Hoops, Beautiful Hoops! - Inspiring Design Ideas

White with Greenery Wedding Wreath by Sue Bowler

From tiny to giant, hoop and wreath designs have become increasingly more popular within both balloon and floral markets. As they continue to pop up on the wedding and party scene, these impressive works of art can act as stunning ceremony backdrops, as reception decor, or as unique staging for photos.

This very pretty Pink, White and printed
Diamond Clear hoop is perfect for weddings
and baby showers. 

I have actually been creating hoop designs for a while now, long before the organic style became the hottest trend! My first hoop designs were primarily constructed using the precision of Classic Decor style, which I still enjoy using quite a bit. And while I do also like building organic style decor, I still consider the basic elements and principles of design. For example, the balloons should be in  proportion to the size of the frame. How we use colour and space is also important, as getting this wrong can result in a haphazard-looking mess.







If you want to make a smaller hoop design, this can be done using hoola-hoops. Another option for smaller hoop designs is actually a recent discovery of mine, using wire hoops. You can find wire hoops like the white wire hoops that I used for the "White with Greenery Wedding" featured at the start of this blog post from Oasis Floral Products . The Ivy Garland and Peony flowers are also from Oasis Floral Products.

I occasionally will use the Structured Organic style to create hoop and wreath designs. Structured Organic style is done using a combination of the classic technique to create the hoop, then adding an organic element to the design afterwards. I really like this style as it adds a level of formality to the design without it looking too structured. 

To make larger hoops, you can purchase pre-made metal hoops, which are perfect for balloons, flowers and greenery. There are some truly inspirational designs on Instagram, just look under the hashtag #balloonhoops shown below.

One of my favourite hoop designers is #balloonilicious

Another alternative to metal hoops is to use round, heavy duty PVC conduit that is available in hardware stores. You can usually buy it in 12ft (3m) lengths, and easily connect them together using compression joints. I recommend making hoops that use approximately 14.5ft (4.5m) of conduit. However, it should be noted that these are not as strong as the metal hoops, and therefore cannot support too much additional weight such as flowers and greenery, without distorting the roundness of the hoop. The rainbow hoop below was made using PVC conduit.

This fabulous "Rainbow Hoop" design was made by a group of student's
during a Simply Organic's class that I recently
taught in Paduva, Italy.

Here are a few more examples of hoop designs that use florals and greenery to add accents.

Photo credit: Alisha Crossley Photography

To find even more inspiration check out this great article: How to Create and Display Circular Wedding Arches. The designs shown are all floral, but with some creative thinking they could easily be adapted for balloons or balloons with floral accent details.



"Wedding gates. Moon gates. Infinity arches. Circular wedding wreaths. Circular wedding arches...

Whatever you call them, large circular floral arrangements are topping the wedding charts this year..."

I love creating hoop designs, and I truly look forward to seeing some of your amazing creations! Don't forget to hashtag #suebowler so I get to see your fabulous creations! 

Happy Ballooning!

Sue
www.suebowler.com
#suebower

Adding those little finishing touches to wedding decor!

I recently had the honour of decorating a wedding where the charisma and personalities of the bride & groom oozed from every corner of the room. Their love of traveling was reflected on each table showing a different photograph of their travels to faraway places, as was their enjoyment of fun and games  through the "guest book" written on wooden Jenga pieces! Every part of the wedding had their personalities stamped all over it, and for me it showed that a great deal of thought and love had gone into planning their very special day!

Finishing touches can really make a difference, they add the personal touches to a wedding and we can do the same when we create our decor!

Here are a few ideas that you can use to add that little extra touch when decorating weddings and other elegant events!

One of my first tips would be to find out what flowers will be featured at the wedding. Even though the wedding reception may be predominantly balloon decor, there will still be some flowers such as the bridal bouquet. I love to use silk flower heads to add that little finishing touch to wedding decor.


For me, balloons at a traditional wedding should be elegant and soft and not bold and over-bearing. If a colour is to be used, then it should be added carefully into the decor to ensure that decor remains elegant and graceful.