QUITMAN – Friday, April 7, was to be a big day for Bri’s Cookie Creations.

That was the day Brittany Wyce’s at-home and online cookie company went big, adding the words “and Bakery” to the name by signing a deal for a brick-and-mortar storefront facility in Quitman on Screven Street, across from the Brooks County Courthouse.

“The demand for cookies has grown,” she said. “I want a team to help me be the person everyone goes to for baked goods.”

Wyce began the cookie business in her Quitman home in 2020 while planning a birthday party for her daughter, Imani.

“I’ve always liked baking,” she said. Wyce saw a series of online videos about other women who had started home cookie outlets and were making a living at it.

After Imani’s birth, Wyce tried the whole stay-at-home-mom thing for two months before realizing she needed more.

“I am a working person,” she said. “I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”

She did her marketing through social media; orders for the company could be made through a Facebook page.

“Then we got a website to make it look more legitimate,” Wyce said.

Among the more popular items at Bri’s Cookie Creations are gourmet-style sugar cookies with intricate layers of decoration. Wyce said it can take five hours to decorate a dozen of these cookies.

On the family front, in 2021, Wyce and her husband, Stevie, became parents to two more daughters, Amora and Gia. Complications ensued when Gia was born with special needs.

“I had no idea what was happening,” Wyce said. “I had no idea what Down Syndrome is.”

Down Syndrome is a situation where a person has an extra chromosome in their genetic makeup. Most people are born with 46 chromosomes, which are small packages of genes that control bodily development. Down Syndrome children have 47 — one of the chromosomes somehow has a duplicate.

“My life as a mom was about to change,” Wyce said.

She read everything she could find about Down Syndrome. She said she hopes to use Bri’s Cookie Creations and Bakery to educate people about Down Syndrome.

Late 2023 promises to be a hectic time for Wyce. She’s hoping to get the new storefront up and running by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, another expansion is in the works: family expansion. She’s pregnant and No. 4 — a boy — is expected to arrive in August, she said.