Amy Kelly of M Y Scaffolding and her colleague (and now husband), Jack, recently got married on their home island of Anglesey. Such is their passion for their trade that they themed the wedding around scaffolding. FMB Cymru Director, Ifan Glyn, had a chat with Amy about their big day and their journey towards it.
Q1. Can you tell me how you got into this industry and how you got to where you are today?
Dad set up M Y Scaffolding in 1989 when I was just toddler. He joined the FMB soon after and we’ve been in membership ever since. By the time it came to leave school, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but ended up going to college to do general construction. It wasn’t that I had a burning passion for the industry; it was more a case of deciding that doing something was better than doing nothing, and there was that link with dad working in the sector. After completing the course, I went looking for work, but nobody was willing to take me on. It wasn’t from a lack of trying - I sent my CV to over a hundred companies. I had to do something, so I offered to work for a local company for six-months for free - call it work experience. I joined the company as a general labourer, and after two-weeks on site, the owner said I was contributing as much as the other labourers, so decided to start paying me.
A few months later, out of nowhere, the owner decided that he was retiring and wound up the company. It was a real kick in the teeth, considering how hard it had been to get the job in the first place. Fortunately, the second time around, I managed to find a job quite quickly as a Trainee Assistant Site Manager with a large company that was headquartered in Bangor, Gwynedd.
Attention to detail is my thing, and I like procedure, so I was soon transitioned to their Health & Safety department. I did this for two and a half years. I was based in St Asaph HQ and living in Chester but was doing a lot of travelling around the country. All the travelling took its toll, and, in the end, it just got a bit much. I therefore decided I needed to step away from it. I told dad that I needed a break, and he offered me a job as a labourer back on Anglesey, where I could just keep my head down for a bit. That was 14 years ago. I continued labouring for 18 months solid gaining my Scaffolding Labourer’s Card. I eventually transitioned to more office-based work, and now I run the company office along with the odd bit of scaffold labouring!
Q2. How has the company changed in the 14 years you have been involved?
It’s smaller than it was. We have me, dad, and three supervisors on the books; the rest we bring in as required. We operate the German Layher scaffolding system rather than tube and fitting. The Layher system is less labour intensive and, in our opinion, is better and safer. We’re a company that is meticulous about our processes - we follow the guidelines and regulations down to a T. We don’t cut corners. We’re also quite reactive which I think a lot of our clients appreciate – we’re not particularly reliant on a long pipeline of work so we can help clients as and when they need us.
Q3. Now let’s talk about the wedding! How did you and Jack meet?
We met at a vintage steam engine rally, where Jack attended with his family’s steam engine and I was organising the event with my father, Alan, who was Chairman of The Anglesey Vintage Equipment Society at the time.
The very first time I saw Jack, I turned to my mate and said that one day I was going to marry that man, and lo and behold, it turned out to be true! He lived in Aberystwyth and was working in a caravan park. He soon moved up here to Anglesey, joined the company and trained as a scaffolder. He’s been a scaffolder with the company for six years now, and I know I may be biased, but he’s a natural.
Q4. So, how was the wedding?
It was a wonderful day! We did it in a barn at home. It wasn’t meant to be a big wedding, but we ended up with 170 guests! I did all the planning, whilst Jack…poor Jack…. did all the hands-on work.
The wedding was themed around scaffolding. It just made sense- it’s something that ties us. We used scaffolding boards and poles to make tables (with 170 guests, they were very long!), used them to build a bar, built a dancefloor out of them and cladded the barn with boards. If I’d had my way, we would have used the company vans to transport the wedding party, but my sisters intervened and put their foot down! We did it all on a £5,000 budget and had so much fun arranging it. I wish I could do it all over again!
Authors
Ifan Glyn
Ifan is the Director of Regions & Home Nations / Wales Director and in addition heads up of the FMB regional and devolved nations team. He is also a member of the FMB Senior Management Team. Ifan holds an MA in History from the University of St Andrews and an MSc in Welsh Government and Politics from Cardiff University.
