Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Jansa and Jennifer Klassen.
Growing up, Crystal always knew she wanted to be a business owner. In college at Midwestern State University, she held an internship with a software company planning their sales rally; that started her love of event planning. After a few years in the corporate world, Jennifer got a phone call of an event venue going on the market. After a long family conversation, they knew that this is what they wanted to do. Crystal left corporate America and ran Gather for 3 years until Jennifer decided to also leave her corporate career of 25 years to work with Crystal full time. Gather has now had a highly successful reputation and has had continued success for 6 years.
In 2014, Gather was awarded the Tourism Award for the City of McKinney and has been named the Best wedding venue in McKinney 3 out of the past 4 years. In 2017, it was named the best wedding venue in the LIVING Magazine for Plano and Allen; as well as many awards from The Knot and Wedding Wire.
Has it been a smooth road?
We bought Gather in November of 2011 and by June of 2012 we had turned the company around and had almost doubled the amount of events being held at the venue. We came into the industry not knowing a soul or honestly where to start. By meeting a few people who gave us great advice and since then have become more friends than colleges, we were able to grow at a rapid pace and maintain a great reputation.
While most people would not see this as a challenge, it’s pretty difficult to keep up with daily inquiries, emails and the upcoming events while being a one man show for a few years. Crystal was the only employee for the first 3 years; Jennifer coming on full time has been nothing but a blessing and now I get to work with my mom every day!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Gather in Downtown McKinney story. Tell us more about the business.
Gather in Downtown McKinney is a private event venue located on the McKinney Square. We specialize in intimate parties for about 150 people, however the venue can hold up to 200 people. Depending on your event needs we will help guide you to the best use of space with whatever guest count you may have. Our events have been as small as 50 and as large as 200.
Most of our business and what most people know us as is a wedding venue or something related to weddings i.e., rehearsal dinner, showers, or an after wedding brunch, but we will rent the venue for any party you desire. When people book an event at Gather I tell them you aren’t just getting the venue you are getting all of the ambiance of downtown McKinney, that’s such an added bonus from other venues. When Jennifer and Crystal started Gather we were very clear that every client are to be treated as if they are our own family. We have lots of past clients who have told us getting married at Gather is just like being at home. That is the biggest compliment we could receive because that tells us they were relaxed and trusted us fully to execute the biggest day of a person’s life.
The most proud I have been as a business owner was in 2014 when we were awarded the Tourism Partner Award in McKinney for bringing in the most business from outside the city. We had not been open long when we received that award and it kind of solidified for me that we were doing the right thing. I never thought my little venue had that much of an impact on such a large city.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
When I bought Gather in 2011, according to google there were about 10 venues in McKinney, now if you google wedding venue in McKinney you will get close to 30. The fact that we are just as full in bookings today as we were then tells me Gather is just something special and is here to stay for quite a while. The biggest shift and change has been most of those venues now are outdoor rustic venues. I like to think that Gather stands out from all of those since we are more of an industrial romance vibe in a historic building.
I have started to see more people want to get away from rustic and move slowly toward the more romantic modern vibe but with weddings it is all about each individual bride. Trends are changing all the time and at the end of the day it’s whatever the bride wants, and for that wedding the trend is whatever she picked. We are here to help execute someone’s dream day and we will do everything we can to make that happen.
Contact Info:
- Address: 207 E. Virginia,
McKinney, TX 75069 - Website: gathermckinney.com
- Phone: 972-548-8882
- Email: info@gathermckinney.com
- Instagram: @gatherdowntown
- Facebook: gatherindowntownmckinney
Image Credit:
K&S Photography
Emily Chappell Photography
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