Photo by Terry Georgia
Kids bounce and play on one of Rad Rental’s bouncy castles.

By Will Cornelius
The Surveyor

Kelli Jones wants to create a one-stop shop for anyone looking to throw a party or hold an important event. The Berthoud-based mother of three and her husband, Derrick, already run an event photography and catering business. So, what are the wife-husband duo missing? Why bouncy castle rentals of course!

“We got into bounce houses because we’re photographers. We do a lot of wedding photography and the white bounce houses have been trending at receptions and stuff. We were like—oh, this would be perfect to get into we have this clientele already. And then we have three kids. We know a ton of kids. So, we’re like this feels like something we could have a really good market in and help bring people extra fun stuff to their parties,” Kelli Jones explained.

Earlier this year, the Joneses began renting out bouncy castles to weddings after seeing their popularity rise on social media and clients asking about them. The bouncy castle business complements the Joneses’ other work as event photographers and caterers. “We’re like a one-stop shop,” said Jones.

The connection to weddings also gave the duo a great idea for the color of the bouncy castles. All of Rad Rentals’ bouncy castles are stark white. Originally this was to match the white theme at weddings, but it also became a great way to highlight their commitment to cleanliness. With scores of grubby kids or even adults jumping and playing in the bouncy castles all day, the Joneses wanted to ensure that the blow-up houses were also clean and sanitized. “We sanitize them after every single use. Like deep cleaned every time,” Jones stated. Rad Rental’s bright white bouncy castles look like they are brand new at every event with not a spot of grime to be seen. “We’ve gotten a lot of compliments like ‘Oh my gosh we can see your houses are clean.” I’m like ‘Yes that’s the point,’” she said with a smile.

Like any business related to large events, packing, setting up and breaking down is a big task. “We got up at 5:30 and we came here at 7,” said Jones at a basketball tournament at the Berthoud Recreation Center earlier this summer. “We had to load the generator, we had to go get gas, we had to put everything in the truck … we got done setting up probably 9:30. We had to make multiple trips to get all our balloons and everything here.”

In addition to the traditional bouncy castle style, Rad Rentals also features an enclosed bounce tunnel with swirling balloons for kids. “Prior to this, we blew up 400 balloons, which took us about an hour and a half together,” Derrick Jones said.

This past summer has seen Rad Rentals spring up at many local Berthoud events. “We’re always willing to do stuff with our community—like movies in the park,” he said. Rad Rentals also set up a bounce house for the opening of B-Rad’s Arcade on Mountain Avenue this summer. “We really love being involved. We’ve had a lot of opportunities to meet a lot of the people here and it’s been amazing,” said Kelli Jones.

Another bonus for the young family is that the Jones kids are more than happy to come to work with their parents all day. “They were stoked. I mean, they love it. Everywhere we go they get to play all day. They have got no complaints. And it’s nice because they get to come to work with us,” said the mother of three about bringing her young kids to work. “We don’t have to get a sitter, they come with us.”

For Rad Rentals and the Joneses, they want to continue to grow their business and are looking to add water slides, obstacle courses and hopefully a few employees in the future. “Just grow as much as we can,” said Kelli Jones. “We’ve had lots of outreach and lots of love and we really appreciate it. We want to be here for a long time.”

For those interested in renting a bouncy castle for their next party or wedding, visit www.radrentalsnoco.com, email [email protected] or call 970-619-0460.