Community Highlights: Meet Marbella Quintana of Cattaleya’s Boutique

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marbella Quintana.  

Marbella, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am super excited to share my journey, and I hope it can inspire someone that can relate to me. I am a daughter of immigrant parents. We moved to Texas when I was about 5 years old. At the time, my father new little to no English, and my mother didn’t speak or understand it. We had nowhere to go, and we were in a city we didn’t know at all. Time passed, and we were able to get an apartment, and my father continued with his Welding business, that was very successful in Mexico. Here in Texas, though, it was very different. No one knew him, and he had to start from scratch. Growing up, we faced a lot of challenges from getting our utilities cut off, not having much to eat, to having to boil hot water to be able to shower. Since my brother and I had no one to stay with while my parents worked, they would take us with them, and we would sit there for hours watching my mom and dad work. My father has always been my hero and my inspiration to never give up no matter what troubles we faced in life. 

At the age of 16, I started working a full-time job to help my parents out. I had no weekends and no summers off. I was always working (honestly, I have no idea how my now husband still dated me) Our dates consisted of him sitting outside my job waiting on me for hours to going home, and I would fall sleep. Seriously! How did I get so lucky to have someone willing to wait on me like he did. We dated for 3 years and moved in together. It was only the two of us until 10 months later that we found out we were having our first baby. Things were hard on us; we were first-time parents, and we were young of course, we faced our challenges too. We never gave up and pushed through. We knew there was more out there for us. In August of that year, at 6 months pregnant, we bought our first house. DACA was approved, and I immediately applied. I worked and eventually became a manager my boss showed me a lot of the business side of it. We got pregnant again… with a little girl! When she was born, I wanted my baby to look super cute and fancy. Of course, money was tight, and clothes were expensive and also hard to find the style I liked. One day I said to my husband, “I want my own kid’s boutique where I can bring the styles that I’m looking for at affordable price so anyone at any financial statues could shop from; because who doesn’t want to have their babies rocking unique and cute outfits right? That’s when Cattaleya’s Boutique was created named after my daughters’ middle name. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It was definitely not a smooth road, I had to learn a lot about owning a business. At some point, I told myself Girl, what did you get yourself into. Financially we weren’t at a point where we could buy inventory or buy the things we needed for the business. I didn’t give up, though, and found the way. 

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Cattaleya’s Boutique?
My business started off with the little extra money we had left after paying our bills. I joined vendor events around the DFW and kept studying the fashion world and learning the styles that were trending at the time. It was definitely hard because I had no clue of what I was doing, but regardless I kept going. I’m proud of how far Cattaleya’s has came and I most love when we get feedback of how much they love our clothes! I’ve had women tell me that I made them want a baby! Can you believe that??? Of course, I take that as a compliment because it only means that I am providing that uniqueness I wanted. Cattaleya’s Boutique offers outfits, accessories, headwear like berets, Birthday puffy dresses, lipglosses, purses, etc. But it’s not your typical everyday wear, we have American Girl doll inspo, French, chic, fancy, unique outfits all at an affordable price so everyone can shop our brand! 

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Courage! Without courage, Cattaleya’s Boutique would’ve only been a dream and not a reality. Believing in myself and staying motivated even when things didn’t go as planned. Also, consistency because it’s so easy to give up when failure happens. One thing I learned the hard way is that patience and failure is key to being successful. Learning from my mistakes and figuring out a way to make it better and see what went wrong the first time so I don’t do it again. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cattaleyasboutique.com
• Instagram: @cattaleyasboutique
• Facebook: facebook.com/CattaleyasBoutique