Today we’d like to introduce you to Gaybree Harris and Morgan White.
Gaybree and Morgan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Morgan has been baking since she was a little girl. She would bake birthday cakes for her parents and siblings; and, they were always tasty! I, Gaybree, developed a passion for cake decorating in my early adult years, but I only dabbled in it occasionally. We met when we were 17 years old: working at the same movie theater. Our friendship began there and led us to be college roommates for two years at the University of Houston. We both began our adult lives with full-time careers after graduating college in 2011-2012, but our business idea was yet to be formulated.
In the Spring of 2017, we began discussing our similar interests in entrepreneurship and our passions for baking and cake decorating. We would sit on the phone for hours watching various cake competitions and decorating shows, all while admiring their craft. After a few months of brainstorming about how we can make a business out of our love for cakes, and how to bring something new and exciting to this city, we landed on the idea of interactive, DIY cake decorating events. We knew we wanted to share our love of cake decorating by teaching others the basic skills, but we also wanted to incorporate fun interactions with our patrons. We are both extroverts and love engaging with new people! So it just made sense to combine it all into one. The passion for creating and our love of delicious cakes lead us to decide on the name, The CreATEery: The tasty Do-It-Yourself. Emphasis is placed on the word “ATE” to make it obvious that we cater to creating edible items.
After filing for our business entity, we didn’t take action immediately though. We weren’t sure what steps to take to get started or exactly how we should begin. That, unfortunately, lead us to refocus on our professional careers and to place our entrepreneurial dream on the back burner. We met with business advisers and mentors over the next year and a half gathering advice about business ownership, and in early 2019 we decided to take a leap and put our dreams into action. We began putting the pieces of our puzzle together. Our first official event was held in May of 2019, and it was called “Moms & Mimosas” in celebration of Mother’s Day. We hosted two sold out events our first week in business! Since then, we have held multiple monthly public events, as well as private and corporate parties.
Has it been a smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road…but it has been fun! There are three challenges that immediately come to mind. The first being how difficult it is to conduct business for ourselves while still working full-time jobs. Being an entrepreneur is a never-ending job in which all responsibilities fall on you. Thus, we both work around-the-clock, ensuring that we are able to give 100% to our business, and I believe the rapid growth we’ve seen is a result of that. Gaybree recently decided to resign from her career in education to be able to invest more time into the needs of our company.
The second challenge would be learning to work with the resources you have vs the resources you want. Running a business is expensive and time-consuming, and it isn’t always easy to obtain the capital needed to do things the way you want exactly when you want. Learning to make the most out of what’s available to us has been a challenge for the better. It’s taught us to be resourceful, problem solvers, and how to think outside the box!
Which brings me to the third challenge. As Morgan likes to describe it: “Building the plane while you’re flying it.” The CreATEery is a unique concept unlike any other activity in Houston. Meaning, we don’t have anything to follow as a blueprint. We are proudly the first people to bring themed cake decorating events to the city. We are constantly learning as we grow and analyzing after each event. It’s important that we bring a uniquely enjoyable experience to every one of our customers, and thus far, the feedback has been nothing but positive!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with The CreATEery – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
The CreATEery hosts monthly cake-decorating events, which you can purchase tickets to on our website. Some of the events are adult only, BYOB. And some of the events are kid-friendly and geared towards families. We specialize in decorating 6 in cakes and cupcakes, but our cake events are most popular. The events follow various themes ranging from particular cake designs to certain musical genres to holidays, etc. We also host private events for any celebration you can think of! Birthdays, bridal events, family fun, team building, corporate events, or just an exclusive night for friends! What sets us apart from others is everything! There is no other company doing what we do. Although you may find other bakers who hold baking/decorating classes, none of them provide fun events where you can gather with people, some strangers, and enjoy a night of mutual interests in cake creating and music!
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
What we like best about our city is how friendly people are. It is not at all uncommon for a guest to come to our event and leave with new friends! We also have a huge appreciation for the diversity here. We love that we are able to interact with so many different types of people.
What we like least about the city is traffic! It’s so frustrating! It seems like no matter what time of day or night it is, you’re bound to encounter it at some point along your route.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thecreateery.com
- Phone: 832-356-7559
- Email: info@thecreateery.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/thecreateery
- Facebook: facebook.com/TheCreATEery
- Twitter: twitter.com/thecreateery
Image Credit:
Fontane Films, William White
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