Decorations & Props

Grand Opening Decorations and Props

A grand opening has two jobs: getting people to notice it from the street, and giving the people who come something worth photographing. The Golden Openings decorations and props collection covers both, with 6 to 20-foot air dancers and 7 and 9-foot reusable balloon towers to draw attention, and giant keys, checks, utensils, and light switches for the photos.

Golden Openings has supplied ceremony and event products to organizations including the NBA, Major League Baseball, IBM, AT&T, and Pizza Hut, and has more than 500 reviews from event planners and businesses. Most props in this collection can carry a logo, a custom color, or both, so the decor doubles as branding in every photo taken that day.

What Are Grand Opening Decorations and Props?

Grand opening decorations and props are the oversized, eye-catching items used to announce a new location and stage the moment it opens, from roadside air dancers to a giant key handed to the new owner. Decorations work on the space and the street, while props are held, posed with, or revealed during the ceremony itself.

The collection has 15 products in five groups: giant photo props, reusable balloon towers, air dancers, reveal and event-space pieces, and a groundbreaking display accessory. Each group solves a different problem, so most events combine at least one attention-getter with at least one photo prop.

What Props Are in the Collection?

The photo props are the pieces guests and officials hold for the camera. Each one is built at a scale that stays readable in a wide group shot.

• Giant Metal Realtor House Key: a lightweight brushed metal key in 36 or 44-inch lengths and two shapes. The standard finish is silver, and the key can take a full vinyl wrap in a specified PMS color plus text or graphics on one or both sides.
• Giant Metal Car Key: an oval-shaped brushed metal car key in 36 or 44-inch lengths, silver as standard or customized to any color, with text or graphics on one or both sides.
• Giant Custom Check: a fully custom check design within a 2 by 4-foot layout, with an optional laminate coating so amounts and names can be written with dry erase markers.
• Giant Light Switch: a wooden switch in 3, 4, 5, or 6-foot sizes with a white base, which can be recolored with a vinyl wrap or branded with a logo so guests can "turn on" the new business.
• Giant Spoon, Giant Fork, and Giant Knife: matching oversized utensils, each 41 inches long, 10 inches wide, and 1 inch deep with a 27-inch handle. The spoon takes a custom vinyl decal on the blade and stem, and the fork takes a decal on the stem.

Logos for the giant keys are supplied as a vector file (.eps or .ai) with the key color specified as a Pantone (PMS) color, the standard color-matching system used across the printing industry. Golden Openings sends a PDF proof for approval before any custom prop goes into production.

What Decorations Draw Attention From the Street?

Air dancers and reusable balloon towers are the two attention-getters in the collection, and they work best outdoors and at the entrance respectively. Both are designed to be reused for future sales, anniversaries, and seasonal events.

• Air Dancers, Sky Dancers and Sky Guy Air Puppets: stock air dancers in 6, 10, and 20-foot heights and 15 color options, including solid colors, two-tone designs such as red with black arms, red, white, and blue stripe, and stars and stripes. The air blower is a separate add-on.
• CUSTOM Air Dancers: the same 6, 10, and 20-foot heights with 8 arm colors and 8 body colors to mix and match. The 10 and 20-foot sizes can add a company logo; the 6-foot size takes text only.
• Reusable Balloon Tower Kit, 7 Foot: a weighted base, support pole, seven 5-balloon cluster brackets, one 30-inch topper balloon, and 35 12-inch balloons in 5 rows of 7, arranged in a stacked or spiral pattern.
• Reusable Balloon Tower Kit, 9 Foot: a taller tower with a 48-inch chrome pole, a 20-inch extension pole, one 30-inch topper balloon, and 50 12-inch balloons in 5 rows of 10.
• Seasonal Reusable Balloon Tower Kit, 7 Foot: the 7-foot kit in preset seasonal color schemes: Black Friday, Corn Maze, Pumpkin Patch, Halloween, and Wicked.

Air dancers trace back to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, according to the history of the tube man, and have since become a standard way for retail businesses to catch the eye of passing drivers. The balloon towers use vinyl balloons, the same material as a beach ball, so they need no helium and can be used indoors or outdoors.

Which Decoration or Prop Is Right for Your Event?

Choose by the job the item needs to do: pull in traffic, frame a photo, reveal something, or define the event space. The table below matches each product to its best use.

For a single-day ribbon cutting, a photo prop plus one attention-getter covers most needs, such as a giant key or check for the ceremony and an air dancer at the curb. For a business that runs repeat promotions, the reusable balloon towers and air dancers return the most value because they go back up for every sale.

How Do You Stage a Reveal or an Outdoor Ceremony?

The Poly Premier Unveiling Cloth covers a sign, plaque, artwork, or vehicle until the moment of the reveal. It has a linen look with a flat, matte finish and comes in five sizes, 36 by 60, 96 by 60, 120 by 60, 144 by 36, and 180 by 60 inches, in 21 colors, from neutrals such as beige, silver, grey, black, and white to navy, royal, burgundy, gold, and teal.

The 10ft x 10ft Custom Canopy Tent gives an outdoor ceremony a branded home base. It uses an aluminum frame with telescopic legs, a custom canopy top printed by dye-sublimation with PMS color matching, and a carry bag for storage between events, so the same tent works for the opening, trade shows, and community markets.

What Are the Benefits of Custom Event Props?

Custom props turn decor into branding, because the logo and colors appear in every photo, social post, and news shot from the event. They also outlast the day itself.

• Built for photos: 36 to 44-inch keys, a 2 by 4-foot check, 41-inch utensils, and a switch up to 6 feet tall all stay readable in wide group shots.
• Brand-matched color: keys, the canopy tent, and the light switch can be matched to a specific PMS color or wrapped in vinyl.
• Reusable: balloon towers, air dancers, the canopy tent, and the metal keys can be set up again for anniversaries, sales, and future openings.
• No helium needed: the vinyl balloon towers stay inflated without helium, indoors or outdoors.
• Scales to the event: air dancers from 6 to 20 feet and balloon towers at 7 or 9 feet fit a storefront or a full dealership lot.

How Do Decorations and Props Fit Into a Groundbreaking?

Several props in the collection cross over to groundbreaking ceremonies. The Colored Sand for Ground Breaking Display Box comes in 25-pound bags in 17 colors, from sky blue and teal to orange, pink, purple, and black, and fills the ground breaking ceremony dirt or sand display box for indoor or color-coordinated groundbreakings. The giant utensils also work as a lighthearted alternative to shovels at restaurant and culinary school groundbreakings.

To build out a full event, see the matching pieces in the giant utensils collection, more oversized key options in the giant keys collection, helium and reusable options in the grand opening balloons collection, and blimps and air puppets in the sky puppets and blimps collection.