Our courier will deliver to anywhere in Ireland for up to £7.50

One of the questions we are asked regularaly is if Icover specific areas, like Dublin, Ireland, Coleraine, Newtownabbey, Galway,

Manchester, even New Zealand.  Well the answer isn’t totally straight forward, or rater it is straightforward but quite often not the answer people are hoping for, the answer is yes, if you pay me enough

It really also depends on the product or service you want us to supply;

Iif it is just printed balloons then we usually send them out with a courier or in the mail, so they can be sent pretty much anywhere at a reasonable cost, at the time of writing (14th January 2012) it will cost £5.00 to send up to 5000 balloons to anywhere in Northern Ireland, or £7.50 to anywhere in the South of Ireland, the rest of the UK will cost up to £17.50 depending on quantity.  We also post out to the rest of the world at the normal Royal Mail/Courier rates.

We do prefer to use delivery services which are trackable and preferably next day, you just wouldn’t believe how often people phone us up telling us their package hasn’t arrived and when we check it was delivered that morning or the day before, we are usually able to tell them the time that their printed balloons were delivered and who signed for them.

If on the other hand it is for balloon decor or a balloon delivery then we have to do the delivery ourselves and this will obviously be reflected in the price, in the local Newtownabbey area after 9:30 am it will cost £5.00, but if you want us to deliver to Cork for 8:30 in the morning then that will cost a lot.

I once had a client insist that I give her a price for doing balloon decor for her daughters wedding in Manchester, she didn’t realise that Google searches will give you results for companies that are outside your area, it actually took a bit of convincing that I was serious that the delivery charge would be in excess of £500.00

Generally most of our balloon decor jobs would be within a radius of about 50 miles from Newtownabbey, but if you need help in finding a company in a particular area then please give us a call and we’ll do our best to help as we have lots of contacts all over the country.

Oh, I nearly forgot, the job in New Zealand was for a balloon Bouquet to be delivered to an address in North Island, we were able to help the client by contacting a professional balloon company in New Zealand who were able to complete the job to the delight of the recipient.

We are often asked the question ‘How long does it take for the personalised balloons’.

Our normal answer to this is that our lead time is about a week from approval of artwork and receipt of payment.   Mind you this answer isn’t always true, sometimes it is longer and most times it can be less, sometimes much less.

The lead time can stretch out abit in very busy periods but usually it is when we are on holiday (whats a holiday I hear my family ask).

We can usually provide you with your personalised printed balloons in less than a week if you need them that quick, we have on occassion printed balloons on the day we get the order, although please don’t rely on this type of service as we can’t often do that and when we can it is usually for small amounts of printed balloons.

One of the things that tends to cause problems is when people order printed balloons but don’t tell us when they want to use them, quite often by saying that they are needed asap.  To us asap means as soon as we cet all of the urgent work done.  For example if I have some personalised balloons which need to be done asap and another order of printed balloons to be delivered tomorrow then the asap job will be done second.  So if your job needs to be done quickly then tell us when you need to have your balloons printed.

On the 29th April 2011 there will be a wedding, you might have heard about it, it’s been in a few of the papers and I think it may even have been on TV   Honestly though if you havn’t heard about the Royal Wedding then you must have been in a cave for the last 6 months.  So Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting  married, there will be lots of TV coverage, lots of Pomp and Circumstance, we are all getting a day off (most off us anyway) and there will probably be an outbreak of street parties and celebrations.

Party

IF you have got to this page I’m sure you will be wanting to celebrate the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton (or Catherine Middleton) on 29th April 2011, maybe with a full scale Street party, of a few friends round to watch the wedding on the telly or maybe you’ll be invited to your friends house or one of the many functions and events that are being held around the country.

Balloons

If you are looking for a way to add a personalised touch to the proceedings then why not get some printed balloons to help decorate the event or occassion.  We have put together some packs of balloons printed with the design above onto Red, White and Blue balloons.  They will make a great addition to the fun and excitement of the day.

The balloons will be available in pack sizes of 10 balloons, 30 balloons, 100 balloons, 250 balloons, and 1000 balloons.  I will update this page later today with the prices, and the procedure for ordering.

No Of Balloons

10 Balloons £3.49 30 Balloons £9.99 100 Balloons £19.99 250 Balloons £34.99 1000 Balloons £114.99

On the right hand side we see a photo of some balloons we printed for the North Belfast Community Transport organisation (Sorry it’s not a great photo we scanned it from a newspaper clipping).  This is a 3ft balloon printed on two sides with the same image, in this case it was inflated with air and hand held rather than the more common method of inflating the balloon with helium gas and having it float.  This wasn’t my idea originally but I think it works really well, especially since it uses te dead space at the bottom of the photograph.

Other benefits are that it keeps the costs down a little as this size off balloon uses a lot of helum which can get pretty expensive, the balloons can also be inflated well in advance with no fear of the balloons going down due to the helium leaking out

If you need your balloons quicker than this, then we can quite often print them faster, just ask us and if we aren’t too busy then we will do our best to fit the job into an earlier time slot.

The sort of thing which may delay the production of your personalised balloons would be things like, getting balloons printed in more than one colour, getting larger quantities printed – a quantity larger than 2000 say,  and ordering balloon colours that are not normal stock items (there are a few colours that we wouldn’t sell from one year to the next).  There are also some balloon types which we can’t always dispatch within the week such as foil balloons, and balloons which are a larger size than the normal 11 or 12 inch balloons.

The final thing that can affect the delivery time will be the delivery method chosen.  We can use several types of delivery methods such as, courier, Royal Mail Special Delivery, Royal Mail 1st class/parcel, Hand delivery and of course you can pick them up from us.  Any of the services which involve a third party delivery service can sometimes take longer than expected (at the time of writting there is about 6 inches of snow outside – nothing is going anywhere today ), although we do our best to deliver within the required time sometimes the couriers will let us down, so please order in plenty of time.

Enjoy

We print onto latex balloons ourselves, there are two main types a decorator quality balloon and a high quality promotional balloon.  We can also get foil balloons printed, we currently don’t print these ourselves but we will be in the future.

Decorator Balloons
The decorator balloons are very good quality balloons, they will normally be 11″ diameter Qualatex brand balloons but you can if you wish request Anagram brand balloons.  If you are a balloon professional you will already know that it is important to use good quality balloons, and with these two brands you will be getting balloons which have a high consistency of colour and shape/size between balloons of the same colour and between colours.  Non balloon professionals may not see the benefit of using professional products such as these, but when used properly they will make all the difference to your balloon decor for weddings, parties and corporate events

Promotional Balloons
Our decorator balloons are very good quality but to be honest we don’t recomend them for formal decor such as weddings, and corporate events where the overall look of the decor is important.  Our 12″ diameter promotional balloons are outstanding for use as promotional giveaways or for ‘informal’ decor, thats the ‘balloon here and there’ type of thing or ‘a few balloons to decorate a display’.  The main thing about balloons in this category is that you are able to inflate them quickly, tie them easily, and that they are of a good enough quality not to pop too many.  We printed over 100,000 of these balloons in the last year and have found them to exceed our expectations.  We inflate a lot of balloons for our clients and find that these balloons are easy to work with and cause very few problems for us.

Balloon Sizes
The normal Decorator balloons are 11″ diameter, however they are also available in a range of other sizes that we can also print onto such as 5″, 16, 2 foot and 3 foot diameter, we can also print onto 6″ and 11″ heart shaped balloons.
The Promotional balloons are 12″ diameter (they will actually inflate to 12″ diameter unlike a lot of other balloons that are described as 12″ but won’t inflate to that size)

Balloon Colours
The different ranges of balloons come in a range of different colours, there is a colour chart available on the website.  The Decorator quality balloons are normally Pearl Tone balloons (shiny finish), but are also available in Standard colours (matt finish), Jewel Tone (see through) colours and also Neon colours (light up under ultra violet lights)
The promotional balloons are mostly available in standard colours (matt finish), but they are also available in metallic colours (shiny finish)

You will obviously have your own goals and targets for your sale or promotion, but to generalise it will come down to you wanting to either Selling more stuff or Increasing awareness of your message, whatever that may be.  There are basically 5 different was that you can use printed balloons to achieve these goals

1.  Let more people know about your event

Balloons being carried around the Abbeycentre

No matter how much advertising you have done, TV, radio, newspapers etc you will not be able to guarantee that your prospective customers will know that you are open for business, or running a sale or have a message to share with them.  You can put up signs, or have staff approaching people directly, but that will only work to a certain extent.  What you need is something that will make people think ‘Oh, there must be something going on at 123-fashions’ or ‘Hey, they are giving 15% off at Carpet Warehouse’.

When you give out personalised balloons, it is like letting out a little army of billboards bobbing about your target area, everyone will look at them and read your advert.  £ for £ you’ll not get better value for money.

2.  Attract more people to your event

When you are handing out free balloons, assuming you have a mixed crowd available, you will get a steady stream of people queing up for one.  Once people have approached your shop/stand/pitch then they are more likley to talk to you or buy from you.

3.  Use the captured audience

Following on from point 2, If you have a queue of people waiting for a balloon then that is a perfect time for your staff to talk to them. not in a “Attack mode – Hard Sales” way, but in a more “gentle & helpfull” way.  If you are asking questions like ‘Have you heard about the new play on at the Ritz’ or ‘let me explain how you can save money on your next car’ (obviously use your own lines, these ones would be pretty poor if you were selling cosmetics or promoting a festival   )

4.  Capture your audiences details

Another option is to say to people who you give a balloon too “Now go and enter our competition, you could win an iPod (insert your prize of choice)” and point them twoards the table with the entry forms on it, with the big picture of an iPod sitting on it.  Most people will go and fill in the form, and there you go a prospect list that you can contact or send newsletters to, or whatever you want.

5.  Encourage people into your premises

If you are running a sale in a shop, you’ll probably want lots of people to come into the shop to see the great deals!  So you pug a few big bunches of balloons at the door and when people ask for one you direct them to the member of staff at the back of the shop who is giving them out, the people are now going to browse a little in your shop as they wait.

So these are some of my thoughts on how you can use  printed balloons to promote your Business, if you have any good ideas then please leave a comment below and let me know, you could even leave a comment even if you don’t have any ideas.

There are three ways to order your personalised printed balloons;

1. Fill in the form on this site – http://www.celebrationballoons.biz/order-now/
2. Send us an email to info@celebrationballoons.biz
3. Phone us on 0845 130 5400 or 028 90848537

there will also be a forth method sometime in the not too distant future, buying through our web shop, keep an eye out for that.

When you contact us there will be some info we will need from you, it’s all pretty basic stuff but you’d be suprised how many people don’t send it to us

• Details about you – Name, Company (if relevant), phone no., address, etc
• No. of balloons needed
• What you want on the balloons either Text, Artwork, or a mix of the two, well need copies of artwork files if possible
• Colours of print, single colour printing is the cheapest, but we can arrange for more colours if required
• Colours of balloons, a single colour, a specific selection of colours or an assortment of colours
• What you want us to do with them, just send them to you flat, inflate them for you (either for pickup or delivery) or to arrange as balloon decor for your event

Don’t worry if there is something you don’t know or understand, ordering printed balloons is a new experience to most of our customers, just talk to us or send a message and we’ll sort it out for you.

Jim

Printed Balloons in use by Sunflowerfest

The photo shows some of our balloons in use, they had only managed to inflate a couple at this point.  You’ll see a few people in the shot, the guy sitting down and the one at the back on the right are artists who were conscripted in to do some facepainting, their first time at that so I’m hoping it went well for them.

The other two guys are musicians who were playing the guitar and, believe it or not, the ‘Stylophone’.  I have horrible dissapointing memories of the poor tinny sounds I got from one of these things that I’d got as a child.  To be honest this sounded nothing like my attempts, this guy obviously new what he was doing with it.  One of the tunes they played while I was there was Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, very unusual hearing it in the different instruments but very cool.

You’ll notice that June has legged it out of the photo she must be shy.  June and the guys were in Bow Street mall to promote a new festival Sunflower Fest, I have copied some info from their Facebook page to describe it properly

SUNFLOWER FEST 2010

Sunflower Fest 2010 – A brand new event on Northern Ireland’s festival and gig calendar – a fantastic weekend of live music, arts and great food in a welcoming (and family-friendly) atmosphere, which we are sure will match that of any other festival this summer. Plus, it’s for an amazing cause – all profits will go to the Haitian Earthquake Victim Relief.

Set in beautiful rustic countryside a mere 3 miles from Lisburn City Centre and 10 miles from Belfast, “Tubby’s Farm”, just outside Hillsborough, is the perfect setting for this new festival. A real, working farm which produces fine jam, and of course Sunflowers – hence the name! Tubby’s Farm is at 31 Cabra Road, Legacurry, Hillsborough, BT26 6NB.

Held over three-days, from Fri-Sun 20-22nd August, our goal is to do the right thing: that is, to create a reasonably priced summer festival, providing an overwhelmingly positive, comfortable and fun experience for both attendees and musicians. Showcasing some of Northern Ireland’s finest bands and artists, as well as some guests from the UK and the Republic of Ireland, with two stages – one outdoors and the other indoors, you can expect to hear music of all styles and genres – the one common denominator being quality live performances.

Sunflower Fest also celebrates the best in organic food and drink. Expect some delicious, home grown, locally made produce to delight your taste buds and wash it all down with a drink from the Bar Burgundy Beverage Bothy!

Check out their Facebook page atwww.facebook.com/sunflowerfest  or their website at www.sunflowerfest.co.uk for more info.

There are a lot of bands playing at the festival including

Friday 20th August (4pm – late) Rams’ Pocket Radio, Ashanti (Belfast), Phoenix Fire, Silhouette, Kyle John Suckling & Band, Dutch Schultz, The Everyday Superheroes, Deadlights, Press The Flesh and more.

Saturday 21st August (12pm –late) Mojo Fury, More From Jim (Scotland), Sweet Savage, Pay*ola, Pocket Billiards, Swanee River, Bandwagon, Intermission, Strait Laces, The Dead Presidents, Invinyl, Last Known Addiction, Uber Gliteratti, R51, Katie & The Carnival

Sunday 21st August (afternoon show 12pm – 6pm) Clown Parlour, Nasa Assassin, Aaron Shanley, Indigo Fury, Red Hot Roosters, Pat D. Smyth & Band, Naiomh O’Hagan, Malaika, Steven McCann, Cream Carousel, Edentown

So you might wonder where the ‘Sunflower’ part of it all comes from, as far as I know Tubby’s farm grows Sunflowers, so thats simple.  Thanks to June for the beatiful bunch of sunflowers sitting in my Kitchen.

Sunflowers from Sunflowerfest

Sunflowers from Sunflowerfest

Anyway thats it for now.  Now go check out Sunflowerfest, it’s for a good cause