Once Upon a Time Invite Princesses to Your Party Writer / Christy Heitger-Ewing Photography Provided
Balloon business morphs into a fairytale ending.
interact with the kids,” Chelsea says. “She wanted a fairytale come to life.” Chelsea and her family vowed to do just that. It wasn’t a stretch given that the entire family has a theatre/singing/songwriting/artistry background.
“Initially, we thought the princesses would be a side thing to our balloon artistry and really it’s the other way around,” Chelsea says.
The highly popular Princess Package is a 1.5-hour party that includes entertainment by one character, who is accompanied by the client’s choice of balloon artist, face painter or glitter tattoo artist. The princess presents the birthday girl with a tiara and then provides a musical storytelling show, participates in the cake cutting ceremony, and and we thought it would be fun to start a family balloon art business together,” Chelsea “Children were in absolute awe to get to meet delivers a special song. If parents also want to their favorite princesses,” Chelsea says. incorporate a pinata or something else into says, noting that all three of them nurture a the party, they are more than welcome to do creative spirit. so. But for the most part, the princesses are There’s the classic princesses such as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and Alice the entertainment. They came home and learned the tricks of in Wonderland. But the Little Mermaid, the the trade, then formed Balloongenuity in Frog Princess Tiana, and the Snow Princesses Unlike at a Disney theme park where kids’ 2009. Though it was a successful business time with characters is limited to a stand(Anna and Elsa) are also very popular. endeavor, they often fielded questions from in-line chance to snap a photo and grab an revelers who were in search of, say, a magician Soon after launching, parents began asking autograph, at these parties, the guests have a or a clown. Then they began to notice a trend Chelsea, “What do you offer for boys?” So, they invited select superheroes to join in the chance to chat at length with princesses. as more and more people were interested in fun, and now Batman, Spiderman, Wonder inviting a real-live princess to their party or “Kids want to know every backstory so Woman, and Captain America (among event. they’ll ask about the princess’ parents and others) visit parties. their pets, how they got here, everything!” “A woman called and said she’d like to have Chelsea says. The craze has definitely exploded. Rapunzel at her daughter’s party—not just to sit and look pretty but to sing, draw, and Over a decade ago, Chelsea Couture was vacationing in Mexico with her mom (Crystal) and sister (Claire) when inspiration “If we were going to do this, we wanted to do it right,” Chelsea says, who launched Happily struck. Ever After Productions in 2012, starting with just four princesses. “We saw people making crazy balloon hats
4 / ZIONSVILLE MAGAZINE / JULY 2020 / atZionsville.com
