A Guide to the Best of Southern California : AT HOME : Say It With a Balloon

PLANNING TO PROPOSE to your sweetheart but don’t know how to do it? A 15-foot red heart stationed outside her home is sure to score a yes. And when the big day of the nuptials finally arrives, Adams Balloon Advertising can drape a banner over a giant inflatable, replete with personal message and internal lighting.

In this city of air kisses and overblown egos, there is now a way to send appropriately grandiose holiday and personal messages: with a custom inflated balloon that lights up with your special salutation. Adams will set up a 33x30-foot birthday cake inflatable (for $450) on your father’s front lawn decorated with a personal message (24x20-foot is $350, 11x9-foot is $150). Or, depending on your relationship and the intended greeting, maybe a 22-foot-high gorilla ($350)--or a 25-foot-high clown ($350; 18 feet, $250)--would best do the trick. And when Halloween rolls around this fall, there are giant jack-o’-lanterns and friendly ghosts, and for Christmas, robust Santas and snowmen and such.

Adams Balloon Advertising, 701 Redlen Ave., Whittier; (818) 968-4243.