Elizabeth Lee Bridal Boutique

[00:00:00] This isn’t your typical business. This isn’t your typical bridal shop. Being in Jared and Wendy’s shop makes me realize, like, the kingdom isn’t just in a church. You are the kingdom. You know, you bring that to people. Being in this position, it’s really shown me that God does have a purpose for me. I’m not just here to fill a space.

I’m not just, you know, here by accident. There’s actually a purpose.

I’m Jared and this is my wife Wendy and we own Elizabeth Lee Bridal Boutique. We’re a little different than most any other boutique. So we actually design and make dresses. We sketch out and, uh, and make one of a kind.

I was born in China, grew up in the There was no running water, no [00:01:00] electricity. Also, there’s, there was no books. You just kind of played with dirt all day, and then when the sun goes down, you go to sleep. Jenna had a one child policy at the time. I have older sisters, so when I was born, My parents, I was considered an illegal child.

Most of the time I was left at home just by myself and I remember crying all day and really just no one there. I guess it’s just tradition that they think boys are more important than girls. The fact that she’s even here is, is quite miraculous because at that time any females that were born, especially as a second or even the first, were very often discarded into the rivers or, you know, just leave them exposed.

So I didn’t grow up religious. We’re all atheists and we’re told God is an ideology that is way in the past and I felt that was very hopeless and that was not the way I wanted to live. When I was 19, I was suffering from a lot of [00:02:00] depression and anxiety and I was planning on ending my life. I met a teacher, an American teacher.

He taught English at the college where I was at. He was a missionary and he did a cultural study in his department that, um, allowed us to whoever participated read the Bible. And I started going to this church and I remember the first time one of the missionaries there and he said, Wendy, we love you.

And I think that was the first time anyone has ever told me that they loved me. And I broke down crying. Until that moment I said, Jesus, please come and help me and I need you to be my savior. I had a friend, um, needed a thousand skirts

made in China. And she trusted me and she just said, Wendy, do you know anyone?

And I have no background in business. At first we did wholesale and then gradually went into manufacturing. I enjoyed doing that. I was doing something different. And I said, God, [00:03:00] I want to do a business, but I don’t know how, and God said, why don’t you try? I signed up for a business school out of the Wyoming base in Colorado Springs.

It’s a business admissions business school, and I felt I want to get some clarity, because I’m, I was willing to give everything up. Still in my mind, I felt like missionaries just look like, really just live a very poor and hard life. But I really have a love and desire for business. So I felt I was really in a crossroad.

I was learning about this, just receiving revelation from the Lord. And I thought to myself, I think poverty was a curse, but the truth is God has made each one of us that we could create something or create wealth to benefit others. When we were engaged, Wendy was Searching for a wedding dress, we had a pretty short engagement, so she ended up getting one off the rack.

When she was looking for her veil, there wasn’t like the greatest selection, and she didn’t think the pricing was very fair. So being in fashion, I think she had nine or so made, [00:04:00] and some other accessories as well. After our wedding, we had our guest room full of all this stuff that she had gotten for the wedding, and had sourced and made.

And so, we were like, we need to get rid of this, we don’t want to throw it away. So we put it online, Facebook, just different things like that. And we got some good traction with it. I took some of our accessories to, uh, one of the bridal shops, and I was showing them some of our products. That day, after I showed them our merchandise of the accessories, I had a vision of seeing a veil hanging over the arch of this space.

I felt the Lord just told me, like, go for it. We started the business three years ago. I was telling the Lord, I said, I’m so excited to build this business. And God says something to me really profound. He said, I’m using this business to grow you. We really believe to our core that there is no separation between ministry and business.

Part of what we do is going to China, going to Asia and other countries, um, and actually visiting where our dresses are made. [00:05:00] The bathroom is one thing I really want to check. The cleanliness of it, and if the employers are

taking care of the employees. Our employees, we don’t just look at them as employees.

Uh, and in our business, the employees are mostly younger. And that’s an amazing time, as far as, uh, being, uh, being able to pour into and to learn. And so for us, we look at our employees as opportunities to disciple. So on every aspect of the, the sales experience and the customer experience interface in every way, spiritually, physically, emotionally, you’re trying to delight and bless the bride.

And one of the things I really enjoy doing is really to speak over their identity and also tell them they’re beautiful. And that’s something that we could affirm their true identity and their beauty. God knows that confidence is one of my big struggles. I just don’t feel adequate in anything that I do.

And so he put me here in an environment where Jared and Wendy have been so trusting and, um, and have been so willing to work [00:06:00] with me. This store that we’re sitting in is dreamt of with us by God. This is a host of presence of God. Anyone who works here feel empowered. Every girl who comes here to try on dresses, get affirmed in their identity.

And once you encounter the presence of God, you are never going to be the same. When someone walks into Elizabeth Lee, we want them to realize that they’re walking into the kingdom of God.