Exploring Life & Business with Maya & Sahar Alawar of The Art of Gathering

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maya & Sahar Alawar

Hi Maya & Sahar, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Hello! My name is Maya, I’m 22 years old, and I’m the owner of The Art of Gathering, which is a luxury picnic and events business based in Raleigh and traveling to all of North Carolina! Along with my mom, Sahar, I own and operate AG (our nickname for The Art of Gathering), and we pride ourselves on being a minority women-owned business!
Having just graduated from high school in 2020 and moved all the way from Lebanon (where I was born and raised) to NC in the middle of a pandemic, it’s safe to say that I’ve had my fair share of change. In the last 4 years since I’ve moved to the US, I’ve earned my Associate in Arts degree from Wake Technical Community College, and I’m currently a student at NC State doing a double major in International Relations and Business! I manage the PR, marketing, logistics, and management side of AG – my mom, Sahar, on the other hand, does all the creative work & event decor while still working her 9-5 job as a manager at a local supply company! Sahar has a background in event planning and has been actively hosting & decorating intimate events for the last 7 years (since we lived in Lebanon); so together, we make an amazing team!
We began working with The Art of Gathering in June 2023, and have been in business for just about a year! We started off only specializing in all-inclusive luxury picnics, and have hosted over 100 picnics and events in the last year. Our business quickly took off and we had to keep up with the demand, having purchased our AG van and hired 3 part-time employees (not counting our family members who volunteer their time and effort to help us on the weekends when busy season is in full swing)!
In May 2024, we also began offering our event planning & decor services for intimate events, focusing on our name ‘The Art of Gathering’ and trying to stay in line with what that means for us!

The Art of Gathering has been a creative outlet & a way for my mom and I both to prove ourselves and create something that is bigger than what we could have ever dreamed of. We’re so happy that the community in Raleigh has welcomed us with open arms and shared our love for ‘celebrating human connection as an art form’.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
From culture shock to balancing family & work, I can definitely say that the journey thus far has NOT been easy (and I’m sure it will continue to demand passion, attention, and intentionality from us both as we continue to grow).

The name & brand: We first started off our luxury picnics under the name AG Picnics, and did an amazing job working with multiple creators and businesses local to Raleigh – but we felt that the name didn’t exactly encompass who we were and wouldn’t allow us the room to grow into events later down the line. We made the decision to rebrand in the end of May 2024, and here we are, almost a month later, under the name The Art of Gathering while still keeping our original nickname ‘AG’.

Growing Pains & Expansion: Although we are grateful, there is no doubt that such quick growth in such a short amount of time can cause a lot of growing pains. Initially, we were operating out of our garage & quickly realized that there was no WAY we’d be able to fit all of our growing inventory there, and we couldn’t continue to inflict wear and tear on our personal cars. So we bought a van, split our inventory between the garage and the storage unit (which is now bursting at the seams), and even hired part-time weekday and weekend Picnic Planners & Picnic Hosts to keep up with the growing demand. Speaking of demand, I would say that the biggest part of our growth came from our saying ‘yes’ to everything (which is both a blessing and a curse). With me juggling school & Sahar balancing work, it was clear to us that we couldn’t keep saying yes to all of the business opportunities we came across if we didn’t have the staff to back it up, and we were approaching burnout if we didn’t do something about it!

Balancing Family & Work: Being a mother-daughter duo definitely brought us closer together, but it also tested our relationship in many different ways, and the biggest takeaway has been learning to compromise and being patient with one another as we navigate having tons of work to do and only 24 hours in a day.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The Art of Gathering, otherwise known as AG, is a luxury picnic & events business based in Raleigh! We offer intimate event planning services, tablescapes & backdrops, and party rentals and decor, but our specialty is all-inclusive luxury picnic packages, which cater to any and all types of clients and their life milestones. From date nights & proposals, to baby showers & bachelorette parties, and even intimate weddings, we provide a creative way to celebrate life events minus the hassle. By all-inclusive, we mean all-inclusive, offering complimentary charcuterie boxes for each guest, as well as water & sparkling water, games and activities, picnic essentials such as insect repellent, sanitizer, etc…, music, a custom chalkboard message, as well as different themes to choose from and the entire setup at the location of the client’s choice! Our picnic setups start at 2 hours, and we tell clients all the time: all you have to do is show up! We take care of everything, even offering add-ons such as a romance package, rentals, catering – literally anything you can think of! We try to make the booking process as seamless and easy as possible, with offering everything in the picnic package so you don’t even have to lift a finger!
Our picnic themes range from Bohemian, to Arabian Nights, Santorini Summer, Paint & Sip, Movie Nights, an upcoming Tea Party theme (Voyage Raleigh readers are the first to know about this ;)) and even custom decor based on what the client is looking for. All of our setups can be enjoyed in a high seating format (tables and chairs, dinner party style) or low seating format (pillows, picnic style).
We work with multiple public parks in the area, including Dorothea Dix Park, the Museum of Art, and the Raleigh Rose Garden, but we also can go to any location like club houses, backyards, or private venues!
Brand-wise, our focus is really on creating the perfect experience and offering value to our clients in return for what they pay for. We pride ourselves on excellent customer service, high reviews across the board, and a very high return rate (clients will often book us for multiple events of theirs after their first time working with us)!
With the AG standard, we take attention to detail VERY seriously, and make sure to be flexible and accomodating to our clients’ needs. We also love to get creative and host ticketed & themed events with local groups which allow people to enjoy our setups in a group setting (no need to wait for all your friends to book a picnic with you).

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Based on the standard we have set for ourselves at AG, success to us is very very separate from any tangible or monetary value. Success to us means being embraced by the community, clients leaving events with full stomachs and light hearts from conversation and laughter, and us being able to maintain and strengthen familial bonds as well as our relationships with our guests who oftentimes become our close friends.

Pricing:

• All-Inclusive Picnic for 2+ Guests – starts at $350
• All-Inclusive Picnic for 7+ Guests- starting $700
• All-Inclusive Party Picnic for 13+ Guests – starting $1,400
• Every extra guest is $30!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theartofgathering.net
• Instagram: @theartofgathering.ag
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theartofgathering.co
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@theartofgathering