Ray Imbro may be a transplant to the Little Rock party scene but his name is now synonymous with some of the city’s most notable weddings and events.
Imbro and his wife of 32 years, Kristi, are the owners of Party Time Rental and Events and this year Party Time is celebrating 35 years of business, 10 of which Imbro has been at the helm.
We talked to Imbro about trading Wall Street for the event industry and how he knew Little Rock was to become his family’s permanent home.
Soirée: What led to the decision to purchase Party Time?
Ray Imbro: In 2005, after spending almost 25 years in a Wall Street career, I realized I just didn’t want to continue to keep moving every few years. I had been on over 200 business flights in the previous 12 months and decided that it as more important to keep our family in one place and not move our children anymore and stay connected to the community of Little Rock, which we had fallen love with (while on business here). At that point, we looked at literally dozens of business ownership opportunities and found a 25 year old Party Time available. As someone who had hosted business events all over the country, I felt I had a unique business client perspective on the event industry. Kristi and I also saw Party Time as a business where we could support the nonprofit community, which we were already so involved in.
S: What do you love most about your job?
RI: What I love more than anything about my job is helping people have events of a lifetime. It may sound cliché but every event we do is the most important event to that client on that day. Weddings, fundraisers, company and family picnics — they are all important to us.
S: What would surprise readers about planning and putting together an event?
RI: I think people just don’t realize all of the time and technology necessary to put together a large event. Larger events and weddings are usually planned at least a year out. Sometimes we are not as fortunate to have that much time. We have to CAD (computer assisted drawing) out the proposed event space and make sure the number of intended guests actually fit in the space. Then based on the number of attendees, we have to make sure that all of the rental needs are available for that particular day. We have had several instances in the last 12 months where we have been asked to deliver over 1,000 chairs with only a couple of weeks notice. We came through each time, but sometimes it’s not the ideal.
S: Favorite party each year/one event defining moment?
RI: We love doing events which not only we have to design or create the event, but have an impact doing it. We love doing the Miracle League’s annual event each year for that reason. This year we erected a large tented area on War Memorial Field. We also love sponsoring and designing the events for the Symphony Designer Houses every other year. When it comes to defining moment events, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Clinton Presidential Library’s 10 year anniversary celebration. I was personally on site for over 20 days. Our crews along with an out of town partner, built a 53,000 square foot event space, and set it up for a dinner for almost 2,000 people on a Friday night, and then convert the space overnight for a concert for thousands on Saturday. We worked with the renowned Bryan Rafanelli, whose team designed the event and got to execute on their design plans. It certainly showed everyone our capabilities as well as our collaborative spirit.
S: What are some of the most unique things you’ve done so far?
RI: We’ve enclosed Dickey Stephens Park’s Concourse area for events and heated them. We’ve tented and floored a horse arena and turned it into a Tuscan evening. We have transformed a tennis court into a tented haunted mansion, draped in tapestry walls, complete with dungeon doors, antique furniture, chandeliers and had a fireplace and hearth to boot! We put a tent on the new I-430 flyaway for the ribbon cutting and this past October, we took a 1920s train station and converted it into a really cool event for over 250 people.