How these two boutiques are expanding, fostering community in downtown Byron
Two women-owned boutiques in Byron’s historic district started the year by rebranding and expanding their businesses.
The owners, who are both from the Warner Robins area, say Byron’s rich history and “supportive” community have made them feel at home.
“From the very start, people were extremely welcoming,” said Athena Richardson, owner of Brittany Rae’s Custom Shop, which celebrated its grand opening Thursday. “The community has reached out to me, they brought me flowers, they brought me doughnuts and all different things. They really come in and say, ‘Listen, we want to support local, we appreciate you being here.’”
When the storefront first opened in March 2022, Richardson and her daughter Kaitlyn Dryden shared the space housing each of their boutiques: The Hasted Hazel featuring Brittany Rae’s.
Last month, Dryden decided to close The Hasted Hazel and Richardson expanded Brittany Rae’s Custom Shop to occupy the full storefront.
Richardson specializes in customizing single items and bulk orders and offers services like sublimation, which permanently transfers dye into fabric using heat.
“We started out with just shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts and tumblers,” Richardson said. “Now we’ve added bags, car coasters, license plates, hats, koozies, aprons, puzzles. It’s almost an endless list of what we can sublimate and customize.”
Richardson started her customization business out of her home a few years before opening the storefront, attracting customers mostly through word of mouth.
She’s surprised by how much the business has grown and she enjoys featuring products from other local small businesses in the boutique.
Richardson named Brittany Rae’s Custom Shop after her late daughter, Brittany Rae Jones, who died in 2008 at age 17.
“It took me a long time to be able to talk about it and comfort other people,” Richardson said. “I feel like it was kind of perfect timing when we opened the store here. They have a Compassionate Friends group that meets here and the ladies came in and introduced themselves. So I went there and I just learned to open up.
“I started out with my business being called Athena’s Designs and then when I moved to a storefront, I felt led to name it Brittany Rae’s. … She had meningococcal meningitis. So she got violently ill in the middle of the night and actually passed away 13 hours later. It’s very rapid-moving, her strand was extremely rare and at the time they did not have a vaccine for it.”
Richardson said keeping Brittany Rae’s memory alive through her work has led to connections with others who have lost loved ones.
“She was amazing, down to earth, loving, kind. She cared about people, she cared about people’s feelings. She’d hug everybody in the room before she left and she just brought love and laughter and caring into every place that she went.
“When people come in now, and I mention Brittany and tell him why I named the store what I did, a lot of times they will tell me that they have loved ones that have passed away. And sometimes they haven’t talked about them or haven’t shared their grief with people or they don’t know anybody who’s lost a loved one, especially children. So we kind of connect and I’m at the stage of my grief where I can actually start helping people now where as before, I couldn’t, and it’s just awesome.”
Penelope’s Carriage House
Located in what was once Byron’s carriage house, this new boutique offers clothing, jewelry, home decor and antiques in a historic atmosphere.
Owner Heather Peebles celebrated Penelope’s Carriage House’s soft opening on Jan. 20 and plans for a grand opening within the next couple of weeks.
Peebles, who is also a realtor and builds custom farmhouse furniture, was inspired to create a boutique that offers bohemian and vintage styles.
“A lot of the women that I was talking to, the issues that they said they were having is they couldn’t find places locally that sold those styles,” Peebles said. “So they would order online, which is the same thing I was doing a lot of times, or they were having to travel to find it. So I was just like, why not, let’s try something different.”
Peebles said the carriage house building is more than 100 years old and Byron’s history is part of why she loves working in the downtown community.
“Other than just the building itself, Byron has a lot of history and I think it gets kind of drowned out by surrounding cities,” Peebles said. “I think Byron is going to grow, it’s just a matter of time. It’s already starting to. So I think it’s neat to be a part of historic Byron and just watch everything grow around me.”
In addition to running the boutique, Peebles also hopes to build community by hosting a weekly alternative women’s Bible study at Penelope’s Carriage House.
“We call it the Boozy Bible Group because we want people to ask why we call it that. The whole idea is just having a place that women can go and just be themselves. They don’t have to be perfect. They don’t have to look a certain way. We all just come together and there’s no judgment, we just love each other … I thought it was important that women needed to have some where they could go and just be themselves and still be a Christian and have that kind of network.
“Tonight, we’re actually going to another female-owned business in Warner Robins called La’Vino Wine Bar. We’re gonna have charcuterie boards and wine slushies and have our Bible group there because I think it’s cool to go support another female-owned business and to still have our time together as ladies.”
Peebles said building relationships is one of her favorite parts of being an entrepreneur.
“I think in today’s world, relationships are everything. And I like being busy, but also I like doing things that hopefully will have an impact not just on the community, but other people, other women, my daughter. I want her to be left with a legacy, something that she can either take on if she wants to or inspire her to go her own way and do her own thing.”
