When planning a dream-come-true wedding on an island getaway, only one name immediately comes to mind: JoAnne Brown. In this week’s conversation, Andy talks to the go-to planner for weddings in the Cayman Islands and beyond.

Even before she dominated the destination wedding world, JoAnne was fittingly immersed in the tropics. Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, with a mother born in the Caymans and a father who launched Appleton Rum in Jamaica, JoAnne adored helping others from the start. She’d decorate everything from birthday parties to her friends’ Christmas trees, as long as she was designing something that would bring joy to a family she’d come to know. Before long, a friend asked JoAnne to decorate and plan her wedding locally; from there, momentum grew by word-of-mouth until she could no tackle the work independently out of her front living room.

In her late 20s, JoAnne left her job at an engineering company to dedicate her work to her budding wedding business full-time. In the years following her first destination wedding job—some vacationing New Yorkers she met by chance—JoAnne’s business grew into a fully-staffed, full production service in a 20,000+ square foot warehouse.

More than anything, JoAnne’s work centers around her personal philosophy of authenticity and a pure sense of passion. Her love for her work, her home, and the people she meets on each job has more than paid off: she’s a published author, has been named one of the most influential wedding planners in the world, and was featured in an extensive behind-the-scenes “Weddings Away” TV series by the Travel Channel. Today, she runs the global JVB Design House, where she takes her wedding expertise to islands across the world to explore new venues and discover entirely new opportunities.

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