After going back and forth about what show we were going to represent at the parade (we initially wanted to do Phineas and Ferb, but didn’t have access to costumes) the real task was figuring out how to decorate it. We had a lot of big ideas at first. We wanted to build a fountain with purple water and simulate wine being poured from a bottle. Or, take the Barnstormers/Energy t-shirt gun and make it look like a wine bottle with a cork coming out of it.
Well, time got away from us and all of a sudden it was Thursday and the parade was next Wednesday and we still had no float. I kind of stepped into panic mode. We had someone from just about every department making calls utilizing our resources to help us find things to put on the float. We eventually tracked down a stove that Hockenberg, a restaurant distributor, let us borrow. Our interns got in touch with Summerset Winery who built us an awesome wine barrel/bottle display. Monday we tracked down an arbor that we could decorate to look like grape vines – but we would have to come in at 7 am Tuesday to put a fresh coat of white paint on it. We also raided our catering kitchens, closets and pantry for items to represent the “food” aspect of the float. Thank God we have the resources in-house! We would do one half of the float “wine” and one half “food.” We made some signs, some giant wine bottles, and added some greenery in just about every corner of the float. Our rock star engineers helped board and screw everything down so nothing would move as we drove the float.
It was a total team effort, and even though we were still putting the final touches on it at 4 pm on Wednesday, we got it done. And it looked awesome. Not going to lie, it was SUPER fun riding on the float. I designated myself and an intern to ride. He wore a chef coat and I wore an apron. I have loved parades ever since I was little and I knew this one would be no different – especially with a 50,000 person audience! Definitely a highlight of my summer.
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