We were lucky to catch up with Amy Lynn Parmar recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Taking the leap to working fully freelance was a huge risk, but it ended up paying off. I was working a corporate job that just wasn’t fulfilling to me anymore, and I was itching to get out to pursuit my dreams of working weddings full time. A friend of mine is a brand photographer, and she and I got to talking and she mentioned she could use a part time producer for her photo shoots. Obviously, going from a stable full time job to working a freelance producer role part time would not usually be the smartest decision, but I knew in my heart that if I had that fire under me to make things work, I would find a way. I quit my day job, started working part time freelance for my friend, and worked on building up my business. The decreased hours working for someone else allowed me to really refine my business and workflow, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that had I stayed at my corporate job. Now I’m about to finish my first year solely working weddings full time, and I’m already surpassing my business goals I had for myself! Obviously taking this kind of risk requires a lot of discipline. I really had to take action and work hard to make sure this would be a sustainable option. But I am so happy I did it and now I get to work my dream job on my own terms.

Amy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My company is called Poppy + Lynn, and I am a wedding planner based in New York City. I’ve recently started referring to my business as a boutique wedding planning company, as I take on a limited amount of clients per year and really focus on giving those clients the very best experience possible. I pride myself in not being a wedding machine, where I just crank out cookie cutter weddings all year and work multiple weddings a week. My “tag line” is High End, but NEVER stuffy, and that really resonates with my clientele. I come from a background of Fashion and Theater, so naturally I love a dramatic flair and have a good eye for aesthetics. But more importantly, I want my clients’ weddings to be about them and their story. I always tell them “the only thing you HAVE to do at your wedding is have an officiant, a couple of witnesses, and to say “I do”. Everything else is optional.” From the very first meeting, I really take the time to get to know my clients and their story, their interests, and the things that make their hearts sing. From there, we plan a highly personal and carefully curated event that fits their aesthetic and budget. It’s so important to me that I do my very best to make wedding planning a joyful experience and to give my clients a day that is beautiful, but also stress free.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think the most rewarding aspect of being in a creative role is getting to make meaningful work. One thing that I really struggled with when I worked in corporate is that everything was money driven. Of course that is important to run a business and live, but everything I was doing was to make more money. Now as a wedding planner, I’m working on one of the most important events in a couple’s life. For my full planning clients, we typically work together for over a year and talk multiple times a week. It’s a very close, personal relationship and I’ve grown very close with some of my clients. Getting to be so closely involved in such a pivotal event is something I don’t take lightly, and it’s so special to get to watch everything come together that we’ve worked so hard on for so long.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first started my wedding planning business, I was living in Savannah, GA and was fresh out of college. The wedding market in the south is SO different than it is up in NYC, and I felt this pressure to try to fit a certain mold or I wouldn’t succeed. As a result, business wasn’t really taking off there. I wasn’t really getting much business because while I tried to put my own spin on my business, it was just another “timeless, elegant” brand with generic wedding messaging. It wasn’t until I came up to NYC that I realized just how important it was to have a brand that is unique and true to yourself. The day after I quit my corporate job, I dyed my hair pink and spent the summer working on rebranding my business and my messaging. I really sat down with myself and wrote out what my values were, my aesthetic, my process. Once I started marketing my business more “me”, people resonated with it and it continues to evolve more and more. I’m not a traditional wedding planner, and my clients aren’t usually very traditional either. But that’s why we work together so well! There’s the saying “Your vibe attracts your tribe” and it’s so true. It’s easy to copy what everyone else is doing, but then you’ll never stand out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://poppyandlynn.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poppy.and.lynn/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PoppyandLynn/
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nycweddingplanner?lang=en

Image Credits
Photos Courtesy of: Megan and Kenneth, Loreto Caceres Photography, Michela Watson, Jaymo Jaymes, Karina Mekel,