We were lucky to catch up with Kelly Ryan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kelly, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

One of the things that Kelab Events & Design does differently is we don’t accept referral fees or kickbacks from our vendors. While we appreciate our vendors offering this to us, we prefer to be recommending a vendor to our client for the quality of their work, not because we are getting a percentage back!

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

Kelly Ryan, owner of Kelab Events & Design, was laid off from her corporate event planning job during COVID. During this time, many of her old clients were reaching out asking for assistance on last-minute backyard weddings or graduation celebrations. She naturally pivoted into social events during the pandemic and officially launched Kelab Events & Design in March of 2021.

Kelab Events & Design is a full-service planning, design, and rental company. We pride ourselves on designing elevated social events from 300-person weddings to 20-person showers. Since we own a lot of our rentals in-house we are able to be competitive with our pricing. We work closely with our clients to create custom, unique event themes and designs that properly represent them.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

This is a little bit of a controversial take, but my first year in business I did so many events for free to get our name out there. I participated in every styled shoot that I could, I took on clients at no charge or at cost, and I designed for venues at no fee. I think this year was the most pivotal in my career as far as gaining a following, creating content, and building connections in the industry!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Seeing the designs come to life. It is one thing to build out and idea on paper, but it is entirely different to see it come to life and watch your client experience it for the first time!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kelabevents.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelabevents/

Image Credits
Hailie D Photography Lauren Di Donato Photography Sharyn Louise Photography Marilyn Lamanna Photography Young Plant Weddings Cheryl Betances Photography Grace Does Photos