arches. As we live in a town house, it was like a task from the Crystal Maze trying to get it up 3 storeys to his bedroom however he said it was worth as he woke up this morning to a lovely balloon arch over his double bed.....   Probably 'cool' to tell his friends :) 

Once again a huge big Thank You! "

Here are a selection of photos I took. Sorry about the quality but I forgot the SD card for my better camera!!

I also made this special pink Mummy Cat & Kitten for my birthday girl for my Sunday party.

Just to give you an idea of size the kitten is a regular sized balloon animal and the Mummy Cat is about twice the size. My birthday girl was delighted with them.