A grand opening has one job: make sure people who did not know you existed notice on the day. Here is the timeline, working backwards.
Three weeks out: order
Production is three to seven days from **artwork approval**, then two to five business days shipping from North Carolina.
That is roughly two weeks in the best case. Order three weeks out and you have slack for one artwork revision, which you will probably want.
Inside two weeks, a blank sphere at $301 or $351 ships faster and still gives you height. It just will not carry your name.
Two weeks out: sort the helium
Find a welding-gas or industrial-gas supplier and open the account before you need it. About $300 per 200 cubic foot cylinder.
A 13-foot blimp needs 170 cubic feet, so budget around $255 for the fill. Do not leave this to the day before: suppliers keep business hours and your opening is probably a Saturday.
This is what actually goes wrong at the last minute. Not shipping.
The day before: inflate
The first inflation takes some reading. Allow an hour and do it the day before, not thirty minutes before the ribbon.
After that first time it is about ten minutes and one person. But the first time is genuinely slower, and an opening morning is the worst possible moment to discover that.
On the day: watch the forecast
Winds over 25 miles per hour means it comes down, opening or not. That is a miserable decision to make on the morning, so make it the night before and have a plan either way.
In greater Phoenix and Tucson we can run the whole thing for you at $297.25 a day for a blimp, which removes that decision entirely along with everything else.
Ask for a quote. Call 1-800-791-1445 or email sales@arizonaballoon.com and tell us the size and whether you want it printed.
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