Grace Holiday Boutique Highlights Local Small Businesses

The third annual Grace Holiday Boutique took place last weekend inside Grace High School.  With twenty seven different vendors there was something for everyone.  Items ranged from different types of baked goods, to clothing, jewelry, leather goods, toys, nail technicians, books, decor and much much more.  The event wasn't just a great opportunity to support local small businesses and entrepreneurs but also gave local patrons the chance to meet and greet many of the vendors and see what types of products and services are available right in their own backyard.

The Grace Holiday Boutique was the brainchild of Mikenna Atkinson who was inspired to start the event three years ago.  With a young family and building a new house Mikenna turned the event over to Kristyn Lloyd this year.  Kristyn is the owner of Kristyn’s Craft Room and has participated in the event all three years.  Kristyn hopes to continue to try to improve on what is an already popular event.  Kristyn says the event has shown signs of growth already and is thrilled with the response from the vendors.  When asked why she wanted to take on the mantle of organizer Kristyn responded by saying, “I took over the event because I think we have so much talent and creativity in this small community and I wanted to help showcase that and network with other people.”  

It's not all sunshine and rainbows for Kristyn.  An event of this size and magnitude does come with a lot of work and challenges.  Not only does she have to organize the vendors and line them out with their spots but she is also responsible for advertising for the event and arranging for the venue.  Due to increased fees for the venue Kristyn was left with very little revenue to put towards advertising.  As a result the vast majority of advertising was done by word of mouth and through social media.  Kristyn put in a lot of time posting on the Grace Holiday Boutique instagram and facebook pages.

All in all the event was another success with many vendors wanting to come back again next year.  Kristyn is also hopeful for the future of the event and looks forward to it continuing.  So keep an eye out for when next year's event will take place.  If you missed out on this year's event go check out a full list of vendors that attended the event on the Grace Holiday Boutique facebook page or on instagram at grace.holiday.boutique.