Story and Image: Dominique Rolle/Caya Hico Media

From Jennifer Lopez’s meticulous turn in The Wedding Planner to Father of the Bride’s hilariously eccentric Franck, wedding planners are often portrayed in the movies as being obsessive in their commitment to pulling off a couple’s big day.

At 31, Providenciales native Joseph Timothy Lewis Jr. never imagined his entre­preneurial path would lead down the aisle to driftwood wedding arches on Grace Bay beach, but alas, in life and in wedding plan­ning one mustn’t fear the unanticipated.

As the sole proprietor of Shay’s Decor, the wedding logistics firm he founded two years ago, Lewis has come to expect the unexpected in his quest to perfectly plan beachfront nuptials for destination weddings. It’s a task Lewis has been preparing for since graduating from Providenciales’ British West Indies Collegiate and deciding to pursue a higher education in business administration.

From the Turks and Caicos Community College to the New England Institute of Technology, Lewis attained both his associ­ate’s degree and a baccalaureate in the field before eventually returning home.

After first trying his hand in different industries ranging from construction to real estate, Lewis says, “Never in my wild­est dreams did I see myself getting into wedding planning until a chance oppor­tunity led me to trying it. That very first experience making a couple’s destination wedding a dream come true gave me an indescribable feeling that I wanted to con­tinue sharing.”

Lewis started in the business assisting established planners coordinate beachfront weddings at a Grace Bay resort, first taking the time to gain vital experience learning the tricks of the trade.

Since establishing his own company, Shay’s Decor, Lewis has successfully coordi­nated more than 40 weddings in collabora­tion with some of the best in the Turks and Caicos destination wedding business.

Having learned to face the challenges of inclement weather and the most demand­ing project details as an opportunity to do his most creative work, Lewis is more ready than ever to take on a new wedding season with gusto.
With a local Turks and Caicos flair that’s a charismatic hit with bride and groom’s fami­lies, Joseph Lewis is determined to become one of the true maestros of the wedding-planning business.