Business Profile: Cedar Spring Farm

Since it opened in 2020, Cedar Spring Farm has become one of the area’s premier event solutions providers. Located at 18919 E. County Road 410 North the business is named for the centuries’ old farm land on which it stands, Cedar Spring Farm (CSF, for short) was founded by the trio of mother, Lana Greenlee, and sisters Mikala Brown and Maclyn Benedict following Brown’s own wedding during the COVID pandemic of 2020. Cedar Spring Farm offers a plethora of products and services that take the sting and stress out of the finer details of event planning.

Recently, Benedict carved out some time to chat by phone about the business, what it’s like being in business with family, the importance of offering a service such as this in the Hope area, as well as what Cedar Spring Farm is shaping up to potentially look like in the future.

How did Cedar Spring Farm get its name?
We based our name on – my sister bought a farm and they renovated the old farmhouse and it has a large old barn – the place was originally called Cedar Spring Farm and so that is what we chose to call the business. The barn on her property will eventually become a venue.

When do you plan on adding that?
It is in our five year plan. It needs a lot of work. Everything is super old and it is super historic. We want to keep that same feel, but renovate it so can be used as a venue eventually.

Whose idea was it to start the business?
My sister Mikala was definitely the one who had the vision at first. She got married a couple of years ago and it turned into a, “Wow, we have all these things we’ve bought and made. Now what do we do? Do we sell it all?” And then she came up with the idea that we rent it out. She has always loved planning and is very detail oriented and thrives with planning things. She got us on board with the idea and it just spawned from there.

Has it turned out like you anticipated?
We have always had the vision of having a venue, but as far as progressing to event planning we anticipated it happening eventually. We didn’t see the planning services and all that we’ve added to our inventory – we didn’t anticipate that happening within a year of launching. We have felt some growing pains for sure.

Honestly, we kind of expected a slow start, but to our surprise things just kind of really picked up quickly. With COVID starting to subside, people were rescheduling things and so what we have become, it wasn’t originally the intent, an entire event solutions provider.

If you would, please share a bit more detail about what products and services you offer.
So we cover things as far as linens, centerpieces, planning services – and that can include weddings, graduation parties, and about any event. We have picked up a lot of things we didn’t originally intend to, but it has made us super versatile. We have props, signage, arches, dinnerware, linens, etc... We have been listening to our customer base, seeing what the need is, addressing that and adding it to our inventory. A lot of different things, but it has worked out really well.

Are there any other offerings?
We currently also offer in-house events, like build your own bouquet, or anything like that that a bride would like to be a part of. Some brides want to build their own bouquet or to be a part of that. So we host those where the bride is able to show us a picture of what she wants her bouquet to look like. We will get the materials and host the bride and her party and everyone can build their own bouquets. That’s been a really cool offering that we have, too.

How large of an area of the property is used for the business?
We do a lot of the building at my parents’ house. I have a workshop at my house as well, so I do some of the smaller scale stuff here. And then my sister has a small workshop at her house, but a lot of it is done at my parents’ house and then stored at my sister’s. There are probably five matching barns on the property and they are all worn with the metal roof. We have big plans for what that will eventually look like and that is in the works.

What has been the greatest challenge you’ve encountered with this venture so far?
The growing pains we felt. Obviously when you start your own business you are learning everything from scratch. We have mentors. My dad has his own business that he has been running for years now. It has definitely been an adventure to figure out what works, what doesn’t and adapting to figure it out. We’ve had to learn to adapt.

What is the demand like? Do you find the majority of your clientele are brides? What other events do you cater?
We see a good split. As far as inventory, we see a lot of weddings and almost an even split of random events, like birthdays, retirement parties, graduation parties, etc. Recently, there have been a lot of businesses reaching out for linens and centerpieces for their events. It has been a really good thing seeing businesses reaching out in addition to individuals.

Switching gears, what are the family’s day jobs?
My dad, Brian, is a contractor. And then my sister, mom and I all have part-time jobs that we do on the side, but this takes full-time effort. So we are a bit extended at the moment, but eventually long-term this is going to support all our family.

How has it been establishing your business in Hope? What reception have you received?
We’ve had a ton of support. When we first launched we were trying to do anything to get our name out there as quickly as possible. Our very first event was through Hauser High School where all of us went to high school and so it was really neat to see that come full circle. We did our first event there and since they’ve had us come back and do two or three more events. It is really neat because it gives us that point of contact and you go with people you trust.

When were those first events?
Right after we launched.

So once you take on a client, what does the creative process and logistics of making it all come together look like?
It looks different for different people. We’ve had people reach out a couple of days in advance, obviously, the further in advance we can get a heads up the better for the purposes of checking inventory and that we have the date available.

People will email us through our web site, find us on Facebook or just word of mouth. When they call we get all the details of their event and we will check our inventory for that date and then further discuss the finer details.

Obviously things can change, so we give the client the flexibility to make changes to their invoice all the way up to the event. Since we have all been through this process, we want to make it as easy as possible for people. If they want to come and see things in person, we will set up a time for them to stop out at our location.

We do a lot of mock-ups so if someone has a vision of what they want something to look like and they have pictures, then they send those pictures to us and we can recreate that. They can come to our location to see the set-ups we’ve done or we can get a text thread going where we send pictures back and forth to make sure the client is getting exactly what they want.

What do you enjoy most about your involvement with this business?
One hundred percent being able to work with my mom and sister. When we were growing up we were very close and family-oriented and so this gives us the opportunity to work together pretty much every single day. It is a blessing and a curse. But we all live on the same road, so we are able to see each other, work together and it makes business much easier. When we have someone coming to look at inventory there is always someone available. It gives us opportunities that a lot of other people don’t have who work the normal 9 to 5.

What advice would you offer individuals out there planning an event?
When it came to planning my wedding I absolutely hated it. I didn’t want to plan a single thing and now here I am in the planning business. I wanted no part of it and my sister took the reins. I said, “Yes, please just plan it all. Take care of it all. I want it to be as hands free as possible.” And that is exactly what she did. She planned everything for me. I basically had the Cedar Spring Farm experience. I said, “Yes, this is exactly how it should be for people who don’t want to deal with it, but they want it to be all they imagined.” I thought, we should give people this option. Now that I am planning for other people, I absolutely love it. So my advice is, if you don’t want to deal with that stress and all the small details because holey moley, there are a lot of details. Focusing on the fact you are getting married or the family aspect of it, to me, was more important than handling all the details. For me, it was easier to have someone else handle that for me. It is totally different when you are planning for someone else.

Is there anything you would do differently?
No, I am looking forward to eventually pulling back on the rental side of things and focusing more on the actual venue. I think that is all our main vision to be able to host. Right now we are focused on the rental aspect to build up funds to start renovating. I know that long-term all of us are really holding out for the venue and that is what we want. Moving forward, I am really looking forward to managing the property and landscape around the venue and making that look exactly how I want it to look. That is what I am most excited for right now.

So where do you see Cedar Spring Farm going in the future?
We are hoping for a five year plan, everything is in the works, where we have a venue and are hosting by then. Honestly, by then, I am hoping to be geared toward the venue and doing in-venue rentals rather than working off-site with all the travel and set-up. Our goal is to keep everything in-house across the board.

** more information about Cedar Spring Farm, visit cedarspringfarm-csf.com, call 812-344-0517 or email [email protected].