Make-A-Wish      Wish night 2014                  Wishes take Flight

This past weekend Make-A-Wish held their annual Wish Night fundraiser at the Lowes Anatole hotel in Dallas Texas. The theme was Wishes take flight. We were asked if we could make a giant balloon bouquet that would look similar to the one used in the movie UP.

That sounded like a fun project to me, so I proceeded to work on a few ideas for their event to make sure everything went smoothly. It was only a simple balloon bouquet just on a grand scale but after I had a site inspection with my clients we decided there were several possible problems that needed to be addressed.

The first potential problem was they wanted the balloon bouquet installed on top of and ancient marble wedding temple. I know it is structurally sound, but the idea of climbing around on top of anything with the word ancient in it makes me nervous. I decided to use a freestanding ladder so I would not have to lean against the temple. I could also use a pole to push my balloon anchor to the center of the temple.

The second was the balloons were filled with helium. We were using 3’ balloons to make the scale of the bouquet huge. This also meant if any of the balloons were to get lose it would be next to impossible to retrieve them from the atrium ceiling. We had to make sure there was no way this could accidentally happen.

By placing the bouquet on the temple ceiling I was sure none of the guest would be able to reach them. Guests are the number one reason why balloons get lose. There is something about alcohol and balloons that turn adults into a 9-year-old kid. With that problem out of the way the only other worry was my own balloon crew. We have been known to lose grip on a balloon or two every now and then. I made sure all balloons were inflated under a low ceiling and secured to the anchor before put them into place.

All of the prepping paid off and everything went as planned. The clients were happy. The party was a success, and we accomplished our mission.