Last December, Corianne Izzo, 29, was in an Uber with her husband, Tom, 35, on their way to a wedding when she peered out the car window and told him something that had been on her mind for a while.
“I feel like I should go for it and jump into this company idea.” There was a pause before he replied, “Let’s do it.”
That wedding was especially memorable for the pair as they celebrated their excitement on the dance floor for what lay ahead. The following day, Izzo awoke and made a list of actions required to get her business up and running. She secured an LLC, researched websites, and mapped out a catchy name: Little Party Playground. Now a hugely successful party rental business, it serves hosts across the Main Line and beyond.
It was around when Izzo welcomed her and Tom’s first child, Brooks, that she began attending events with other parents. “I was going to all these birthday parties, and it was so wild to me that my friends were renting huge equipment that many of the children couldn’t play on,” Izzo explains. “The one-year-olds were moving around on the floor while the older kids enjoyed it all.” Though these were fun occasions, the bouncy castles were always massive, dwarfing the younger children, especially those under five years old, who were reluctant to dive in with the louder, taller children.
After researching party rental companies in the Main Line area, Izzo confirmed her suspicions: few focused on toddler-oriented play and, typically, the only equipment available to hire was brightly colored and non-themed. There was also a lack of personalization.
On top of that, many companies would accept online bookings and send employees to set up and remove the equipment after a party had wrapped. Yet parents Izzo spoke with craved more creative input into the concept behind their celebrations. They wanted someone to partner with during every step of the party planning, from conception to the event itself.
When Izzo launched Little Party Playground, she was determined to do things differently. “I’ve worked with so many amazing parents from Philly to West Chester and Phoenixville, creating a space for toddlers and preschoolers to enjoy themselves,” she shares. “My favorite part is personalizing a party for the child.” She works with parents to create a vision or theme behind each event, lending an experienced hand in advising on the invitations, food, drinks and setup and establishing a safe and fun environment for children to feel happy playing in for hours.
The very first party Izzo delivered was racecar-themed, booked less than a week from the party’s date. “A mom contacted me, said she was procrastinating but wanted her son’s first birthday party to be special and memorable,” Izzo recalls.
She admitted to having been extremely nervous when she accepted the booking, so much so that she stood outside the night before to do a practice run-through of packing and unpacking her car. Tom helped her set up the following day. “I was trying to converse with the parents, but also trying not to show my nerves and my shaking hands,” Izzo says, chuckling. “But it ended up going seamlessly, and they had the best time. It was one of my favorite parties. I’m so thankful to that mom for finding us.”
That experience set in motion a successful trajectory. Today, Little Party Playground caters to events far beyond Malvern—where Izzo initially envisaged concentrating her business. And demand just keeps growing. The Main Line region has a population of nearly 200,000 and, due to the plethora of top-rated schools, many are young families.
At times, Izzo has run two parties around the region on the same day, and she’ll schedule locations along the way, too, grouping the bookings so that she can assist with as many events as possible. A recent van purchase has been crucial in catering to demand—practice run-throughs of packing up the car are no longer necessary.
Managing a successful company and being a mother to 11-month-old Brooks are not Izzo’s only responsibilities. She also balances her part-time job as an emergency room nurse. It was only after studying nursing at Clemson in South Carolina and moving to Charlotte to begin her clinical work that she met her husband, who, at the time, lived in New York City.
They eventually made their way to the Main Line, buying a house in Malvern in 2019. Izzo continued nursing full-time until Brooks was born, after which she reduced her hours and waited for several months before deciding in that Uber that she was in the right place to start a business.
“I love nursing and I love the emergency room, but the company has grown into a much bigger thing, which we’re very excited about. Everyone says, ‘You’re still nursing, you’re doing the company, and you have a toddler home and you sound really happy,'” she shares.
Izzo has no plans to slow down. She is now looking to acquire new party equipment, such as an 80″x80″ ball pit, and she is in talks with a California-based supplier to create custom white bouncy castles that can be dressed up for any theme.
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Being in the emergency room and seeing worst-case scenarios has made Izzo especially focused on her child’s and others’ safety.
“I want everyone to have fun and absolutely no one get hurt,” she says. Her equipment prioritizes Montessori-style learning to encourage sensory play and foster imagination, such as the soft play area for children to climb over and under, encouraging gross motor skills, the ball pit—always a hit—to develop confidence and climbing units that have the potential for solo and group exploration, promoting healthy risk-taking and boosting movement coordination. Cleanliness of all the materials is also essential, which Izzo is equipped to handle with her medical expertise.
Next year, Izzo aims to hire employees and have even more toddler setups for clients to choose from. She is also turning to friends in the industry for counsel as the company grows, one of whom is based in her old haunt, Charleston. They have exchanged several encouraging messages.
“It has been such a blessing,” Izzo says of the support she has found among like-minded business owners. “Everyone is helpful and open to sharing and communicating. I give props to all the small businesses out there because it is not always easy, especially when you have a family.”
When Izzo traveled to her friend’s wedding last December, she was swirling with ideas about a company that she’d been dreaming up for months, and she came away ready to bring it to life.
“It’s funny, my husband said before 2024 started, ‘This is the year that we need to be uncomfortable. This is the year we should push ourselves,’” she recalls.
The same is true of children venturing into their first party experiences. At the beginning of an event, Izzo described how it’s normal for the little ones to be uneasy before jumping into the action. But by the end, it’s a different story. “It is complete chaos, and there are three or four kids in the ball pit having the best time. Seeing the kids run out with the biggest smiles on their faces…there’s nothing more fun.”
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