This was our first time decorating the Rose Parade float together and boy was it fun! Here are some notes: - Huge space that houses/assembles multiple floats at once - You can either sign up to build the structure (mid Dec) OR handle/glue/place flowers (end of Dec) - Shifts are either 8am-4pm (w/a 30m BYO lunch) OR 4pm-11pm - Plenty of free parking - We signed up via the Alhambra website because we live here and wanted some local representation. - Be prepared to be assigned a task/work station. You can state your preference but there's no guarantees as they'll place you where you're needed - Bring OLD comfortable shoes/clothes. The glue that is used does NOT come off fabric. Oh and if you sign up to work on a specific float be prepared to be asked to jump on another one in case the shift(s) before you finished early. All in all I'd definitely recommend this experience to anyone that's interested. We were wiped out by the end of our shift but we now have bragging rights because we worked on the majority of the bees body (camera side). read more

Phoenix Decorating Co - Party & Event Planning Near Me - Irwindale, California

A great location with staff that's there to help you and your group. I am a decorating volunteer for one of the competing floats for the 2026 Rose Parade and there's lots that happens for all the floats. There's tons of space and there's lots of staff from Phoenix that works here. The facility itself is well managed and clean. The restrooms are at the center of the facility, both for men and women. They also have porta potties, as there's hundreds of volunteers and staff at any given time, so the extras probably help. But there's a cleaning staff that maintains the restrooms. The location itself is a gigantic warehouse and is located in an industrial park. Parking is very limited at the front, but depending when you come here, they may instruct you to park on the side of the street. It's maybe the only thing that can be a small inconvenience, especially if you're trying to come in for your shift. But, still a great decorating space. read more

Enjoyed a wonderful time with my family at Phoenix Decorating working on City of Hope's Rose Parade float. The warehouse showed several different floats. Staff were kind and helpful. The layout was organized. Everything worked very smoothly. read more

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Kiwanis along with other organizations like the Lion's Club, and Universal Studios partnered with this company to create the floats for this upcoming year's Rose Parade in California. As a volunteer with Kiwanis, I was provided with a tshirt and lunch consisting of a pretty big 6 inch sub, sauces, a crunchy apple, a cookie, a bag of chips and water. At first when I got there with my 12 person group, they had us wait in a line to be assigned to a work station. The two of us that were first to go were put to work on assembling the vials of water for the roses. It was tough work for people with sensitive skin and my two friends who were put there didn't like it. After that, one of us volunteered to work on a float. The requirements for that was no fear of heights and being detail oriented. His job was to work on the float with a dog on it and to glue on beans to the underside of a butterfly. He said that he really enjoyed his job although it was very tough and tiring work. He enjoyed it so much he wanted to do even more of it even once we were leaving. Eventually, the rest of us were told to bring buckets out of the rose prepping tent. We got that done within 5 minutes and then were back to waiting in line for a job. We were waiting for more than half an hour and still didn't have a job so my friend and I went to look for her friend Rich who is one of the float leads who has worked on the rose floats for at least the last three years. We weren't able to find Rich but we did find a job cutting flowers. Our job was to cut off the pink parts and the pink alone from pink flowers. It was tough work but luckily we were given a seat so the worst it got was aching shoulders and neck. I'm proud to say that I was the most efficient worker when it came to cutting those flowers. I filled almost an entire tray after just an hour. Sadly, by the time me and my friend found the flower cutting job, the rest of our crew had been sent to work in the rose prepping tent. I worked in that tent five years ago and remember enjoying it but my comrades didn't feel the same. They were tasked with dethorning and cutting roses to a suitable length before pushing them into small vials of water and assembling them into 13 by 13 rows on a square pallet of styrofoam. It was done in an assembly line style and not much socializing took place in there. It was super noisy, super crowded and felt comparable to what my friends would imagine sweatshop labor to be like. Many times, their trays of roses were sent back to them to reorganize and many times, when they would yell for flowers, their calls would go unnoticed since they were in the very back of the tent. They could've assigned more people to work on delivering the flowers and I wish they'd delivered more than one bundle at a time so people wouldn't have had to yell for flowers so often. After our lunch break, we went back to our flower cutting station and saw that our spots had been taken at the table so were forced to work on the floor. Luckily, the float lead for the Trader Joe's float was looking for someone to cover for someone who was leaving and I was the lucky volunteer who got chosen. After climbing up 15-20 feet in the air up scaffolding, I got on top of wobbly criss crossing planks and crawled on my hands and knees to my new station. I was now in charge of covering the pineapple fish with pink lentils, blended yellow flowers, pepper seeds and ground up brown seeds. A lot of the materials such as the glue and plant materials would drip onto me and there were times that the plank that I was standing on would slide over a bit under me but luckily I never fell during the three hours that I was working up there. At first, I was focused on working on the tough to reach part but eventually I narrowly shimmied around a corner and saw that an entire side of the pineapple had been untouched. I immediately went to work on that and got about a third of it done. I noticed that there was room for one more person to work on the same section as me so I called over my friend who has prop building experience and she and I made a wonderful team. I wish they had assigned us to work there since the beginning because we could've finished things so quickly had we all been there. They definitely could've sorted out their available volunteers more efficiently. I can't believe there was ever a moment where we were just waiting there for a job. I'd like to thank Alex, Rich, the guy in the blue shirt with the beard, and the DJ for being so friendly. They made my day and made the experience very enjoyable. I had to remove a star because we were rushed to finish our lunch and there were times when things were being done inefficiently and when float leads reacted very rudely to us who just wanted to help read more

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This is an updated review... I had previously scheduled to volunteer for the floats once again on Saturday 12/31/2022 and Sunday 01/01/2023... both 8 hour shifts. However, I fell under the weather that weekend and had to cancel both days. I was really bummed about it, but it had to happen. Petal Pushers made the canceling process very easy... I just had to update the applicable page with the number of volunteers... changed 1 to 0 and clicked Submit. Thank you for the ease to update! Now that 2023 Pasadena Rose Parade has came and went... I will post some pictures of the floats that all the volunteers worked on before the floats were completed. I wished I was there to see them in their final stage up close and personal before the parade... I would have loved to placed the roses on the floats myself. Oh well, I'll try again next year. Just want to call out one of the floats that won with honors... Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom won the Isabella Coleman Award for "Most outstanding presentation of color and color harmony through floral design". This was the float I volunteered for about one month prior to the parade. I was so flabbergasted... look for the big beaver... that was the piece I worked on... it has the funky body hair (that's my doing LOL)... of course with the help of other volunteers, hey, I wasn't alone LOL. Congratulations Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom and all the other floats that won and to ALL the VOLUNTEERS who made it possible! THANK YOU ALL! Till we meet again to volunteer on decorating floats for 2024 Pasadena Rose Parade... take care. Stay blessed! read more

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Went there to volunteer decorating floats for the rose parade. It should come as no surprise how well organized this is. The staff were kind and thorough and this is something that I've wanted to do for years . Now that I've done it I plan to do this annually. read more

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There are things you need to do at least once in your life. Rose parade float decorating is one I had on the bucket list. My experience... Up way early, eight hour shift, paid for parking, it was cold, manual labor, required to buy volunteer shirt, climbed a two story scaffolding to work. Some really nice crew leaders, some NOT so nice. So, was it worth it? Yes, it was! Very interesting to see how all the magic is put together. Even better, there's something to be said about working as a community on such a special event (in this case for the world to see). Pretty proud of myself at the end. Additionally, you meet people (young and old) from all over the country volunteering, many do this annually. A great group event or even do this by yourself (I'm sure you'll make friends). Bring warm clothing, a pair of earphones, camera, tissue (for your cold runny nose), and snacks. If you're interested contact Petal Pushers, the Lutheran organization that organizes the volunteering. This year when I watch the parade on TV, I can say... "See that flower placement, I DID THAT!" So, look for a big teddy bear with a football helmet, that's me! As always, let me know what you think! read more

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After a wild night of partying, drinking, and general debauchery on New Years Eve, isn't it nice to wake up around noon and watch the re-broadcast of the Tournament of Roses Parade on TV? Well, Phoenix Decorating Co. is one of the main companies responsible for the pretty flowered floats you can watch as you nurse your hangover. The Phoenix Decorating Company is known as the premier builder of Rose Parade floats and every year they do floats big and small. If you want to decorate a float, you can visit their website and find out information about how you can volunteer: http://www.phxdeco.com read more

Phoenix Decorating Co - Phoenix Decorating Company Logo - Party & Event Planning Near Me - Irwindale, California

Am I the only one that is either too hungover or lazy to actually wake up and WATCH the Rose Parade?! I can't recall the last time time caught the entire telecast. But when I have, it is quite neat to see all the amazing floats made entirely of flowers, plants, vegetables, beans, and a bunch of other live things. You can even get a tour of the facility to get an up-close look at the decorating magic! With that said, I hate having to write such a poor review, especially being that it's New Year's Day. My friend's company has a float in this year's Rose Parade. As such, the employees and members of the organization could invite a few people to come help decorate their float. I thought this would be fun! So we arrived at 3:30 on Friday for our 4pm - 11pm shift. Let's just say by 5:45, I was still standing around waiting for something to do. Phoenix needs a better system in place to accommodate sponsored float volunteers as well as Phoenix volunteers, aka 'Petal Pushers'. The Petal Pushers are brought in for those floats that don't have enough volunteers of their own, to make sure all the floats have people working on them for completion. It was SO disorganized. A group of about 30 of us (not including these damn petal pushers!) arrived for the 4pm shift. We walked in and are given the choice of "who likes scaffolding?" or "who likes detail work?". Well, I didn't really feel comfortable crawling up on those unstable-looking platform things. Plus, there is a weight limit as to how many people can go up at a time. And there was only so many people that could work on the detailing signs. That left about 15 of us that kept being told "we'll get you a job in a second". That second turned into 2 hours of standing watching the others. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes when they finally came to us around 7:30 and said, "we're going to have you guys find some brooms and sweep around the float". Are you fuckin kidding me?!?! It's not that I'm above sweeping or that I didn't want to be a team player, but I volunteered thinking I was actually going to get to help DECORATE! There was no control as to what jobs/assignments were needed, and how many people were needed to do them. Basically, the damn float was overbooked. To top it off, the people from the previous shift didn't leave at 4 when we arrived. Too many people, not enough work. The float leaders are then tired and cranky and likely sick of people asking them "is there something I can do", so they become rude and bitchy and snappy. Not cool. If you decide to go, wear comfy clothes and shoes that you don't mind getting dirty. By the end of the night we were spotted with flower dust and glue blobs. Leave your purse or bag at home or in the trunk of your car. There is no place to store or leave belongings, and you can't really 'work' while holding your LV! Don't expect to see a list of things that need to worked on with X number of people needed, where you can sign up for a job. I don't think I'd volunteer to decorate a float again, at least not with Phoenix. I don't know if the other companies are set up in a similar fashion, but I can't say I enjoyed my experience at all. I'll still watch the parade though this year, looking proudly for the artichokes and moss I finally got do! :-) read more

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Every year, my company hires Phoenix to create and decorate our Donate Life float. They do a wonderful job, are organized, creative, and dedicated. I love Jim the BMOC at Rosemont Pavilion. And, Mimi and Mike Thompson do a fantastic job on our float. I love volunteering here and seeing the floats. Wonderful yearly tradition. read more

It's organized chaos at it's best! Decorating a rose parade float is one of the most grueling but fun experiences a person can have. I have done this for three years now and it is always amazing how in just a few short weeks the Phoenix decorating company is able to organize volunteers to create amazing floats for a parade. This year I got to glue tiny orange lentils to the float. It's funny how lentils were easier to glue over split peas in years past. I have also had the opportunity to cut flowers. whether I am cutting, gluing, cleaning, or blending spending 4 hours volunteering for an awe inspiring event is definitely once in a life time event and I can't wait for the opportunity to do it again next year. read more

These guys are great and create beautiful floats! I have helped decorate for three years and they are all friendly and helpful and it's so much fun to be a part of this event. You should definitely sign up to help. I am waitlisted this year. I forgot to sign up earlier. :( read more

Hey Hey! This is a fun thing to do at least ONCE in your life; okay maybe twice in your life. Once for you, once with your kids. It's more fun doing the floral application; kids will lose interest with the dry materials tasks (like mine did...) Just one more thing to toss into the basket of childhood memories made.... you will feel like Clark Griswald going to Wally World. read more

Absolutely horrible!! Cost 15 dollars each with only 7 minutes of viewing. Floats were not arranged to where we could take pictures!! Would not recommend. A TOTAL BUST!!! read more

Not only is Phoenix Decorating Co. the only float builder in Pasadena for the Rose Parade, they are also the best people in the business. Their floats are by far the most interesting and remembered. Their team who is there year after year to help new decorators are the most friendly, energetic and passionate around. Definitely sign up to decorate with them if you're not wealthy enough to have a float of your own! They allow you to feel ownership of the floats and be part of the entire experience. I love feeling like I'm part of the Phoenix family each year! read more

I had the wonderful experience of seeing Rose parade float decorating twice. For the 2014 and the 2016 parades. It is amazing to watch a rough float turn into a magnificent floral masterpiece. This seems to be getting more popular and or more publicized. In 2014 we just walked in. On the last day for 2016 ( after judging on 12/31) we waiting in line almost 2 hours. Go early in the day. Well worth the experience. In some ways better than the parade because you see so much. read more