Galentines at Gather - A Night for the Girls

Heart eyes are in the air and atmosphere year-round at a venue like Gather, since we’re always organizing couples’ special day, so for Valentine’s 2025, we focused on strengthening and emphasizing those female friendships!
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Glamorized girls-night-out 

Events manager Mackenzie Liedtkey has strongly desired a women's-only occasion and event in the Green Bay area for a few years, after recognizing the city’s predominant focus on the male presence in most bars and recreational hangouts.

“It’s been a dream of mine to create a safe space for women in this city for a while now,” Mackenzie stated, determined to achieve this. “Around the midst of COVID-19, I noticed how sports-bar centered Green Bay is, there aren’t casual spaces for women to dress up, go dancing, or hangout and have fun together without the title of a bachelorette party being associated with the group and people looking at you sideways. I didn’t really have a preference when this event happened, just that we would be dedicated to creating an over-the-top, women-empowering-women event.”

Mackenzie revealed that when she pitched the idea of this event to Jyll and Tommy, they were more than eager to give her and Erin full responsibility and creative direction with it, their only request being that it be an event like Gather’s never seen before. 

“I originally pitched this idea for something around Halloween, but with timing, budget, and organization, we ended up going in the direction of Galentines’ day, which I think was an even better fit,” Mackenzie smiled. “Jyll and Tommy were super trusting, and stepped back to let Erin and I take over this event. They only had two requests: make sure there was an atmosphere of a real story behind bringing everyone together, and make it feel as little like a wedding as you can.”

“We wanted to direct our focus to a different demographic for this type of event – we have our foodies at the Taste events, concerts for live music lovers, and even our repeating Drag show attendees – maybe the women attending our Galentine's event will think of Gather for future bridal or baby showers, for themselves or as suggestions to friends and family.”

Creating an entirely new style event didn’t prove to be much of a hurdle for Mackenzie as she had been organizing and coordinating elements for this event for years. Gathering ideas from her own Galentines’ plans with friends, past events held within the venues she’s worked in, and even unique aspects that have been featured in past weddings she’s organized for, Mackenzie knew the direction she was aiming to follow.

“I wanted to create a polished space for women to feel safe in; I wanted it to feel cool, I wanted it to be Instagramable, but I also wanted it to tell a story for each and every person in attendance, so that the next day people are reaching out with thanks or feedback,” she explained. “I wanted to make something I was proud of creating, that I would attend myself, and who doesn't love a good little photo shoot with some pink sunglasses and fun cocktails in hand? There was no way anything about this event would be half-done, I wanted it to be blown out of proportion.”

And nothing was left “half-done”, with activities the more than 200 attendees will surely be talking about for many years to come, and anticipating the next Galentines’ event Gather releases tickets for. Mackenzie lined up fantastically fun features such as a do-it-yourself (DIY) lipgloss bar, dubbed the Kissing Booth, where friends could both create their own lipgloss, and pick from the many branded lipglosses offered, and so much more!

“My vision started with a picture of a disco ball chandelier that came across my Pinterest feed, and from there, my vision of decor took shape,” Mackenzie explained. “I was looking for trendy, Instagramable moments that really captured the perfect photo opp with your girlfriends. I thought about what stations we could bring into the space that you might not see at other public events, such as tattooing, permanent jewelry, a lipgloss bar… I wanted our guests to be able to create these lasting memories with their best friends.”

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Fantastically fun features

Offering these unique features meant finding and vetting the right vendors for the gig. Gather is a highly sought-after and reputable venue, so they must have vendors of the same calibre, who would make sense at the event, and who, overall, would have a good time while manning their station!

“A lot of our vendors are used to the wedding industry and had never been booked for a public event to this degree, so to book them for a public event that had a lasting impact on the guest made the experience all the more special,” she smiled. “A few of the vendors expressed how they felt it was simply an honor to be a part of the event.”

Since the intent was to have the event experience-driven, Erin and Mackenzie decided the evening would not include a sit-down meal or element, intending for those moments to be conducted before the event, but for guests to save a sweet tooth for the party! Our catering manager and pastry chef Maddy Meyer whipped up a rich and extensive lineup of breathtaking picture-perfect pastries for the fun. 

“While marketing for this event, Erin and I thought about factors we’d like to experience or see from other events like this one,” explained Mackenzie. “We thought, for an event of this nature, it would be best for friends to come to this event having had dinner together first, and our event would be in place of going to a bar or dancing.” 

“Since we were going to be subbing for that dancing element in an evening, we knew we had to have the right DJ,” she said. “We chose Zarren from YoDJ and Gabe from Signature Entertainments because they’ve become very trusted vendors of Gather, and they know our space very well at this point. They know how to live mix, and they both play that newer and trending music we were looking to fill the scene.”
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“We had tattoo artists, permanent jewelers, a professional photographer conducting a fun and elaborate photo shoot – it was really, really cool to see the venue transformed into just this bright pink, vibrant space,” she grinned. “We wanted our activities and events to fit the vibe of the event, so we hired Sugar Ink Tattoo’s fine-line artist Rawsha Nordwig, based out of Suamico [WI], and unique tattooist and stylist Sarah Baenen, who has nearly 12k followers on Instagram and is also our pastry chef’s, Maddy Meyer, regular tattoo artist. Having two different styles to our tattooists definitely elevated the experience of the event.”

The event began at 8 PM and lasted until 11:30 PM, the perfect time frame for some dancing and fun after a nice meal with your girlfriends. Gather’s fully-stocked bar offered a few specialty cocktails in these hearts and artful themes, adding to the photographic aesthetic of it all, with a classic Titos and soda embellished with raspberry puree, which we dubbed the XOXO Fizz, and a peach bellini labeled Peach Please.

“We also offered two varieties of mocktails, which we received great feedback on,” Mackenzie gushed. “Being the first year of this event, we definitely had a few things to learn from and received input and inspiration on some event features for next time, but overall we had an overwhelming outpour of support for the event as people were leaving and in the days that followed!”

“Erin and I were hoping for maybe 100 ticket purchases, but we hit 200 tickets with no problem and it really blew our expectations out of the water,” she revealed. “People raved about the setup, vendors were excited to be a part of a new event, Maddy killed it with her desserts, Jyll and I even got to squeeze in a few dances to Taylor Swift! Everyone had fun, which was a relief, but also provided such a sense of pride for myself to see it all come together like that.”

Mackenzie’s intentions for this event came together in many more ways than she could have imagined, with a glowing response regarding the decor, vendors, food, and overall experience for a woman-centered event in the heart of downtown Green Bay.

“Erin gave this amazing thank you speech at one point, emphasizing ‘Next weekend is for you and your significant other, tonight is about you and your girlfriends having fun, letting loose, and making memories,’ and that definitely summed up the passion for the night,” Mackenzie recalled. “What we created here was awesome, to see everybody dressed up and dancing with their friends, sitting around chatting, it felt amazing to sit back and think about how this is something that I've wanted to do for years, and I finally made it happen with the support of the whole team here at Gather behind me. I had a very fulfilling feeling of personal accomplishment the whole night.”

Had fun at Gather’s first Galentines? Looking forward to the next event of this nature or looking for a venue to host your own event? Subscribe to our newsletter today to keep up to date with all of our events and reach out via the link on our website with any questions! 

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