The Origin Story
Once upon a time, there was a baby gay child who loved a celebration. Every holiday required festive decorations. They didn’t need a reason to dance with the disco ball, strobe light, and a ribbon wand twirling about. A more casual affair really just needed some crepe paper streamers and some of their favorite stuffed animals! They didn’t know it, but someday their big gay party dreams would come true. Her childhood play was the very inception of Functions and Gatherings.
Many, many trips around the sun pass, and this same baby gay is now fully grown adult gay named Jake Taylor (they/she/he) and looking for a change! they intrepidly leaned into a journey to build herself into the Event Queen that they is today, through event support, co-designing and implementing a whole-ass coat check system, and cultivating relationships with as many Seattle event industry professionals as they could. Finally, it was her moment to make their big break into Event Planning with the goal of making a space in business where they could be fully herselves and encourage others to the same through the medium of throwing extraordinary, dramatic, and glamorous weddings and parties!
Why Functions and Gatherings you ask? Seems like a random name, doesn’t it? Not quite! Functions and Gatherings is named purposefully so that it spells FaG as an acronym. Reclaiming this slur in the name of a business that literally is here to celebrate queerness felt correct. Declaring to the world that, “I’m here, I’m queer, let’s party!”
With the two primary goals of throwing cool parties and doing gay shit, it felt right to let the world know Functions and Gatherings came out and they were open for business in 2017.
You might have heard, but just a few years into my slowly growing business, we ran into the start of a global pandemic *cue pearl clutch* that flipped everything we thought we knew about weddings, events, and gathering on its head. This made for a great time to regroup and brainstorm what’s next for the business while figuring out what it means to celebrate now in this new world.
Now that it seems like there’s sustainability in safer gathering, Functions and Gatherings is coming back out in full force! In the great words of Diana Ross, *music emoji* I’m COMING OUT! I want the world to know *music emoji*.
We’ve got a new look, a new website to match, and many surprises in store for the future. There are still dates left for 2023 and 2024’s books are open! Let’s meet soon and make your magical-ass wedding or party dreams come true!
