Meet April & Shaina Dreyson | Mobile Bar & Event Experience Coordinators

We had the good fortune of connecting with April & Shaina Dreyson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi April & Shaina, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My wife and I, even before being together, had each always wanted to be entrepreneurs. Shortly after getting married, we created our vision for what we would like to ultimately do, which is own a venue unlike any other! However, you can imagine that building a venue takes quite the capital and neither of us wanted to just wait for that vision to come through before working for ourselves. So we worked backwards to find what we could do that would naturally feed into that same space and allow us to get started on building our vision sooner. We have several whys. More freedom to give back our time and financial donations to the causes we care most about, more control over our own success, setting an example for our kids and empowering them to go after their own dreams, getting paid to do what we love and have always been doing anyway, which is creating memorable experiences for people, and more!

What should our readers know about your business?

We started The Dreyson as a way to do what we love… create amazing experiences for clients and their guests, and, as our success builds, use that success to bring awareness to causes that mean a lot to us as well as spend our time and resources working with the organizations behind them to create real change.

We’re most proud of the name recognition that has been created so far, at least within our community of Keller. We also have an amazing gig coming up! We are providing our gorgeous bars and bartending experience to a 700+ guest law enforcement appreciation event. Since I mentioned name recognition, I want to touch base on why we chose to name our company The Dreyson. Dreyson is actually a name that we created when we got married. It’s a combination of our two maiden names. We went through the process of background checks, fingerprinting, and asking a judge for permission to change our names. Dreyson is symbolic of the amazing life that we are creating together, and it felt natural to name the business we have created after that.

I wouldn’t say it’s been easy to get where we are. What I will say is that, because it’s been so important to us from the beginning to follow the laws, not skip any steps when creating the business, and make sure to operate with the utmost integrity, it’s made the journey easier than it could have been.

We have definitely faced some challenges. One challenge was just a mindset change. We are not the cheapest out there, and I had to remind myself several times in the beginning that we are absolutely worth what we charge. That discounting to get business wasn’t going to KEEP us in business. I suppose being a lesbian owned business has had a few challenges, but I will say that overall we have been met with acceptance and open arms. The biggest challenge right now is that I still need to work my full time job. I have big goals of quitting that in the next six months, but for now balancing the two has been difficult. Shaina can definitely handle it all, but I do feel a little guilt when she’s attending 10 networking events a week and I’m only able to make one or two. I also know that the energy when we are able to work together is something we want to bring to every event and just everyday business.

I want the world to know that we put so much into creating custom experiences, because we really care about everyone we work with. This means that not only will the ingredients be fresh, the bars gorgeous and high quality, the decor top notch, and the music perfect for the environment (when we DJ), but we will also be creating an atmosphere that keeps the vibe alive during your event! Just as important, we will always make sure that we are conducting business with the utmost integrity, always following the laws, and always cheering on the success of others, even our competitors.

We have both come from very difficult backgrounds, but have always used that to motivate ourselves to do better and encourage other people to dream big!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, luckily my wife is the ultimate date night planner so I get to use her ideas for this! Places we would be sure to visit: Rooftop Cinema, Stockyards of course, Modern Art Museum of FW, a show with The Dallas Poetry Slam, a show by Sofar Sounds, at least one night having pizza wherever Son of A Baker is set up at, FnG Eats, Sandbox VR, any (or maybe all) local escape rooms, Joe T Garcia, La Mina, Los Molcajetes, Dallas Arboretum, and our house where I’m sure we will throw a party since my best friend is in town!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Honestly, so many people. I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible! My dad (April) who raised me to dream big and never let my gender get in the way of accomplishing great things. My best friends, Morgan Meine and Shawn Cather, which happens to also be Shaina’s sister. They have done everything possible to support us. Morgan has even provided photography for our business because I’m great at a lot of things, but photography isn’t one of them! Our realtor, Jaymie Tenpenny, who has answered the phone every time over the past ten years when I’ve wanted to bounce a business idea off her and she always responds with enthusiasm, belief in me, and ideas on how to make it even better! My old boss, Todd Carlson, who helped shape me into the bada** I am today (can I say that?) and has done more for me than he will ever know. Our kids, Seth and Sadie, for providing us motivation daily. Last but not least, our very dear friends Kacie and Ryan Gilbert. They have gone completely out of their way numerous times to show how much they support and believe in us. Ok, there’s more but I’ll stop there. Truly, though, we are surrounded by a community of amazing supporters and are so incredibly lucky!

Website: www.thedreyson.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thedreyson

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/thedreyson

Image Credits
Morgan Meine