Please Reply

Paper has long been in Betty McKewen’s family. Her family had a wholesale paper business. Then, 14 years ago when her daughter Katie was getting married, she started a venture of her own.

The business that started in McKewen’s home now employs eight staff members, including her daughter, Katie Smith.

Today, Please Reply not only provides monogramming and specialty invitations and programs, but also personalized products that range from soaps and candles to jewelry.

“We’ll find what you need,” McKewen said, “whether it’s $5 or $100.”

The store has a machine that handles orders for vinyl labels, as well as a printer for invitations and programs.

It sends other orders out to various companies, but most orders can be completed within four weeks.

The company also makes appointments for brides and handles everything from start to finish, even offering bride and grooms gifts.

“We make sure to offer a one-on-one appointment,” Smith said. “We want the brides to know they’re taken care of.”

When she was looking to move her business from her home, McKewen tried a few store fronts including one in English Village, but she finally arrived at Crestline.

“We wanted to be located in Crestline because most of our customers are from here,” Smith said. “One day the owner of this house called me and said they’d heard we wanted to move to Crestline.”

The phone call was unexpected, but the house was perfect for the mother-daughter team.

Hidden behind Crestline Elementary, each room in the house-turned store has its own category of merchandise and shelves loaded with samples of each.

“There are only a few things that you can walk in and take out with you,” Smith said, pointing to some place mats with a letter in the middle. “People in the South like things customized, and that’s what we provide.”

Smith said Please Reply is constantly updating, but they make sure to stay unique because they don’t want to offer the same products as other stores.

The store has grown every year and so have the customers that are loyal to it.

“They know we’ll do it the right way,” Smith said.

Smith said businesses on the internet aren’t competition to the store because her customers get to see and feel the products they are choosing and are guided by staff who know what they’re doing.

“We love being here in Mountain Brook,” Smith said. “We support the community, and the community supports us.”