Meet Colleen Kelly

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Colleen Kelly. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Colleen below.

Colleen, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I definitely get my work ethic from the film industry. After college, I moved to Atlanta and wanted to be in the film industry. I remember emailing so many people and applying for every job until finally a commercial director said he’d hire me. But not for a film- for his personal halloween decorations. He asked me to build him a lifesize headless horseman to stick in front of his house. I had NO idea how to do that, but some googling and troubleshooting and a week later with hands tore up from the process haha I borrowed my landlords truck and delivered a lifesize headless horseman built out of “monster mud” and chicken wire. He started putting me on jobs after that and that’s how I got my start. Film sets were not easy. Especially as a production assistant where I started- you were the lowest position there. I got coffee, I shoveled fire ant hills out of “Honey Boo Boo”‘s yard. For a Little Ceasar’s commercial- I put together over 200 pizza boxes… seriously. We built forts out of them. I once spent 12 hours in the back of a semi truck matching up the tags on clothing with like 30 different receipts for returns. Days were long (my longest day on set was 21hours) and you weren’t allowed to sit down much. The only way to move up was by working hard and hustling and so that’s what I did and that experience has stayed with me ever since.That’s not to say I don’t have boundaries but I’ve learned that in order to play (or rest) hard, I need to work hard when it’s time. Anything worth doing is honestly worth doing well. If you’re not going to give it your all, why do it at all?

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I own and run an all-inclusive wedding venue, Cedarmont Farm. Cedarmont Farm is different than a lot of other venues because we focus on quality over quantity and client experience over industry renown. Our main goal for our clients is to make sure that their day runs smoothly and that they are able to enjoy it. A wedding day is so special because it’s the ONE day in a couple’s lives that all of their favorite people from different phases and parts of their life are in the same room and we want them to be able to enjoy it and fully take in all of those moments. We don’t want them worried about when toasts are happening or where they need to be for pictures or if the flowers arrived looking fresh. That’s our job and we take it very seriously. We help our clients from start to finish in their planning process. During the design meeting we help them curate their dream wedding based on their vision. Sometimes I think other wedding vendors forget this part and worry more about the industry trends or what will get them published and can almost take over a couple’s wedding design-but what they forget is it’s not their wedding and it’s not about their portfolio. I love that at Cedarmont we don’t get caught up in that. We want our client’s weddings to be beautiful but we also realize it’s about the experience and those small gestures of hospitality we can offer our couples as they navigate wedding planning. And that’s what we care about- that they truly feel so taken care of start to finish in this process.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think to have a wedding venue or any creative business for that matter, you have to be creative, organized and willing to take risks and put yourself out there. When I first started our venue- we didn’t have one. The barn was being renovated and was a mess- there was nothing but dirt and old wood walls to look at but I knew it would get done and I knew weddings normally booked a year out so I started doing showings. I believed in myself and I believed in the venue and to my amazement- couples believed in me and booked! I still put myself out there continuously with new ideas, new package offerings. We’re always trying something new and I don’t necessarily know how it’ll go but I hope for the best and normally it works out great and when it doesn’t we all learn from it. Creativity is important as well- not just for wedding designs but for problem solving. So many things can go wrong on a wedding day (food running late, wrong type of flowers in the bouquet) and being creative will help you solve those problems without stressing out your clients (move the dances to before dinner, send someone to Whole Foods for some other flowers or cut some off your bushes). Organization is also so important- in a business as well as with an event there are so many details to take care of and so many deadlines- if you don’t have a system for all of it and a natural desire to want things organized then it is going to become complete chaos.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

I try to slow things down and just focus on the most pressing problem. I have a to do list app that I can organize by date and priority so I’ll slowly start moving things around on that and checking things off. I make sure to add self care things to that list as well. Getting things done helps me feel less overwhelmed but I’ve also realized it will never all get done, the to do list will never be empty so I have to learn when to turn it off and when to press pause until the next day. I think setting healthy boundaries around work hours and making sure I have a good work/life balance have also been really helpful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cedarmontfarm.com
• Instagram: cedarmontfarm

Image Credits

Brooke Elliott Photography