About Us

At CWEP our goal is to provide a space whereby our Caribbean Weddings and Event Professionals are able to grow through our community and raise the standards of the industry as a whole. We will create opportunities for us to grow our businesses through training, research, and networking while also creating the environment for Standards and Professionalism throughout our Industry.

Let's turn this COVID-19 pandemic into an opportunity.

Objectives

To advocate on behalf of Caribbean Wedding & Event Professionals
To Share information, news, ideas, and industry norms
To push for best practices amongst our members
To develop world class talent and to be able to showcase these talents
To engage and seek participation from our members, stakeholders and industry partners

Our Team

Natalie John, Founder

Natalie John, the founder of Caribbean Wedding and Event Professionals (CWEP), is a savvy and trend-forward entrepreneur who oversees a portfolio of growing businesses. In 2019 she celebrated 20 years as a Caribbean wedding planner. In 2010 and 2018 her company Dreamy Weddings was awarded 'A List Wedding Planner' and 'Caribbean Wedding Planner of the Year' by the Destination Weddings and Honeymoons Magazine and Caribbean Wedding Industry Awards.

Kelly Fontenelle

Kelly Fontenelle has been a trailblazer in the Caribbean travel and tourism industry, with over 25 years of marketing experience. Kelly who is based in Atlanta, led the integrated marketing campaigns for Saint Lucia throughout the USA, creating programming that strengthened Saint Lucia’s positioning in key airlift markets. She is the also the founder of Travel Advisors Selling the Caribbean (TASC).

Dave Cox

Dave Cox is the Publisher of Caribbean Bride Magazine the ultimate guide to destination weddings and honeymoons in the Caribbean. The publication has been around for 10 years and is distributed in print and on their website www.caribbeanbride.com. Through the years he has worked with several tourism boards and hotels in the Caribbean training vendors, producing events and bringing more awareness to romance travel in the region. He has spoken at seminars and other events on Destination Weddings Trends, Vendor Marketing and Photography.
He is also the Publisher of Living Barbados Magazine a lifestyle magazine in his native Barbados and the Creative Director of the marketing firm Digital Coconut. The Toronto based boutique agency works for properties and tourism boards around the world

Svetlana Maximova

Before Svetlana decided to start her own consulting business, she worked in the top marketing positions in various Russian companies.

She joined the Rambler Media Group as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) after the Group’s successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange.

As the CMO her focus was the Rambler.ru – the first Russian search engine - and its development as the media portal.

She was responsible for the development and implementation of the marketing strategy in the new company’s environment as a public company.

Her knowledge and expertise in marketing and Internet business will be useful in CWEP especially in this time when many businesses go virtual.

Caribbean Weddings & Event Professionals