Meet the Miss Ruby Team

Once you begin the process of shopping for your bridal gown or bridesmaid dresses with us you'll be communicating with many of our team members. So we thought it's about time you get to know us a little better.  You'll see that our team is full of independent, strong, and unique women. We love our little Miss Ruby family and hope you enjoy getting to know us better.  And we look forward to getting to know you too!

Erin

Our owner and fearless leader. Not only does Erin inspire us all daily because she is a literal BOSS and built Miss Ruby from the ground up, but she also rocks the “crunchy” lifestyle. She is a feminist, outdoor enthusiast, and essential oil connoisseur that is going to single handedly rid the world of disposable plastic water bottles. Let’s just say that the world is a better place with her on it.

Pauline

Sweet Pauline! You won’t see her around the boutique very often because she is pretty busy between taking care of behind the scenes Miss Ruby business and biking across Europe. Seriously, this lady is pretty awesome. She is Erin’s mom and the other owner and founder of Miss Ruby. We love it when she stops by the boutique, plus she makes the best Gluten Free cookies you’ve ever tried.

Sara

That’s me! The craziness behind most of the blogs and Instagram stories you see from Miss Ruby. I’m currently living out my dream, being surrounded by beautiful dresses and other boss babes every day. I’m also a bride! I’m engaged to my high school sweetheart, Marquis who is an Officer in the Army! Could our jobs be any more opposite?? I love coffee, snow, Beyoncé, impromptu dancing, and Culvers. I don’t take life too seriously and try to find joy in all the “normal” moments of my day.

Grace

Sales Manager extraordinaire! Grace is the fire and passion behind Miss Ruby. She loves the bridal industry even more than she loves coffee…and that’s a lot! When she’s not busy making bride’s dreams come true and empowering the Miss Ruby Team, she is running her fitness and lifestyle brand with her husband Jake. Pro Tip: the way to her heart is to ask her about her two Pitbull children, Stella and Ruby. You won’t be sorry, they are ADORABLE.

Sadee

We call her our “Sour Patch Kid”. She is strong and sometimes sassy, but has the biggest heart of gold. She is passionate about many things and an advocate for what she believes in, a trait we all admire. Sadee is also completely hilarious and makes us laugh on the daily. She is an extremely talented artist as well and is going to be an art therapist! Doesn’t she sound like the coolest? She is!

Meg

Our in house nurse, therapist, life coach, masseuse, and gal pal. Meg is wise WAY beyond her years and is the best person to talk through anything with. She has the most calming and reassuring vibe about her and she gives the BEST advice. She has a heart for helping others that suits her both as a bridal consultant and a nurse. She also has the prettiest hair you’ve ever seen.

Kylie

What’s not to love about Kylie?! She’s super smart and stylish. She has great taste and makes us all jealous of her “minimalist” style. She loves to travel and explore both around the world and around Milwaukee and she’s always down to do anything fun. Her boyfriend, Aidan, and her puppy, Giannis, are also fan faves around the boutique.

Meredith

Marquette brought Meredith to Milwaukee from Michigan and we are so lucky that it did!!! Her energy is infectious and will put anybody in a good mood. Meredith celebrates with her brides like she just found her own wedding dress and that excitement can be felt by everyone around. Her wardrobe is actual goals and makes us all want to hire her as our personal stylist. Her favorite things include the Bee Sting Latte from Anodyne Coffee and Shawn Mendes.  Everything is better when Meredith is around.

Hannah

Hannah can do anything she sets her mind to! She is a go-getter and also gives the best hugs. She is the queen of accessories and can perfectly complete every bridal look down to the smallest detail. She gets the perfect tan after being in the sun for like 2 minutes and makes a gorgeous bridal gown model when we need her to try on dresses around the boutique. She’s actually a proud science nerd and her husband is a published author! She also loves all children and babies and even babysits for one of our designers in her free time.

Chanae

The sweetest, warmest human being ever. Chanae is a Miss Ruby Bride that we loved so much when she was in store buying her dress that we just had to have her join the team. Our lives have all been better ever since! She can wear nail polish colors that nobody else could pull off and her smile is literal sunshine. She has the best fiancé who is also an incredible photographer that we have had the pleasure of working with as well. She is getting married this summer and having a BRUNCH WEDDING. What a dream!

Lauren

Our newest member of the Miss Ruby Family! Lauren is so sweet and also has the funniest sense of humor. She loves bagels and her adorable little fluffy dog, Sadie. She lived in Spain for two years while she was studying musical theater and is new to the Milwaukee area! If you see her around, be sure to welcome her to Milwaukee, but be careful not to get lost in her amazing blue-green eyes!

Emily

Our sparkle QUEEEEEN! Emily is also new to our family but she has already made the biggest impact on us in such a short time! We loved her from the first moment we met her when she told us that she “loves Coco Chanel because she taught women to dress for themselves and not men”.  She reminds us all that we deserve a little sparkle and to not be afraid to own it! Her dream is to be a fashion designer in New York and we can’t wait to see her crush that dream!

10 Things We Love About Working At Miss Ruby

If you visited our boutique you can definitely tell that we love our jobs!

Working at a bridal boutique can be challenging and physically exhausting, but it is also so rewarding and so much fun.  And working for Miss Ruby makes it even more fun.  Here are some of the big reasons why we LOVE what we do & why we wouldn't want to work anywhere else!

Natural Intuition Photography

1.  The BRIDES

To put it simply, our brides are AMAZING. We get to work with the sweetest, kindest, most inspiring, radiant, smartest, most interesting, loving women every day. It’s a pretty unique experience getting so close with our brides and their families and we are so grateful for it. Many of our brides come back with friends and family members so we get to see them for years to come. 

Miss Ruby Brides are the best!

Robyn Vining Photography

2.  Our downtown Milwaukee location

WE LOVE MILWAUKEE! There is always something fun going on right outside our doors! We frequently walk across the river and have meetings at some of our favorite spots like Sweet Diner and Collectivo. The Public Market puts pretty much any lunch we could desire right at our fingertips, and The Milwaukee Ale House is the perfect spot to get together for dinner after a busy Saturday. Can you tell we love to eat?! 

Michael Sears

3.  Being surrounded by all the gorgeous dresses

Duh! We have the most BEAUTIFUL work environment ever…and yes we do try on the dresses all the time!

Natural Intuition Photography

4. The opportunities

We may be a small business, but we dream big! We are constantly growing and creating new opportunities for new and current stylists. Aside from being expert stylists, many of our consultants also hold other positions at Miss Ruby such as Team and Community Outreach Leader and Logistics Leader. Working at Miss Ruby opens so many doors and offers so much experience in fashion, event planning, operations, leadership, and so much more. The sky is our limit!

5. Being able to express our personal styles

We do not stick to the traditional, all black bridal stylist uniform. We work in this industry because we love fashion, and Miss Ruby empowers us to express our own unique styles every day. We love that all of our consultants are so different and we celebrate that. As stylists, we want to empower our brides to be unapologetically themselves and find them a dress that reflects that. We try to do the same with our style and have fun while doing it.

6. Collaborating with other amazing vendors

We’ve already raved about Milwaukee, but have we mentioned the wedding industry that is thriving in our city?! We get the pleasure of meeting and collaborating with the most talented vendors in the business. We are frequently participating in photo shoots, fashion shows, wedding expos, and other fun events and get to work with the best hairstylists, florists, event planners, makeup artists, photographers, and other creatives. We are constantly inspired and grateful for the magic we get to create with them. If you are a Milwaukee bride, you are in great hands!

7. Giving back

One of Miss Ruby’s core values is to make our community and our world a better place. Giving back is so important to us because we truly do love our community so much. We have so much fun getting out of the boutique and volunteering at all kinds of different charities and events. We also hosted our first ever fashion show last winter, of which all of the proceeds benefited a local organization that empowers young girls.

8. Our hilarious company culture

To say we have fun is an understatement. Our entire staff is so funny and we are constantly laughing. Whether it’s a sassy comment from Sadee, one of Sara’s impromptu jazz squares, or literally anything that comes out of Meredith’s mouth, there is never a dull moment. We try to catch some of it and share it on our Instagram stories, but that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. We have a super emotional job, so having a sense of humor is key for us.

9. Our team bonding activities

Oh you thought working together every day was enough for the Miss Ruby fam? Nope! Not only do we do super fun team bonding activities like bowling, yoga, and brunch; but we also get together outside of work all the time. We love getting drinks and dinner at our favorite local restaurants, going to Kylie’s to watch The Bachelor, and we even took a trip to Chicago together a couple weeks ago to celebrate Chanae’s bachelorette party. We really are a family, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

10. Feeling empowered and inspired daily

I definitely saved the best and most important for last. Miss Ruby is the most empowering environment. We are constantly inspired by our owner Erin to chase our dreams and work hard for them. The women of Miss Ruby have a certain way of lifting you up and making you feel so proud of exactly who you are. This is why we do what we do. At the end of the day, the dresses are pretty, but it’s the impact we have on our brides and each other that is really our driving force. We are so lucky to work in an environment that fosters our growth and creativity and most importantly our individuality as women.

Sean Chris Photo

How to Actually Enjoy Being Engaged

CONGRATULATIONS!!! 

You just got engaged! Maybe you have been dreaming of this moment for your entire life, or maybe you never thought this was going to happen, but that right person just showed up in your life and changed everything. Either way, YAY!! If your initial reaction is to get out that Kate Spade ‘bride’ notebook (that you bought two years ago, same girl) and start planning, then keep reading. If your initial reaction is oh s%&# what do I do now?!?, then keep reading.

Being engaged is crazy and exciting and stressful and scary and wonderful, and you deserve to ENJOY it! This is not a basic list of unrealistic bull#*%$ that is actually just going to stress you out more. I’m Sara, Miss Ruby Boutique’s Store Manager, and have been engaged for over 6 months now and these are just five simple things that I have done to actually enjoy my engagement. I hope you find them useful and I hope you have the most MAGICAL year (or 1.5 years, or 3 months, or 5 years) of your life.

1.  Let yourself ENJOY being engaged

Plain and simple. Don’t get so caught up in the ring, the proposal, posting the perfect instagram pic, what your family thinks, how you are going to pay for the wedding, what your fiance’s ex thinks, and if you should ask your friend from college to be a bridesmaid that you forget to just soak in the moment and enjoy this time with your fiance. Depending on your timeline this might mean relishing in pre-planning bliss for 3 months or 3 days, but either way stop and just take it all in.

2.  Get real about what kind of wedding you can and want to have

Once you’ve given yourself some time to take it all in, sit down with your fiance and and decide what’s important to you. How do you want to celebrate your love? What would feel most special and the best reflection of you? This is going to be very different for every couple and that is ok! It’s actually more than ok, it’s AMAZING! Some couples are going to run off to the courthouse and celebrate with just each other. Some are going to bring their closest friends and family to a tropical island for a week long party. Some are going to have a lavish event with 400 guests. There is no wrong way to celebrate as long as it’s what feels right to you and your fiance.

3.  Take Engagement Pictures

This seems like an obvious tip, but seriously do this! Whether you are an instagram queen or not, you will be so happy to have photos to document this exciting time. You will have so many uses for these photos from Save the Date cards to social media posts and your wedding website. I love my engagement pictures and I actually felt like they were the kick off to my wedding planning. Pro tip: Since we are having a winter wedding and all of our pictures will be in the snow, we took our engagement photos in the Spring on a trip to Georgia so they would look totally different from our wedding photos. 

4.  Spend some time getting inspo and then pick a style and go for it!

Pinterest and Instagram are going to be your new best friend. Check out some different styles and see what you gravitate towards. There is so much inspiration out there that it can be hard to narrow down what you want. Your venue or time of year and location may help to guide you into a certain style. Once you find a “theme” or “vibe” or “color scheme” that you love, pick that and run with it. With how many options are available to us brides right now, having a clear style can really help you make other decisions. Since I picked a winter wedding in a snowy lodge setting, that really helped narrow my options when it came to dress shopping, flowers, and honestly just about everything. If you are worried about FOMO for other styles, refer back to tip #3.

5.  Do something that makes you feel engaged!

Once the initial excitement slows down and your ring picture fades into your instagram feed full of pictures of your dog, I think it’s important to do little things that remind you that you are engaged!!! For me that meant buying a “FEYONCE” t-shirt and drinking my morning coffee out of a “wifey” mug. Such silly little things keep me excited on a daily basis and remind me to celebrate this time in my life. Also, picking my wedding dress was the ultimate way to celebrate being engaged and was the first moment I truly felt like a bride. It’s seriously the most magical experience.

10 Things You Never Knew About Miss Ruby

Because we know a lot about wedding dresses, we get used to answering questions. Some questions about our boutique, however, keep popping up - and some people wonder but never think to ask! 

So here you have it!
10 Things You Never Knew About Miss Ruby

1. The boutique started because of a wedding

Miss Ruby Boutique's owner Erin had a hard time finding a bridal gown for her own wedding. She easily found dresses that were embellished and over-designed, but it was difficult finding anything that fit her simple & classically elegant style.

Inspired by her bridal & bridesmaids dress shopping experience, Erin and her mother Pauline opened Miss Ruby Boutique in 2007, hoping to give Milwaukee brides an elegant and exceptional shopping experience.

2. Miss Ruby didn't always sell wedding dresses

It's hard to imagine Miss Ruby without any wedding dresses. But when our doors opened in 2007, we were a bridesmaids dress boutique only. We didn't add our first bridal collection until a few years later, and even then, it took up only a small segment of our store.

3. Every dress in our store is hand selected

When we say we have a curated collection of bridal gowns, we mean it. Seriously. Twice a year, Bridal Market comes to Chicago. Our owner & managers spend very long days at the HUGE event - scouring bridal gowns and deciding exactly which ones are going to be perfect for that year's newest Milwaukee brides. 

It sounds like fun (and it is!) but it's also one of the most difficult aspects of the job. We want to bring you the absolute best in quality & style!

4. We support small businesses every chance we get

We're a small business ourselves and we never forget it. We are always looking for fellow small businesses to support on their rewarding journey towards success. Accessory collections Jaxie, Lovebird Jewelry, and Jennifer Leigh are all fellow small businesses owned by great people. 

We recently were able to extend this to our bridal collections as well. Love Lives Here is a Milwaukee-based company established by local designer, Amanda. We love having local partnerships!

5. Giving back to the community is so important

We support our community by supporting local designers - but we like to get personally involved too. At least twice a year, our staff has a volunteer outing where they can have a chance to personally give back to the community. 

We have helped amazing organizations such as Kathy's House, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and The Guest House of Milwaukee. This year we hosted our first ever fashion show, Illuminate, to benefit local organization Pearls for Teen Girls.

6. Your stylist isn't just a pretty face

Our staff is super stylish, but they all have interests and talents outside of fashion. Sadee is a talented poet & artist. Meg is studying Marquette to become a future nurse.  Kylie is working towards becoming a wedding planner. Chanae is our weekend warrior & works full-time outside of the boutique.

Our diverse staff is accomplished in many different areas. They just all really like wedding dresses too!

7.  Our new employees go through A LOT of training

It takes lots of training to become a Miss Ruby consultant. New hires spend up to two months learning the ins & outs of our products, our policies, and our expectations for customer service. Being a bridal stylist may seem like all fun and games, but we make sure every member of our team is educated and able to answer any question that comes their way.

8. Winter is our busy season

People often assume that Wedding Season (May - October) is our busiest time of year. Actually, the opposite is true! Brides typically purchase their bridal gown 9-15 months before their wedding date, so our busy season starts in November and lasts most of the winter. Other factors, such as holiday proposals & bridesmaids traveling home for winter holidays all add up to a very full schedule.

9. People are ALWAYS asking about our champagne...

Our champagne is always a hit! Even people who say they don't like champagne comment that we have the best. We get periodic phone calls asking for the brand - one bride even wanted to buy a case of it from us for her Bridal Shower!

So what do we serve? Honestly, it's nothing fancy! Andre Spumante is sold at nearly every liquor store in the area. We have a feeling toasting it in our boutique is what makes it taste so great!

10. Who exactly is Miss Ruby??

Miss Ruby was established by mother-daughter team, Erin & Pauline. Miss Ruby isn't exactly named after a specific person but it came about from Erin's love for the name Ruby.
Miss Ruby represents all of the beautiful customers that have walked through our doors - strong, confident, & smart women!

Behind the Scenes: How We Buy our Wedding Dresses

This week the Miss Ruby Team went to National Bridal Market in Chicago  - a 3 day event that brings some of the biggest names in bridal fashion to the Midwest. National Bridal Market takes place twice a year and it's where we get to meet bridal & bridesmaid designers, see their new collections, and pick out what we want to bring home to our brides for next season and beyond!  This week we got a first look at the Fall 2019 collections from our designers and got to choose exactly which gowns we want to bring to Milwaukee for our brides!

So buying wedding dresses sounds like fun doesn't it? It sure is! We will be the first ones to tell you we have the best job!  But it is definitely bridal gown overload.  We sift through hundreds and hundreds of gowns. There are so many things that go into deciding what to bring back to the boutique - what brides are asking for, what's been selling, what are going to be the upcoming trends that we gotta have, etc.  We gotta admit, it can get hard, but I assure you we put every piece of our soul into picking the absolute best dresses, the most unique, the ones you won't find anywhere else and we are beyond excited about the dresses that will be arriving in store late this summer/early fall.

As much as we'd love to tell you we are seeing specific trends - we actually saw a little bit of everything and LOVED it!  From new takes on clean & classic silhouettes, to all sorts of patterned lace, to 3-D florals, gowns with sleeves, and everything in between, there will be options for every bride.  We have so many fabulous looks coming your way!
This is just a teeny sneak peek of what's to come!

For accessories - one of our favorite items to shop - you'll find more rose gold accessories arriving in store soon. And long, dramatic veils with details like lace, subtle sparkle, and some extra volume too.

Bridesmaid dresses just keep getting better and better!  The rich hues that will be introduced are beyond gorgeous.  If you love green, you will love the new colors from Watters & Bari Jay.  Fabrics are even more wearable & flattering too!

After we literally shopped till we dropped for three days we have returned to Milwaukee inspired and excited for what's to come.  The designers that we offer at Miss Ruby are part of our family, so it was wonderful to catch up with them, discuss what our brides are looking for,
and strengthen our relationships with them.
Keep an eye out for announcements on when all of our new items arrive in store!  We can't wait!

Featured Vendor: Natural Intuition Photagraphy

Natural Intuition Photography

When Christine and Justin aren’t taking breathtaking photographs, they can be found adventuring, traveling, and doing lots of dancing! Christine and Justin are an extremely driven couple who have a passion for capturing authentic love stories. Their love for adventure inspires them to capture the pure moments in life. Their photos will transport you back to the emotions on your wedding day over and over.

Natural Intuition Photography is a wedding and portrait photography company based in Madison Wisconsin, but they will travel to you to capture your unique story. They strive to capture authentic moments that are a part of your special love story. After all, your wedding day is just the start of an entire new chapter in your life, and Natural Intuition Photography helps to capture the emotional memories you make on your special day.

Christine and Justin’s Philosophy is to make a relationship with every single couple they photograph. This allows them to create an extremely personal and intimate experience with each couple, ensuring they receive the best that Natural Intuition has to offer.  They use light to enhance the emotions and senses in each photograph which brings you back to that special moment every time you look at your wedding photographs.

Natural Intuition are award winning photographers who have been featured in Wisconsin Bride Magazine, The Knot, and Dainty Obsessions Magazine, to just name a few! And you'll see many pictures of Miss Ruby Boutique shared on our website & social media were taken by them too!

Click Here To Learn More!