BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Yard Love Auburn helps locals celebrate everything from birthdays to graduations, bringing joy to yards with personalized signs and tailoring every display for the customer’s special day.
“Yard Love Auburn is a celebration yard sign company that I started in 2021,” said Owner Misty Rich. “I had a friend and co-worker who had started one in Columbus, and it was just something that I thought would be really cool to start here. I manage a restaurant as my day job, and you deal with a lot of different people, not always happy people, and with the yard signs, everybody is happy to see you. I like being able to help people celebrate, and be involved a little bit in their celebrations and what they’re excited about in life.”
For any life event, Rich said Yard Love Auburn can help community members celebrate by bringing bright colors and fun graphics to their lawns.
“We do everything from birthdays to anniversaries and new babies,” she said. “We do a lot of school signs, graduations are really big, we’ve done happy summer signs, family reunions and really anything that you can think of to celebrate, we can do a sign for. All of our sign packages start at $85, and that includes whatever the message is, and it’s personalized to the person. So it includes their name — if it’s a birthday, it includes the age — and then a package of graphics. Usually, there’s anywhere from eight to 14 graphics in addition to the wording in a sign, depending on the length of the name and what kind of information we get.”
Rich said when loved ones order a sign for their special event, they can share interests, hobbies and things that the person who is being celebrated enjoys — making every sign specially designed for the person being celebrated.
“We try to personalize every single sign,” she said. “So we will ask, ‘What are their interests? What are their hobbies? Are they gamers? Are they into sports? Do they like princesses or shopping?’ We can get it as personalized as you could tell us. Every single sign is different — [for] add-ons and things, there’s an additional charge — if you want it for more days, and we [also] offer spotlights. We do [deliver] outside of the community, and if I have to travel a distance, there’s a travel fee.”
Through partnering with local schools, Rich said she enjoys brightening the days of students on special occasions and helping welcome students back to school after summer vacation.
“We’ve gotten such support from the community,” she said. “We do a lot of things with the schools, which is awesome. We offer a Class Act Sign Series, which is what we call it, and they get six signs for whatever they want them for throughout the year. Typically, it’s the first day of school, the last day of school and whatever events they have going on throughout the year… We have nine schools right now that we work with, so that’s been a lot of fun, and that’s definitely been a growth opportunity.”
With each customer, Rich said she feels supported by her community and enjoys the special honor of helping families celebrate year-after-year.
“I love being Yard Love Auburn,” she said. “Auburn and Opelika are home — we love it here, and we love celebrating with everybody. So it’s definitely been amazing watching us grow, and our signs have grown with us. I just set a sign up for a girl’s sixth birthday; we’ve been doing [her birthdays] since she was two. So it’s really cool going back and seeing that we’ve been with these people for years and years… We set up anywhere from 8 p.m. at night to 4 a.m. in the morning. Usually everybody’s in bed, and they wake up to it in the morning. The kids will be like, ‘Oh, my sign is back,’ when they’ve had it multiple times, they’re so excited. I had one mom who said that the night before her son said, ‘I wonder what my sign will be like tomorrow.’”
With many in the community looking for ways to honor loved ones who are graduating this spring, Rich said she is already accepting bookings, and it is best to reach out early.
For more information or to hire Yard Love Auburn, call (334) 329-6633, email Misty@yardloveau.com or visit app.jotform.com/251368039144154.
