BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Southern Signature brings southern charm to gift giving and provides boutique items for local shoppers — with custom embroidery and monograms for every occasion.
“We offer a lot of custom birthday items, like cupcake toppers, banners, birthday hats for your little one,” said Owner Amanda Estes. “We have towels, the hem stitch linen towels that can be great for wedding gifts. During the spring season, we focus on graduation and helping you prepare for graduation gift giving and Mother’s Day gift giving. So we also offer a service for custom monogramming. So what that means is we can take your own initials, whether it be yours, or you can combine a new husband and wife, and we can customize and make an embroidery crest for you specifically, and then that could be used on anything from towels, hand towels, pillows — customized pillows for your couch, or bedroom. So if you see a blank space on a piece of fabric — that can be monogrammed, and it can be made perfect for you.”
With 20 years of business, Estes said she has seen Southern Signature grow and change. After having her office space in downtown Opelika burn during the summer of 2022 — where she said she lost everything — Estes said she now has a boutique attached to her house that operates by appointment during the week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and a website where customers can shop anytime, shopsouthernsignature.com.
“We renovated a small garage behind our house, and now I have a home office/small boutique where we host different open houses throughout the year,” she said. “We just finished our annual Christmas Open House about two weeks ago, and it’s just a fun time for me, because I miss being a brick-and-mortar store, and so it allows me the opportunity to see customers. And it’s an opportunity to serve somebody [with] something that [they] need, whether it’s for a gift for a new baby or a wedding — and that brings me joy, because I know that that gift is going to be given with joy from that gift giver. There’s just a lot of different aspects of this business that I enjoy. I enjoy the embroidery and the creativity side of it, but I also enjoy that the gift is going to be something that’s going to be received by somebody that may bring a bright light into their time of need, or their time of new beginnings.”
With two decades of business and serving families through providing cherished keepsakes, Estes said she is thankful for the community that has supported her and enabled her to use her creativity to share joy.
“[Owning a] small business is hard,” she said. “You are the person who makes it happen, but you can’t make business happen without people to purchase and buy from you. So that’s what the community means to me, knowing that the community trusts me to do their work and to do it well, and if it’s not right, we’ll redo it. And they allow me that space to stand behind my work. I’m very appreciative of how the community supports the business, but also they’re not just supporting a business, they’re supporting my family and supporting the creativity that the Lord gifted me with — allowing me to give that back. And that’s what I love about this community, that they allow me to give back what I’ve been gifted to do.”
Along with a boutique and a space for online shopping, Estes said she hosts seasonal open house events. Locals can stay informed about upcoming events by following Southern Signature on Facebook, @southernsignature on Instagram or visiting the website to sign up for email notifications.
“We’re planning to do a spring open house this year as we prepare for graduation and Mother’s Day,” she said. “Our goal is trying to focus on whatever the season it is at the time. This is our second year doing an open house, so we’re learning as we go, but social media is the best place to get information.”
As she reflected on some of the things she said she enjoys most about her business, Estes said she loves seeing the customers she creatively crafts gifts for grow up and building trust with her customers so they will return again and again.
“I can look back, and I see some of the kids that I embroidered for when they were small babies, and now they’re grown teenagers, and it’s amazing to me to watch,” she said. “These customers have become my friends, and I’ve watched their kids grow, and that’s what this business has done for me, personally, in my own heart. I do this to make an income, and I need to do this to support my family financially, but at the same time, it’s not about that — it’s about how I’ve been able to see the growth of not just the financial side of the business, but also the growth of the person that I’ve always embroidered for. And that it means something to me — when that customer comes back. I see that repeat customer, and that means I’m doing my part and serving them well.”
As Estes looks forward to continued growth and curating the perfect gifts for local families, she said she is thankful for the many people who poured into her and supported her.
“I am so thankful for my husband Brad Estes, who is a middle school math teacher for Opelika City Schools,” she said. “I am thankful for the support of my children, Riley, Ella and Nate, and Carrie Watts, my first employee ever at Southern Signature — she has added so much value to our business in the past year. And most of all, I am thankful for Jesus, who has blessed me with the creative gifts to serve my customers with excellence. I am so very thankful.”
