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The Making Of An Inauguration
 What does it take to pull off a presidential inauguration? Bunting. Lots of blue and silver bunting. That, and Hargrove, Inc.
When the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee started planning for inaugural celebrations, they visited several party venues. "Every single venue suggested that they use Hargrove, Inc. as the general contractor," reports Carey Hargrove '96, a third-generation member of the family business that has organized and decorated every presidential inauguration since Harry S Truman's. "We're the only firm that could have successfully pulled it off."
Particularly given the time constraints. While the outcome of the presidential election was being decided in the courts, the timeframe for picking a design concept, ordering materials, building and painting stages, printing signs, hanging decorations and building floats was shrinking.
"Before George Bush's election was confirmed," Hargrove says, "we went in and presented seven design ideas, a list of supplies and budgets. Because the election process took so long, we knew we'd better be prepared. That helped us tremendously in competing with firms that had never done a presidential inauguration."
They won the general contracting bid, and the plans for decorations began in earnest with the theme "Celebrating America's Spirit Together." 'Together' was the key word at Hargrove, where everyone put other projects on hold to help throw a giant four-day party in the nation's capital.
In addition to eight balls, Hargrove also handled four inaugural dinners, three inaugural events for corporate clients Phillip Morris, Riggs Bank and Sun Trust, and several smaller private affairs.
Just two days before the big day, Carey Hargrove takes a deep breath and graciously gives some visitors a tour of the 365,000 square-foot plant where the inaugural décor is taking shape. Signage is rolling off the presses in the graphic arts shop. The carpenter shop is quiet now, but in the painting area, huge dryers are working overtime. Piles of staging and steps, racks of draping and rolls of carpet stand ready at the 12 indoor loading docks. For the past four weeks, crews have worked three shifts, around the clock, in order to finish the job in time. Today, Carey's father Earl is stapling grass onto the Wyoming float that features a real stuffed buffalo.
"The inauguration is the one event that the entire company is devoted to, and my dad just loves a parade," Carey says by way of explaining why the president of the company is performing manual labor.
The young Hargrove is in constant communication with staffers setting up the First Lady's event at Constitution Hall. Just one week ago, organizers had asked Hargrove to produce this literary celebration. "No, they didn't order any presidential seals, because we didn't have time to make the frames. She knows that," he tells the person on the other end of a cell phone.
Carey and his sister Cindy were the account executives for a ball at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. It would be a relatively simple affair, except that this Saturday night party would take place in the same venue as Friday night's "Black Tie and Boots" ball, paid for by the Texas State Society and produced by a Texas firm.
"The challenge is that five big-name performers are entertaining 11,000 people at an event that isn't over until 2 a.m.," Hargrove says, "and we have six hours to transform the space. Most party producers have two or three days."
To facilitate the process, Hargrove negotiated to share equipment and to have access to loading docks so they could move in the huge set pieces and ceiling treatments.
At 2:00 a.m., 25 Hargrove employees appeared to unload trucks. At 8:00 a.m., 50 people, including 12 project managers, started setting up. At 1 p.m., the Secret Service were scheduled to perform a walk-through.
"Luckily, Hargrove recalls, "Secret Service was delayed, so we got an extra two hours. Even then, we had to call in people from other sites to help put on the finishing touches."
Putting on an inaugural ball is not entirely unlike George Washington's Birthday Ball, Hargrove says. He went to work at 5 a.m. Thursday and stumbled home at 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
"It's hard work, but I love the creative side of this business," says Hargrove, who cut his teeth on events like NATO's fiftieth anniversary, the President's Summit on Volunteerism, OpSail Philadelphia and the Republican National Convention.
"Now part of my responsibility is to go out and beat the streets for business."
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