3 Things NOT To Do for a Parade Float

For the first community appearance of The Logan Foundation, we came to Logan's high school town! We wanted to project the fact that family was so important to Logan during his short life on earth. What better way than to dive into the "Get animated" theme with a float inspired by Disney's Encanto?!

We started with a concept, 40 foot trailer, and high hopes. We had a lot of "wins" and even more fails. But you can learn from our mistakes (and so will we because we'll see y'all next year for Redbud 2026!) See how we went from a terrible sketch to the top story of the small town, local news!

1. Do NOT wait for the last minute. Some costumes didn't fit and we had to improvise because we didn't give ourselves time to ship back/reorder. Plus we were scrambling to several dollar stores to buy up all the tissue paper for our flowers so we ended up with a rainbow of flowers. Also it takes longer than you think to line up. (5-10 mph across town is so freaking slow!) Give yourself time. Time to shop. Time to drive. Time to breathe.

   
   

2. Do NOT underestimate even the smallest of kids' contribution. Even the toddlers can paint, place stickers, or hold things in place. Elementary kids can use scissors, grab tools for you, glue, and more (thank you all you public school teachers out there!) Teenagers... well that's a hit or miss on willingness to contribute and can fluctuate by the hour LOL

   
   

3. Do NOT wear brand new shoes if you're walking alongside the float. Ok, probably obvious to most people but just don't. Yes, I made this mistake and my heels took a week to recover. *face palm In my defense, they looked cute with my costume.

   
   
   
   

   Some "wins" as a bonus:

   - Check the weather not just on the parade day but while building.

   - Dollar tree table cloths make great backdrops, puffy edging, fringe skirts, and "tree bark"

   - Have movement built into the float (ours was us dressed as the characters)

   - Build frame solid even if it's not pretty. Other decorations will cover eye sores.

   - Sketch a concept so everyone knows what the end goal is.

   - Be flexible with how to get to the end goal.

   - Have more candy to throw than you think you'll need

   - Make sure signs are easy to read from a distance. An inch to foot vision is a good rule of thumb (you want people to read from 5 feet = 5 inch letters, 10 feet = 10 inch letter, etc.)

   - Understand people are busy. Even when they intended to help, things come up. It's going to be okay.

   - Have fun!