DIY Floral Balloon Arch

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

If you caught the  Tropical-Inspired Bridal Shower we shared, then you surely noticed the gorgeous, colorful balloon arch at the shower! Lucky for you, this post includes the step-by-step instructions and supply list so you can DIY your very own floral ballon arch!

Not only do we love balloons here are GWS, but we’re huge fans of Afloral – our silk flower partner for this project (and SO many others)! We were inspired to create this piece by our friend Brittany who created this stunner of a balloon arch (and she has a great DIY for those looking for a larger balloon arch using chicken wire!). For our twist on our version of this DIY, we used silk flowers. The bonus of using silk flowers….you can set this up a day or two in advance, and it will still look great when your guests first lay eyes on it!!

This DIY is perfect for literally anything – weddings, engagement parties, showers, birthday parties, Wednesday :)…it’s such a colorful and fun statement piece that’s easy to make with a few balloons + pretty silk flowers. If you’re not super crafty, don’t be deceived, this DIY may look intricate, but you’ll be surprised by how easy it is! Here’s how we did it…

DIY Floral Balloon Arch Supplies

What You’ll Need:

  • Silk flowers from AFloral. We picked hanging bamboo, ginger, orchids, birds of paradise, white anthurium, monstera leaves, frangipani, split-leaf philodendron, hibiscus + orange needle protea from  Afloral.com 
  • Balloons (we used an assortment of sizes to allow us to better fill in the entire arch)
  • Balloon Pump (or air compressor)….you do not want to blow these up without some help
  • Balloon Decorating Strip
  • Glue Dots

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

How to Make Your DIY Floral Balloon Arch

Step 1 – Secure the Strip

Carefully select the place in which you’ll be displaying your work of art, then prepare to attach your balloon decorating strip. This step is critical, as it will create the foundation for your arch and if not secured properly, you’ll have issues later on.

Before securing it for installation, be sure to decide which shape you’d like the arch to be, it will be hard to change midway through. Your arch could be hanging to the side like ours, or have multiple swoops in it, whatever you want….have fun with it!

When installing ours for the first time, we learned that adhering it with a staple gun nicely secured the strip so it would support the full weight of the balloons.

Step 2 – Fill the Balloons

Blow up the balloons (pro-tip: top save time on installation day, you can make this step 1 and inflate your balloons the night prior). We suggest filling your balloons with air instead of helium, helium will make your arch swing upwards and we like the natural look of the balloons gently falling back toward the ground.

Before you begin installing the balloons, take a quick look at them all blown up to consider which will be used for background, which are for highlights, and which are a nice size to fill in any gap. Then decide if you want your balloons displayed in a strict pattern or if you’d like them to appear more random and organic (which we did). To save yourself from drama and coverage issues later in the process, we suggest installing the biggest balloons first, as the smaller ones present you with more options for placement as your arch takes shape.

This may seem obvious, but the holes in the strip are your friend, so be sure to use them! The holes allow you to pull the balloons through (see the photo on the right above).

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

Step 3 – Fill in the Gaps

At this point, you should have a full arch. Now use the smallest balloons to fill in the gaps or spots that need a bit more color. Since you’re arch should be pretty full, it’s likely you’ll need to attach these little guys with glue dots (your new best friend for this DIY!) directly to other balloons, they don’t need to be attached to your balloon strip.DIY Floral Balloon Arch

Step 4 – Add Pretty with Flowers!

Finally, we get to begin filling the arch with flowers. We suggest buying lightweight flowers. Long vine greens are perfect because they can be attached to the balloon strip or installed using the holes in the strip just like the balloons. If you use heavier flowers, attach them directly to the strip with string for extra support.

We started with the greens first and then filled in with flowers (these can be attached using glue dots as well). Play around until you have an arch that you love!

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

So pretty, right?

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

DIY Floral Balloon Arch

Such a fun and colorful piece for parties (we’d like to keep this in our house foreverrr!)

If you make your own Floral Balloon Arch with AFloral using these steps or supplies, we’d love to see how it turns out, so please share on Instagram along with the hashtag #GreenWeddingShoesDIY. We’ll regram our faves!

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