We recently connected with Aly Camerlo and have shared our conversation below.

Aly, appreciate you joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I am definitely happier as a business owner. I have had the opportunity to work for other people and myself and hands down, I enjoy owning my own business more than working for someone else. Being completely honest though, when COVID hit in March of 2020 and we had just finished the construction of our barn wedding venue I definitely questioned everything. In 2019, my husband and I decided to build our own wedding venue on our property. We had an 1860 barn that was standing in Indiana for over 160 years, dismantled, shipped out to our property and we spent the year putting it back up and putting all the finishing touches on it to be ready for our first wedding season in June of 2020. Then in March, as we all know, the unexpected, unpredictable nightmare of COVID hit and everything changed.
A sold out first wedding season, turned into panic and fear that everything we had just built would never get to host a wedding and fail before it even started.
Luckily, we were able to hold events……we were considered an outdoor venue by our county, and we had a small but successful season. We carried over about half of our weddings to 2021, booked the rest of the 2021 dates out and then 2022, and now we are into 2023 and 2024!!!

We feel extremely lucky, but know also that it took a lot of hard work and determination on our part to make it out of the darkness.

Would a “regular” job have been easier to navigate through that time with? Sure! But would it have been as rewarding on the other side……I don’t think so.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been a wedding planner for over 15 years. It has helped me transition into wedding venue owner pretty smoothly I think based on all the venues I have been to over my 15 years and seeing what works well, what could be tweaked logistically, etc.

I am a problem solver. That is what I do. Especially on wedding days, if anything goes wrong, people look to the planner to solve it. I am a patient person and can stay cool in the heat of the moment.

I am proud of the fact that I have worked for myself for over 15 years and now my husband and I have built something really special and unique for our clients. We strive for excellence for every wedding we host. We are both professionals and we want our business to reflect that!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Back in 2007 I was managing a non-profit organization in Denver. It had some very busy times and then slower times. During the slower times I began to think about other things I could be doing. I happened to have a bunch of friends getting married that year and decided to put my event planning experience to work.

I asked a few friends if I could be their wedding planner and try my hand at it. Turns out I did a pretty good job! I kept doing a few weddings here and there over the next year or two until my own wedding. Then my husband and I had our first daughter and I decided that I wanted more flexibility in my job to be able to be home with my daughter.

I “retired” from the non-profit role after 6 years and decided to try wedding planning full-time, on my own! It took off and the rest is history!

Then my husband and I moved from Denver to Howard, CO to an 11 acre property. In 2018 we decided to pursue our, often talked about, idea to open our own venue. The search began for the perfect barn and then we found it and the rest is history!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for us has been through social media and referrals from past clients or guests that have attended weddings at our venue!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://howardcreekfarm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howardcreekfarm/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howardcreekfarm

Image Credits
Justyna Butler Photography Anna Sees Photography Paper Posey Photography Sagebrush Soul Photography