Meet Lauren Culpepper of Ally & Belle

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Culpepper.

Lauren, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Ally & Belle is really more of a movement. I grew up in Stafford, Texas just down the road from where our shop is now. The Township Square was the place to be when I was young. I vividly remember shopping & dining in this charming little square, not because of what we bought or ate, but because of the interactions that we had. In a world that is moving online rather than in person, here at Ally & Belle we would like to change that. We love getting to know, supporting, and catering to our community. The suburbs of Houston, like Missouri City, are proving to be just as unique and diverse as Houston itself. Here we try to have a little bit of everything for everyone. You can shop for women’s clothing, children’s clothing, toys, gifts, & accessories. We even launched a small men’s section that we named Chase’s table after my husband. It is incredibly important for us to give back and support local. Here you can find local jewelry designers that make these incredible and unique pieces that you can’t get anywhere else. Most of the brands we’ve selected give back substantial portions, or in some cases for every item sold they send the same to an underprivileged child, so when you shop with us you’re not only giving back to your community & supporting local; you’re also giving back on a global scale.

As I mentioned in the beginning, Ally & Belle is a movement. Our choice to open in The Township Square was intentional. Not only for it’s charm and nostalgic features, but because we saw an opportunity here. This square has been begging for a revitalization and myself and another local business owner & Missouri City resident have taken on spearheading it’s resurgence. The community’s response to the new life being breathed in to The Township has been enormous. We are getting residents of Missouri City who remember this square in its glory days and are so grateful to have those times coming back to life. New residents comment on how they love the feel of coming in to a small town community, but have all the advantages of a big city. This is what we had in mind for our Township & for our community, and we are so excited and grateful to be a small part in all of this.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I previously was a pediatric nurse for just under 10 years, so no previous business experience here. I ended up between jobs trying to figure out what was next for me and for my family. I had someone tell me “why don’t you write out what ideals would be in your perfect job, even if they seem out of reach. Just put it out there in the universe,” she also said to me that looking at this list would help me to see what I might be missing when looking for this next role. I did and I kept coming back to some of the same desires. Creative. I wanted to be creative again and more flexibility for my family time. Then almost as if the universe heard me and said, “okay I can work with this”, my mother in law was telling me about how she’d always dreamed of having her own business and that she felt that it would be such a great job for her to step in to once she retired from her full time gig. My wheels got spinning & I looked at her and said, “ok I think I can do this, let me look in to it”. I got up every morning at 4am before my girls and husband awoke to run numbers, look at local commercial real estate, and just study up on the possibilities that might be ahead. The learning curve was great, and it’s just been by trial and error that I’ve gotten Ally & Belle to this point.

So that’s how I took off and ran with my dream to be creative and bring some flexibility to my lifestyle.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We focus on the interactions and the community as much as possible. At our shop we have Sip & Shop Saturdays. Each Saturday, all day, you can come in and shop and we serve complimentary different flavored mimosas and I feature a different local baker or bakery. The whole idea is, come in hang out with a sweet treat & a cocktail and just enjoy your time out. I know as a mom of two young girls, Ally is 5 and Belle is 3 (ie…Ally & Belle) and getting out on my own or with the girls can be a challenge, so I want shopping here to be more of a treat…or retreat rather. We have a tent set up with toys for the kiddos to keep them busy while mom shops, we have “bored husband chairs” and good music to help you make the most of your outing with us.

We are avid about our community & this wonderful Township Square we are a part of so we are always working on the next thing. We have already held a Pay It Forward event here after Hurricane Harvey, hosted by us but the whole Township got involved. We contacted local vendors in our city and had them come out to do pop up shops in and out of the store and advertised through social media and word of mouth. We gave back a portion of our profits and then that amount was matched dollar for dollar by Mark MacInerney, president & CEO of Codemark financial (another business in our Township). We raised just over $2,000 in total to give back to our city employees who were affected by the storm. This is just the beginning and one of the amazing things we have and plan to do with our community.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up in Stafford, so just down from where we are at Ally & Belle. I ran track, cross country and was a cheerleader as well. I cheered for a competitive team that allowed me to meet a lot of people from other schools and kept me busy traveling on the weekends. Cheering allowed me to get a full scholarship to Blinn Junior college where I got the chance to compete again at a collegiate level. I have always loved people, talking to people, making them laugh & smile. I like to move around and be doing something different as much as possible. To be stagnant is a nightmare for me. When I was younger I was passionate about art, however I let it fall behind as I grew up because I felt it might not be the safest career path and sports kept me quite busy. When I finished school and started working and became a home owner my artistic side came back out in decorating my home. My husband and I have always loved to try our hand at our own home reno work. And when we found the most amazing home on the most amazing lot here in Quail Valley but it needed a lot of updating we didn’t see it as a challenge…we saw it as an adventure. Luckily for me he is incredibly handy. So he did the hard work and I was there to hand him tools and lift things he couldn’t alone and then I’d come in and take over painting and styling. Painting is a favorite of mine, and it shows here in the shop where I spent 4 entire days hand painting our stock room floor. It was an outlet for me and a cost effective way to fix up outdated linoleum flooring. I affectionately named the floor Beyonce, as in the joke…”Beyonce wasn’t built in a day”, she is also a crazy diva and gets scratches that have to be touched up often, haha.

Contact Info:

• Address:3340 FM 1092 suite 175
• Website:www.allyandbelle.com
• Phone:2812087755
• Email:info@allyandbelle.com
• Instagram:www.instagram.com/allyandbelle
• Facebook:www.facebook.com/allyandbelle
• Yelp:https://www.yelp.com/biz/ally-and-belle-missouri-city

Image Credit:
Sweet Nest Photography

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