Happy New Year to you all! I hope that you had a productive and profitable Christmas and New Year! I thought that I would start the year by sharing one of my own Christmas experiences.
This is a short promotional video created by Peter Lane Creative Studio on behalf of Ali Welsh events. It shows the magical transformation of the ballroom - we did it in less than two hours!
Ali Welsh Events - Highlights video - Grosvenor Christmas Party from Peter Lane on Vimeo.
For the past few years, I have had the privilege of working with Ali Welsh to design and decorate a Christmas party in one of London's top hotels. Each year the theme has been very different, with this year being 70's Disco.
When I started to design the party, my first two thoughts were — "Mirror Balls" and the word "DISCO"!
I usually start my design process by surfing the Internet for inspiration and found this image. I thought that this would be perfect for the stage decor.
I felt that the style of letters would look good made from Qualatex® Quick Link Balloons™. They would have a great visual impact and be light enough to hang. The only problem I faced was that I had no idea how to make them! It was at this point I called a good friend and expert, Mike Hurst, CBA, of Red's Balloons and Party in Brackley, England. Last year, Mike developed and ran a course teaching how to make numbers using Quick Links, and I really liked his style, so Mike was the perfect person for me to ask to design the letters for me.
I spent an afternoon with Mike at his shop learning how to make the letters and to see how they would look. As you can see they were pretty huge, but I knew that they would need to be big to have the impact that I was looking for.
Mike will be releasing an online "NUMBERS" course later this year that will show you how to create all the numbers using this fabulous technique. He assures me that he will be starting on his letters course soon!
To re-create the Mirror Ball look was a little easier! We made one hundred and fifteen "Mirror Ball" centrepieces!
Each balloon was prepared with Hi-Float and then filled with square-cut silver confetti — we used approximately 60 grams of confetti in each balloon.
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| Ali Welsh Events Ltd. Balloons by Sue Bowler, CBA Quick Link Disco Design by Mike Hurst CBA |
I usually start my design process by surfing the Internet for inspiration and found this image. I thought that this would be perfect for the stage decor.
I felt that the style of letters would look good made from Qualatex® Quick Link Balloons™. They would have a great visual impact and be light enough to hang. The only problem I faced was that I had no idea how to make them! It was at this point I called a good friend and expert, Mike Hurst, CBA, of Red's Balloons and Party in Brackley, England. Last year, Mike developed and ran a course teaching how to make numbers using Quick Links, and I really liked his style, so Mike was the perfect person for me to ask to design the letters for me.
I spent an afternoon with Mike at his shop learning how to make the letters and to see how they would look. As you can see they were pretty huge, but I knew that they would need to be big to have the impact that I was looking for.
Mike will be releasing an online "NUMBERS" course later this year that will show you how to create all the numbers using this fabulous technique. He assures me that he will be starting on his letters course soon!
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| "Disco" Stage Decor |
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| 3' Confetti Balloons with Neon Tails Photograph by Nicci Rene |
Each balloon was prepared with Hi-Float and then filled with square-cut silver confetti — we used approximately 60 grams of confetti in each balloon.
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| Photograph by Nicci Rene |
The balloons look fabulous grouped together before we put them out on the tables!
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| Photograph by Nicci Rene |
For the lower ceiling areas, we made an air-filled Bubble Balloon® version that worked perfectly!
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| Photograph by Nicci Rene |
One of my favourite foils is the Holographic Stars! These always look so fabulous when used for decor, but this was the first opportunity that I have had to use all the colours for the same job and they looked amazing!
This is a short promotional video created by Peter Lane Creative Studio on behalf of Ali Welsh events. It shows the magical transformation of the ballroom - we did it in less than two hours!
I would like to say a huge "Thank you!" to my amazing team who worked so hard — and made quite a lot of mess, too!
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| "The Confetti Queens" - Nicci Rene - Nathalie Saunders - Kerry Ferguson - Debbie Magill "The Quick Link Disco Kids" - Stuart Davies and Aimee Smith "The Base Boys" - John Bowler and Jim Magill |
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| "The Bubble Girl" - Sue Bowler "The Finisher" - Dee White |
I hope that you have enjoyed a little look at how our day went! Did I have any sleepless nights before the event? Yes, of course! Did I have that sicky feeling all day in my stomach? Always!
Happy New Year and Happy ballooning!
Sue
www.suebowler.com