SALT & SANDALWOOD - Beach Weddings and Events

. He connected us with our officiant, booked the beach for the wedding itself, and even flew to Kauai for our wedding as part of our package. We had a Wednesday morning wedding, and Stephen was there ready to go, helped prepare the site of our ceremony, and helped wrangle our families afterwards for photos. We got our pictures two months later and WOW. These are the most beautiful pictures we could have ever asked for! I'm telling everyone to go get married in Hawaii and work with Stephen. Hands down the best experience we could have asked for, and the most incredible photos. THANKS, STEPHEN!!

r photography done by Stephen Ludwig and our photos turned out absolutely incredible and so beautiful. I am so glad we decided to go with them. Overall, Salt & Sandalwood is wonderful to work with. If you are planning a wedding on Oahu, I highly highly recommend them. They made our day what it was-amazing!

but we had such a great experience with Stephen Ludwig and his team from start to finish. I think we lucked out and also I think everyone deserves a special wedding so I hope you give them a look. I contacted several companies/groups/people looking for flexible packages to fit our needs. It’s hard in the early stages of planning a destination wedding knowing just how many guests you’ll have! My ceremony was at Kualoa Ranch with the reception to follow in Honolulu. I was stood up by a few companies; bad sign when your potential wedding team “forgets” they had a phone call appointment with you! Stephen and his lovely wife, Litton, were incredibly accessible and responsive to every wacky question or request I had. Super easy to negotiate with and I never EVER felt like I was being swindled or lied to. Obviously their website scores major points for organization and being aesthetically pleasing. The clean, professional yet personable style matches them in real life, too! We exchanged numerous emails along the way during planning stages. Stephen and Litton helped me find a great hair/makeup stylist, arranged for the most perfect officiant (his wife was also wonderfully helpful but that’s for another review), and coordinated a guitarist for the ceremony. Stephen went to look at the site a few weeks ahead of the date then photos in order to know exactly where to put the chairs and flower arch. Ceremony went off without a hitch thanks to the on-site day of coordinator and the rest of the S&S team making sure my flowers, chairs and guests were in their proper places. I was pleasantly surprised to see they brought water for my guests, I completely spaced on that detail and given the sunshiney day it would have been a major faux pas. Now, the main reason I selected Salt & Sandalwood was because I knew I’d be looking at these photos for a lifetime. So far I just have the mini gallery, but it’s amazing. After the obligatory group photos and diplomatically dealing with certain relatives (haha) we broke off to do our own photo shoot with tons of backdrops, angles, poses — really incorporating the beauty of Kualoa Ranch and Hawaii. Stephen made my husband and me feel at ease, expertly ordering (in a nice way) us around, “hand here, walk that way, do a twirl,” snapping a bazillion photos. I was disappointed when last minute the ranch told I couldn’t have horses in the nearby paddock as advertised. Stephen even asked Kualoa if we could go to the stables, but that idea was shot down. I’m still a little bitter about it, but with how great everything else went I can’t complain too much. Remember how I said my ceremony and reception were different locations? Salt and Sandalwood drove us from A to B, which was so nice of them. He busied himself taking photos of guests and decor; obviously he knows what matters and how to make things look magazine worthy. He made sure to photograph the cake before we attacked it, my husband and I before we got too drunk and really did a fantastic job of capturing moments without being a nuisance. 100% would book again! My favorite vendor from the whole wedding experience. Heck, Salt & Sandalwood was the backbone of my Hawaii wedding experience! You won’t be disappointed.

mera, but he made it so seamless. He is also down for the adventure! We got married in a car and took pictures driving in the car after and he managed to capture everything! LOVE LOVE LOVE the photos, we were blown away. I knew that Stephen was a great photographer and he was exactly the style we wanted, but once we received the images they were a million times more than what we ever wanted. Thank you Stephen!!!!! You ROCK.

e too. Super crisp and bright. He thought about the little things along the way that we would have missed. His photos captured the beautiful setting, the decorations, the funny moments, and so much more! Most of all we came out looking like the best versions of ourselves in the photos because of his attention to detail and posing pointers. We found his process and pricing to be super straightforward too. Book Stephen if you want better than you imagined Wedding photos!! Thank you Stephen for capturing our big day!! -Ryan H.

work really captures the beauty, joy, and simplicity, and character of Hawaii. Communication with Stephen was, and continues to be a smooth and seamless process. He is super punctual in replying to emails, phone calls, and even text messages. When he’s in a slam or is busy, he takes the time to tell you just that…so that you’re not left wondering why the lag in response time. Leading up to the wedding day, Stephen was instrumental in helping to come up with ideas for shooting locations and finalizing a timeline for our wedding day that would make things run smoothly. We felt at ease with Stephen right of the bat and felt he was a great fit for our personalities. Stephen has a laid back demeanor, and was cool, calm, and collected the entire day of the wedding. It was important to us that we hired a photographer that we were 100% comfortable being around…I mean, this person basically follows you around for 10 hours and takes pictures of you – you’d better like them! When shooting, Stephen was present enough to give his input on shots while still allowing us to do our thing, as he captured our day through his lens. The morning of our wedding, Stephen arrived earlier than his contracted time just so that he could get some shots of the groom who was getting ready in a different hotel. It was such a kind gesture, and one we greatly appreciated! Stephen was so great working with and sticking to the timeline we created, and made sure to get us down to the beach for the sunset photos that were so important to the groom. Stephen is not afraid to “work” for a shot or to get dirty – he literally rolled around in the wet sand and stood out in the rain with us to get some of our shots. Throughout the night, Stephen asked us if there was anything else we wanted captured, or any special shots we wanted before he left so that we wouldn’t miss out on any photo ops. We have not received our photos yet, as our wedding was only a couple of weeks ago, but we are so excited to see them and to relive our day. MAHALO STEPHEN!

re deciding on a photographer, my wife and I wanted someone who was gifted at creating beautiful portraits with vivid colors but also captured our fun, free-spirited personality. The vibrant colors in his pictures really popped in so many of his shots. From a logistical point of view, Stephen spent an entire afternoon and part of an evening doing an engagement photo shoot in multiple locations. On the day of the wedding, Stephen and his crew worked seamlessly with other vendors and were very professional. All in all, I would recommend Stephen to anyone looking for a photographer who can make the bride and groom shine on the day of their wedding.

y and just wanted to play around. He got the shots and did them early in the photo line up so my nephew could go and play. I really loved him as our photographer, totally money worth spent.

ooking forward to working with him soon, he truly is the best!

o be sent to us. We loved working with him because he is super easy going and made us feel comfortable during the shoot. It was my first time being professionally photographed so I was very nervous but his personality and energy made me feel at ease and made our photos look natural. He is very good at directing you and is also open to letting you get silly with ur partner :) to capture your personalities in the photographs. He goes above and beyond for the client to ensure they get the shots they want. We absolutely love our photos.

too. If you're going to trust someone to capture your important moments, Stephen is the guy.

Most importantly, he captured all our guests and of us :) . We couldn't afford to rent a photo booth so we did a DIY and had guests use selfie sticks. Stephen went ahead and took pictures of our guests posing in out DIY photo booth. When we got our pictures, we were completely amazed and satisfied with the work he's done. There were a lot of candid photos which was just what I wanted. He also sent us a usb that came in a beautiful, natural wooden box. I would definitely recommend him as a wedding and family photographer!

which pushed everything back by about an hour - we were worried that would cut into the time we had booked him for. Stephen was genuinely kind and accommodating and stayed back to ensure we got all the important moments captured on film. Due to weather, we were unable to do our sunset photos, so he compensated by doing some other fun things with us. Stephen was busy working all night and while he blended in well with the crowd, he was always taking photos! His diligence, hard work and customer service was impeccable and we are so happy we made the right decision in hiring him for our wedding day! The photos are amazing! Thank you so much for being part of our big day!

his company and its personal touch.

turals. A month later we got back our photos and they were spectacular. He really got some amazing shots and the lighting was beautiful. My husband and I didn't have to think very hard and decided to hire him to do our wedding. He kept in constant contact even though I hired him almost a year from the date. The day of he showed up on the hour and not once was he in the way, a bunch of tired women cramped in a small hotel room you could only imagine. He did an amazing job and was constantly behind that camera. It was like he was never there, I had to keep looking around to make sure he was taking pictures and sure enough he was. My brother-in-law took way too long for his best man speech and Stephen and his wife even offered to stay a little over time to get some extra shots of the bridal group if I wanted to. I really appreciated that. A few months later we got back our photos and I cried all over again. He took pictures of things I didn't even notice at the wedding. I'm so thankful and so grateful to have found Stephen. His photos help relieve such an amazing moment in my life and I'm forever thankful! You won't be disappointed with his service! We are definitely looking to him to take our family photos (holiday cards, etc.). Thank you Stephen and Litton for sharing our special day with me and my family and for catching those amazing moments we missed.

ot thank you enough! I would strongly recommend Stephen!! Thank you so much for your great work...!

. There were pictures of people goofing around and having fun and other things that we didn't know were happening at our wedding but was a nice surprise to see in our photo gallery. As for me and my husband we are a little bit awkward in general and weren't sure how we would do with posing and smiling but Stephen was really easy to work with and he put us at ease. He managed to make the two of us look good which makes him the best photographer ever. We really appreciate all the hard work that he put into photographing and editing our photos and we look forward to working with him in the future as we expand our family.

rought a lot of our family members together for a long overdue reunion. We wanted someone who would be great with candids and all the little details. It was the best day of our lives and his photos are absolutely amazing. We really appreciate his guidance throughtout the day and making it a wonderful experience. Now we have amazing photos that we will cherish for the rest of our lives!

nd are above and beyond our expectations! He took a variety of photos and poses to really give us lots of options, which is important since our ceremony was very small (just us and our parents) so it's good that all of the photos of only 6 people don't look the same. He was also very easygoing and we enjoyed him being a part of our big day. I would highly recommend Stephen for any of your Hawaii photography needs - he is just absolutely wonderful!

rent, something artistic, filled with color and life and energy and that is just what Stephen gave us! He was so open to our ideas and really took them on board, we even brought along our surfboards for a few shots! Looking at Stephen’s sample weddings I could tell right away that no two weddings were the same each was unique to the couple and this was so important to us. We were overseas at the time we were planning our wedding and even over Skype Stephen made us feel really comfortable and it was so easy to talk to him and share our ideas. On the day of our wedding it was such a pleasure to work with him, he was so positive and kind and genuinely seemed excited for us and that we weren’t just another wedding. He captured everything we were hoping for and so much more! Our photos turned out fabulous and the fine art images even more amazing. We received them as agreed upon and on time and Stephen was always very responsive with our questions. Three years later after our wedding we still love our photos and couldn’t be happier with the experience!