Balloons & helium... need help!

If you are hanging them from the ceiling it might be better not to use helium, and just blow them up with air. The helium would make them all end up flat up against the ceiling. Think of what happens when you let go of a helium balloon. It floats upwards and stays there. If securing them from the ground it would make sense to use helium, but your pic looks like they are hung over head. You could also use very thin wire to secure them instead of fishing line or string. The wire would keep them where you put them. Hope I helped somewhat. I know it's probably not what you were looking for exactly.

Yikes! For $277.50, you could get 30 three foot round paper lanterns from somewhere like PaperLanternStore, which would save you both money and time spent blowing them up.

We were planning on tying them to the backs of chairs and having them float... but you're right, we could save ourselves all the trouble by attaching them to the ceiling! I'll definitely have to find out if the hotel will let us do that. What would you recommend using to secure them to the ceiling? I feel like tape wouldn't cut it and we almost certainly can't make holes in the ceiling.

Have you discussed this with your venue? They might be able to get you a better deal on helium. Otherwise, you could potentially blow up the balloons with regular air and hang them from the ceiling at different lengths with fishing line.

I'd say def go with some very thin wire or string that you can simply tape (paint friendly) to the ceiling.

If the venue has a drop (fake) ceiling paperclips work really well!

or possibly thumbtacks (if they allow it!)

Fishing line works really well as the "string" for attaching things to the ceiling. It's very thin and transparent, so it leaves the impression that the balloons are just suspended in mid-air.

If you do decide to attach to ceiling like in picture but are unable to create any holes. Use that adhesive putty stuff. You can find it in any tape section of a store. I used it all through college to hang stuff on walls. It held up the things all year round and for light balloons i don't think any should fall off.

You could also run line from wall to wall and hang them from those. Kinda like this picture, only indoors and with fishing line and balloons. To secure them you could get those hooks with the tabby thing you pull to get it off the wall. I forgot what they're called.

If you're going to hang them, you need to know:

a. if the venue will allow it. If they do, get it in writing. Also confirm when they can be installed, and when they have to be removed.

b. Ceiling material and height. If it's a drop tile ceiling, use fishing line, but not paper clips. Find S-hooks at the hardware store. Much sturdier.

c. Figure 5 - 10 minutes to hang per balloon/lantern. And nearly the same amount of time to get them down. It's pretty tedious.

Thanks everyone! You all are very creative!

I'm feeling like attaching them to the ceiling is going to be too difficult... it will be time consuming and we'll need a ladder (and only one person can be on the ladder putting up balloons at a time). It would be much faster if lots of people could be running around tying them to chairs. :-/ ... I'm going to start with talking to our reception coordinator to see if she can get a good deal on helium... after that it might come down to just not having as many balloons as I want.... problem is that if we only have 10 balloons, I'll have to come up with a different concept for where they'll go. :-/

So FH just got home and I explained this dilemma to him. Well, he came up with a brilliant solution!! He suggested that the balloons might not need to be FULL of helium. So we weighed one balloon (1.1oz) and looked up how much helium it takes to float one balloon and it turns out we only need one cubic foot per balloon. The rest of the space to inflate the balloon can be regular air! Now the only problem is finding someone to blow up all these balloons!! (Or we can try to use an air compressor.)

And that is why I'm marrying him.

I just blew up one balloon... I was afraid to blow it up any bigger than this! (Please ignore my 8 sizes too big sweatshirt!)

Yay! Glad you found a good solution. You could try getting a couple of the cheap plastic air pumps if you think an air compressor would be too powerful. You can have a balloon blowing up party. It can be a nice arm workout too haha

While the chart says you only need 1 cf of helium to float a 3' balloon I would not recommend doing so. You should use at least 50% helium and 50% air. Unless you are treating the balloons with a product called Hi-Float, the helium will escape from the tiny pores in the latex throughout the night and would most likely end up on the ground. Unless they are treated, they must be inflated the day of the event. Just looking at the photo of your inflated balloon, you should be able to go quite a bit larger if you wanted to. Also, keep in mind that 15 cf of helium is what you need if you are fully inflating the balloons to 3'...you would be fine to only inflate them to 30" then you only need 8 cf of helium saving you nearly half the cost. And if you partially inflate with air you will save even more.

Looking at the photos of your venue, it appears that it would be difficult to suspend them from the ceiling even if you were allowed and had the time.

One more word of caution...please do not tie your balloons to the chairs! It really is bothersome to the person sitting in that chair. And if you use monofilament (fishing) line your guests will not see the line and end up with a tangled up mess. Instead, find a way to attach them to your centerpieces or to a small weight (just make sure it's heavy enough to hold the balloon in place) that can be easily hidden in the center of your tables.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the tips! We found out yesterday that the hotel can get us extra helium, so we're all set there. My Fh had the same concern about fishing line, so we'll be using ribbon. As far as tying them to the chairs, the balloons will all be well above head height, so while it might not be awesome to have it tied to your chair, I don't think it will ruin anyone's night. I don't really want them coming from the center of the tables since I'm going for a more scattered look.

Thanks again!