Hello hello! Today, I decided to take a minute to share a little about my journey to becoming an NYC wedding planner. Contrary to popular belief, I did not grow up wanting to be a wedding planner, nor did I ever expect that this would be my career path. But I cannot be happier with where life has taken me. Of course, as with any story, it’s important to start at the very beginning.

Let’s rewind about 15 years. Middle school Amy is talking to her friend about her upcoming birthday, and said friend told her she didn’t have anything planned. Now, middle school Amy was not about to let a birthday pass without celebrating. So I took my allowance for the week ($25 at the time) and raided the local dollar store with my mom. We bought paper plates, napkins, utensils, a tablecloth, a few balloons, confetti poppers and supplies to make a birthday cake. I told 5 of our friends to come over to my house for pizza and cake. Then, I told my other friend we were going to hang out. I ordered a large cheese pizza, and we threw a $25 surprise birthday party for my friend.

After this, I sort of became known for my surprise birthday parties. I ended up doing probably 5 or 6 more for friends over the years, all with a very limited budget. I just LOVED getting to celebrate people who were important to me. What’s funny is that my friends’ parents used to tell me all the time I should be a wedding planner. However, I was heavily involved in my school’s theater program, and I had my sights set on Broadway.

Since the age of 5, I had been on the fast track to living out my life as a Broadway actress. I took voice lessons, was in choir, played the flute and violin (neither of those stuck sadly), and was in every single musical and play that would have me. (You can see more proof of this on my about page). Looking back, while I do love to sing and act, I think what drew me to theater was story telling. There’s romance, adventure, drama, and of course, gorgeous costumes and set design. I loved the idea of transporting people from their ordinary lives to the streets of France during the French revolution, or the rolling hills of Austria, or make believe places like Whoville.

Despite my love of theater, after getting the chance to help style a fashion show during my senior year of high school, I ended up shifting gears and attending the Savannah College of Art and Design for Fashion Marketing and Management. I had always loved Fashion, and it felt like the safer choice for a degree. Studying Fashion Marketing meant learning about aesthetics, color theory, how to create a luxury environment, producing photo shoots, and planning brand activations and corporate marketing events.

All of my classes felt like the perfect fit for me, I was getting to continue my love of transporting people and being creative. Because I can’t sit still ever, I took every opportunity I was presented with. One of those was working as a social media assistant to a wedding photographer, where I started falling in love with weddings. But again, I was focused on fashion and was determined to work in a corporate fashion house.

Both during college and after, I got to experience corporate fashion firsthand. I worked internships and full time jobs in NYC. But I realized the corporate life was not all I had dreamed of. As much as I loved fashion and being creative, the fashion industry can be catty and shallow, and at the end of the day, everything I was doing was to make more money for a corporation. So, I realized I needed to shift gears. After a while of soul searching, I took all of my strong suits- event planning, design, luxury marketing, and my love for story telling- and landed on working to become an NYC wedding planner. I loved the idea of getting to work with real people, planning events that had MEANING, and being creative with what weddings are “supposed” to look like.

Now, nearly 5 years later, I have a business that’s better than any career I could have dreamed up. I get to work with the coolest, weirdest, and most wonderful couples planning one of the most special days of their lives. I get to set my own hours (even if that means I’m working 60 hour work weeks and 15 hour wedding days), be creative, and live in the best city in the world.

There’s not a single day that goes by where I am not immensely grateful for this life. It means the world to me every time a couple hires me to work with them. I remember every single couple I’ve ever worked with. There’s even a photo album with photos of me with every couple and any invitations, thank you cards, and photo booth pictures. I can’t wait to see what the future holds as an NYC wedding planner!