Some Nashvillians fashion three chords and the truth into art. The simple ingredients mother-and-daughter team Sunny Becks and Fiona Flaherty choose: latex and mylar and little bit of helium.
As the braintrust behind East Nashville’s Vroom Vroom Balloon, Becks and Flaherty have been taking the classic party decorations we’re all so used to and creating temporary art: balloon installations that are festive, fun and all-around fascinating.
The origins of Vroom Vroom Balloon
Vroom Vroom Balloon’s work caught our attention this year, when the team created a love-inspired balloon garland for Valentine’s Day, outside of East Nashville all-day cafe Cafe Roze (pictured above, from Cafe Roze’s Instagram feed).
It was pretty impossible to drive by that installation and not wonder what it was, and who created it.
Turns out, that was one of many interior and exterior balloon installations concocted by Vroom Vroom Balloon, who’ve been fashioning inflatable fun into poppable art since spring of 2016. And balloon artistry is also just one of these Nashville entrepreneurs’ contributions to the small-business landscape here.
Becks has for years been Nashville’s hula-hoop guru, running online hula hoop shop hoopsupplies.com and, for a time, a brick-and-mortar hoop shop, before developing gift shop Harlan Ruby, where Vroom Vroom Balloon’s balloon bar now lives. Flaherty, an illustrator schooled at Parsons school of art and design in New York, creates a line of hand-illustrated, hand-lettered products under the Cheers Fifi moniker, and regularly teaches brush lettering and calligraphy classes at the shop, alongside serving as the managing director/designer for her kid sister Gertrude’s Nashville-based button company, Hankabee Button Co.
They’re a busy, creative family with a gift for bringing that extra-special something to a Nashville celebration, whether it’s encouragement via greeting card or unforgettable, custom balloons.
What Vroom Vroom Balloon can do for you
You can get a broad sense of what the Vroom Vroom team can build at their balloon bar (805 Woodland St., #301, East Nashville), but the basics: outdoor and indoor balloon installations in custom shapes and colors, event backdrops, custom balloon wreaths, hand-lettered jumbo balloons and more.
They’re set up to provide anything from irresistible Instagram fodder to sweet surroundings for your little one’s birthday.
The more we’ve seen, the more we’ve fallen in love. Drop by Vroom Vroom Balloon’s Instagram feed to check out more of what they’re creating, and hit vroomvroomballoon.com if you have a space or event you’d like to augment with floating fun.
Need to find a new Nashville house before you can throw your housewarming party? That’s something we can help with: Reach ACRE here, or start your Nashville househunting process by filling out this quick form.