I had been following Aislinn for awhile on IG in hopes that one day my husband would allow me to do…read morefamily photos on the big island with her. We finally did it, and I am beyond happy I choose her. Her portfolio is amazing, and was exactly what I wanted in our session! Aislinn was amazing to work with, and made our session flow so well! We all felt comfortable in front of the camera. She was amazing with our children, and had my husband laughing during family photos! And the turn around time! Amazing. Shocked is an understatement when I got our gallery in LESS time than what was promised. If you are looking for an amazing family session book Aislinn today, she fills up fast! Her team is also on Maui and Oahu (I believe) in addition to herself and team on the Big Island! I will be booking with her again on our visit again next year and all the other years to come!

Just wow! First time I ever had to buy the entire gallery because I could not choose. Professional,…read moregreat communication. I love their editing/colors on the photos. The pricing is worth the peace of mind that you will get great photos, in my opinion. We will definitely be using them again on our next vacation!

We had a truly positive experience during our photography shoot. Booking and inquiring were easy,…read moreand Cynthia Buckles was extremely knowledgeable and professional. She offered gentle guidance and creative tips to help our 17-month-old laugh and smile throughout the session. Even though our baby wasn't feeling her best, Cynthia stayed positive and optimistic the entire time. Our family would definitely book another shoot and can't wait for our next trip to Hawai'i!

Maybe I need to align my expectations better, but I didn't have a good experience communicating…read morewith this photography studio so I cancelled my reservation instead. Prior to my trip, I sent an email that went ignored. When I filled out the form onsite they were a bit aggressive to shove me into a day and time they wanted. The only slots they'd offer were 6am,7am or sunset. They wanted the next day and I proposed an alternative day but they still only offered those times. 8am seems like it's not that much different from 7am to me. It would've been easier as a single mom to a 2 year old. A delayed start time would be ideal when you're trying to get yourself and a small child ready for a shoot and to cooperate with taking photos after he's just woken up. (We have a photographer at home who is quite easy to work with around my son so we get beautiful pictures even at peak sunlight.) I was going to begrudgingly go ahead with it but then they tacked on they needed to schedule a consultation at $350 to just view the photos. For me, that should've been disclosed up front as a sitting fee. I have a 2 year old. The idea that I can keep him from tearing your studio apart in an hour to try and hard sell me on photos is funny. What if I hate the photos? They don't photoshop them for you so it just didn't seem like this would be the photographer for us. I don't need portraits to hang on my wall. I just need some cute pics for instagram to show the family. The positive was at the luau they took one ok pic. The male photographer was very nice. They never did find us to tell us how to access the photos but another person in our group downloaded them from the link they were given.

I have had only the best experience with Visionary Video. Lynn is amazingly talented, and was easy…read moreto work with. I would highly recommend them for any personal or business video project.

Lynn Beittel shot my wedding Kailua Kona…read more I cannot begin to describe how disappointed I was in her final product. The work she produced was very amateurish and didn't begin to capture the essence of the day. When I tried to salvage the video by asking her to patch together portions of the video together into a shorter DVD, she became rather defensive and refused to deal with me, insisting only in dealing with my husband. She was perfectly fine in dealing with me until I asked her to up the ante, as her substandard work was not to my (nor my husband's) satisfaction. Her work was really, really bad. Worse, there was no effort on her part to fix the issue either. Rather, she SOLD us the the raw video - to re-do with it as I pleased. Unprofessional. Extremely! She can quote me her journalistic experience all day long, at the end of it all, it was a once in a lifetime event that she completely butchered on film. Terrible finished product, and cost me more in the long run than I wanted to spend.

Did a great job for our Hawaii photos. Very easy to work with. He let us pick the location and came…read moreup with a lot of good photos that we will have forever

Evan is both very professional and artistically talented. He has a lot of talent - I trust his…read moreintuitive eye a lot but he was simultaneously very responsive to my requests and my own vision. I hired him for photos for my website and wow! I was so thoroughly impressed with diversity and quality. I ended up posting them all over (even though I hate photos of myself) because they were so beautiful/enchanting and not the typical photography cliche. I will definitely be continuing to work with him in the future!

The best. Above and beyond feels too trite to describe how Cheryl handled our ceremony, but above…read moreand beyond is how she operated in every possible way and our day was meaningful and poignant and we could not have imagined it better. On our first conversation, Cheryl said to me "Let me handle all the stress, you just get to Hawaii." I didn't have to worry about a thing; it was one of the easiest partnerships I've ever had with someone I'm working with to plan something. Cheryl went out of her way to accommodate every detail and request we asked for, from having our ukulele player learn our song (They Love Each Other by The Grateful Dead) on a weeks notice, to exploring every single option available to try and find a same-sex cake topper on Hawaii at the very last minute. When my mother wanted to be a sleuth to try and figure out our hotels, etc so she could do something, I put her in touch with Cheryl thinking she'd help her arrange dinner or a spa day at our hotel. Little did I know that Cheryl was talking to my mother and my mother-in-law almost daily, accommodating their requests and in the end keeping the big secret that our mothers paid for the entire day, photographer and wedding dinner. But even more special, Cheryl worked closely with them to give them the opportunity to put their small touches on our ceremony. Cheryl revealed the surprise after the ceremony and I can't tell you how special that was for us. Cheryl made it possible for our mothers to be part of our elopement and I can't thank her enough. Incidentally, my mother shared with me the pages and pages (.....and pages!) of emails she and my MIL exchanged with Cheryl. Even from 5,000 miles away, Cheryl's warmth and kindness touched our mothers and they will be forever friends. Our ceremony was intimate and and so well done. Her service was spot on for us as a couple, and Cheryl cried the whole time which made it feel like we were married by an old friend. Cheryl is everything you want for your Hawai'i elopement. She will forever hold an incredibly special place in our hearts and I couldn't ask for a kinder soul to remember as part of our day. Cheryl exudes love, fun and the spirit of aloha, and any couple who has her at the helm for their wedding is extremely blessed.

If you want to immediately feel like part of the family contact Cheryl. From the moment we made…read morecontact Brendan and I knew she was the one. We had an immediate connection. She truly took her time in getting to know us, our family and how we came to meet. She truly took her time in building a relationship with us. You can tell she loves people, loves love and her job. She put so much love and care into our day. I am not just saying she's the best because of how she married us. She truly is the best person in general. She invited us to her home, she treated us like family and her and her husband pas are both just all around kind and loving souls. She even went out of her way to help us with some local places to do , eat and see. Not only all that but she was down for an adventure elopement with us all the way down to the bottom of Waipi'o valley beach at sunrise. She was a trooper and one of the best friends/person to have married us. Thank you so much Cherly for your love and kindness

When we first got engaged, I was determined to save money by not hiring a wedding planner. I…read morethought, "I'm super organized, detailed and fairly good at planning things -- I can do it myself." But after repeatedly hearing that hiring a wedding planner was worth every penny, we decided we would give it a try. I'm so glad we did. Now I'm the one telling engaged couples, "it's worth every penny!" I've outlined our thoughts on their services below - hopefully it will help you make your decision as well. :) PACKAGES: Swept Away provides an array of packages that are fairly priced and can be tailored to fit the needs of your wedding. I loved that they offered everything from day-of coordination, to event design, to full-service coordination, and more! We went with the full-service coordination package, which was much needed for a busy bride and groom like ourselves. Also, because we lived on O'ahu and were planning to be married on the Big Island, it was super helpful to work with a team who lived there. DETAIL + DESIGN: Contrary to the stereotype that every woman has dreamt of their wedding day since they were a little girl, I had not done any planning or dreaming prior to getting engaged. The only thing I knew was that I wanted an outdoor wedding. I felt that Swept Away was strongest in this area of wedding planning. Since I seemed to like anything and everything on Pinterest, they helped me hone my overflow of diverse ideas, made design suggestions, and gave practical feedback that elevated the vision I was forming along the way. I've included a few photos that illustrate some of the ideas that came to life. Also, if you check out their Instagram account (@SweptAwayEvents), you can view a bunch of other design masterpieces they've done! COMMUNICATION: As a communications professional, I can't even begin to tell you how important this is to me. My world is fast-paced, so timely and complete responses are crucial! Tiffany (one of the owners), was quite on top of it. She replied to every one of my emails and answered all of my questions. She deserves an award or something; I must've sent her several hundred emails over the course of our 8-month engagement! DAY-OF: They say no wedding day is 100% perfect, but I'd say ours was pretty darn close thanks to Swept Away. Our wedding had a lot of details and moving parts, but Tiffany and her team stayed on top of it. They were professional, timely, calm and helpful. We ate, we danced, we spent time with our friends and family, and the event surpassed our expectations! I had originally considered asking a friend to handle day-of coordination (to save some money), but after seeing how much work it was, I'm so glad we didn't. All of our friends were able to fully celebrate our day with us. If you're still not convinced by my lengthy review, I encourage you to at least call or email Swept Away just to ask a few questions and get to know the team. They're friendly, personable, honest and down-to-earth, and I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

I don't even know where to begin. I had fired my first wedding planner after 5 months of radio…read moresilence, I mean not one response to an e mail, a call, nothing. I already wasn't even sure if I wanted a wedding so after that I was even more soured on the idea but my husband and our families insisted and along we went trying to plan our own wedding. Eventually his mom decided that she needed help and we hired Ashley from Swept Away. I had little to no involvement in the actual planning process, but I can tell you that Ashley talked to my mom, my husband or his mother ally the time. There is a 6 hour time difference with us here and she always found the time to walk them through whatever concerns they were having. The hotel gave my parents some bait and switch action once we got there and Ashley was the mediator and really fought for us. The rehearsal and day of she was on top of every little detail. She had Danielle (also from Swept Away) helping her and she was also super lovely and helpful and they were both cool as a cucumber on the outside even though I am sure it wasn't easy. But their calm demeanor kept everyone else calm too. Now the fun stuff. Holy wow. Since I had no involvement in the planning I had no idea what the wedding would look like. It was something out of a Martha Stewart magazine. Not even joking. I never even wanted a wedding and I can honestly say now that it was THE BEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL thing ever and none of that would be possible without Ashley and the girls at Swept Away. Thank you guys a million times over. We can't wait to grab a drink or coffee next time we are over there!

We decided to escape it all and elope on the Big Island with a sunset beach wedding. Larry…read moresuggested Kukio Beach as the perfect location -about a 20-30 minute drive north of Kona at the Four Seasons Resort. Of course we were both nervous about a location we'd never visited before, but we decided to roll with it, and I'm so happy we did. Beautiful mostly secluded beach with an absolutely gorgeous sunset and sea turtles to boot! Larry offered more than just the traditional vows including a ring blessing, lei exchange, unity sand ceremony and a ti leaf and lava rock ceremony which made the whole experience more spiritually meaningful to us. His photographer was professional and they also offered a downloadable video of the ceremony and his wife took additional pictures with our phone as well. Larry was quick to respond during our back and forth planning emails, but his replies were sometimes a bit sparse which I'll admit had us a bit nervous. But after arriving there, we realized the laid backness is just the Hawaiian way, lol. It all turned out beautifully!

Larry and his wife Donna are Gems!!! OMG, please look no further! If you want a beautiful ceremony,…read morebeautiful view, and amazing photos they are your go-to. Not only were the packages offered unbelievable, but they have got to be the most sweetest and accommodating people we've met. They made our day so special and guided us through the whole process from afar. Our pictures were flawless, our ceremony phenomenal and the location was out of this world gorgeous. I am very persnickety when it comes to order and beauty and they really hit the mark. My now husband and I are beyond pleased and have not one single regret, only beautiful memories. Thank you both for perfection, we couldn't have asked for more! 10 stars if I could :-).

My wedding was perfect. From the location at Kikaua Point beach, to Dean the officiant. He does an…read moreamazing ceremony. Beautiful symbolism, stories and touches of the Hawaiian culture. However, if you are from the east coast I would not recommend using Hawaii Island Weddings. At times it took days/week for Kandi to get back to me with answers to my questions. On several occasions she tried changing prices on me. Luckily I held onto everything including emails and text messages and then used to reinforce what was originally said as well as prices originally quoted. If you are able to stay on top of things, are organized as an individual, and have a very laid back attitude go for it. Dean was worth the aggravation that came with her services. If I where just rating Dean I would give him a 5 plus stars. In response to Kandi's comment; You are 100% right. My wedding was perfect. From the location to Dean and the ceremony he performed. My wedding needs as a same sex couple are no different than those of a heterosexual couple. I would hope in this day and age you would know that. I am posting a photo of our contract so people who are looking at this review can see that communication was in fact included in our contract. I won't waste time looking for more of our conversation and such to show that I am not exaggerating about the exchanges we had but anyone reading this should feel free to message me for more including the leis, payments and charges because yes I am also a believer in 2 sides to every story. Luckily for me I saved all of the exchanges that were had.

I got married over two years ago and used Kandy. I would not recommend her to anyone. I have been…read moreavoiding this review but it's been eating at me that I'm sharing my experience with others and helping them avoid what I was victim too. She NEVER got back to me. She doesn't return phone calls and u have to chase her down. I spent too much time trying to get a hold of this lady... especially considering I was a customer! Then, she'd get a "dropped call" and not call back. She wasn't on the ball at all. I had to be on top of everything. Things only got done bc I was calling her and asking and making things get done. She tend to yell at me or "correct me" if I did her job. She was late to get things reserved and we lost out on venues, etc bc of her. She's expensive and will spring fees on u last minute. She didn't even tell me till days before the wedding that my package didn't include a officiant. So I had to hire her husband last min who I thought was already a part of the expensive package I was paying for, and had to pay the steep fee for him bc I had no other options. She told me after the wedding she'd clean up the reception area, and she did, but she gave away everything so I didn't get ONE of my table toppers that I made and wanted to keep for momento sake and had asked for one to be kept. I was SOOOO BUMMED! That's a one time thing and I didn't get to have one. She was very unaccommodating when it came to anything. I asked if I could ship boxes of stuff there and she hold on to it for literally 2 weeks till the wedding and she said no. For the price I pd her to help with this wedding I was shocked she didn't have any ability to receive some wedding things I wanted to ship and hold them for a small amt of time. The photographer we hired she had her be down at the wedding site before the wedding so didn't get ONE pic of us getting ready but have lots of pics of the guests waiting while I got ready :(. Kandy put me in a spot to wait for her while she got the wedding ready then would come get me and that never happened. We had the time set to happen at sunset and we missed that bc she never came to get me so we started 45 mins late and my hotel ended up taking me down in a golf cart bc she never came back to get me. The whole thing, from start to finish, from the beginning of planning till the end of the wedding was a shit show and disappointing and frustrating. I wouldn't recommend her to my worst enemy. I could go on and on abt things but I think I've made my point. Oh! But her husband, Dean, did do an amazing job with the officiating. No disappointment there. He's very cool and spiritual and was a nice addition to our wedding. Kandy wouldn't let us write our own vows, which we wanted to do, but what Dean did was good. Dana.wendland@gmail.comdana.wendland@gmail.com