Plan on six to ten weeks for a Washington date. Press time is rarely what limits us. Freight is: the presses, blanks and cases go by truck from Fullerton, which is 2,281 miles away as the crow flies and a good deal farther on the interstate, and the crew books flights to land a day before load-in.
What that lead time buys you
- Freight on a normal schedule. Six weeks or more lets the gear ride a standard truck and still reach the venue inside its receiving window.
- Hotel rooms in a show week. When a big convention is on at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, crew rooms across the DMV get scarce and expensive. Booking around that week is the cheapest decision on the whole quote.
- Venue deadlines. Electrical orders and load-in slots have their own cutoffs. Every building sets its own rules, so send us the requirements and we'll work inside them.
- Art and blanks. Art is final about a week out and blank orders lock at the same point. A headcount that keeps moving delays a DC job more often than a late booking does.
Your date is sooner than that?
Ask anyway. Whether a tighter date works comes down to whether freight can still reach the venue in time, and we'll give you a straight answer within 24 hours. Simple art and standard blanks help. Once you're booked, date changes are easiest with two weeks' notice, again because of freight. Spring convention season and cherry-blossom weeks fill first, so those dates are worth locking early.