We recently connected with Kiel Long and have shared our conversation below.
Kiel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
My business partner and I began Cherry Hill Wedding Films in March of 2023. We discovered our passion for film while both attending the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. It was my business partner Cobe, who first began shooting weddings on the side for extra income. He needed an additional videographer for one of his shoots so he invited me. We drove to Palm Springs and despite the 95 degree weather, shot one of the most beautiful weddings ever. When the day was over and while we were driving home, I began reflecting on the day and wedding. I had realized how much fun we had. It didn’t feel like work. Fast forward a few weeks later – I called Cobe and said I wanted to start a wedding videography business with him. He was down. Because we were both working other jobs within the film industry, we didn’t feel pressure to get the business going quickly. This allowed us to take our time building out our website, marketing strategy and relationships with other vendors. We were confident that we would be able to book weddings with the proper marketing and relationships. Although it’s a somewhat crowded space, that didn’t scare us away from launching. We ended up securing 20 weddings in 2024 and had a great wedding season!
Kiel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
At Cherry Hill Wedding Films, we provide luxury custom films for our clients. With members of our team working with NBC and Travis Mathew, we have professional commercial filming experience. We bring an abundance of experience and creativity to our projects that allows us to create unique and fun films that our couples love. We strive to make every film something that our couples will want to watch for the rest of their lives.
We are stress-free and make sure that we never add on any extra pressure or nerves the day of. Capturing genuine moments of joy, tears, and laughter, and turning them into timeless memories is what Cherry Hill Wedding Films loves most.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Thankfully, our business didn’t have to put up that much money to get things started. We don’t have an office and aren’t creating any physical products or using any machinery. The costs we had in the beginning were purchasing a domain, LLC, and Wix account. My business partner and I already had all the equipment necessary to run the business.
We do however have monthly costs which includes our advertising, keeping up our Wix and business accounts running and travel fees.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
What helped us get traction in the beginning was making great connections with other vendors. Shout out to Sarah Peterson of Sarah Peterson Photography. Sarah is an established and extremely talented photographer in the Bay Area. We connected over email and had a mutual respect for each other’s work – because of this, she referred us to several couples.
We also connected with a few other vendors that did the same. Getting to know others in the industry and creating a good relationship I think is vital to making a successful business.
Contact Info:
- Website: Cherry hill wedding films.com
- Instagram: @cherryhillweddingfilms.com
