Although we are predominantly photographers and want to concentrate on capturing honest and poetic images of your day, we have accumulated a lot of information on weddings and elopements in Iceland over the years and wanted to create this guide to help you get started on planning your elopement in Iceland. We are both born and raised in Iceland and have traveled all over the island on countless road trips over the years and have shot 200+ weddings in the past few years, all of them in Iceland. This guide is based on our experiences and will hopefully give you some no bullshit tips on how to plan and what to expect when you decide to get married on this rock in the middle of the North-Atlantic.
Iceland? Elopement? What are you talking about?
If you are coming here completely out of the blue and don’t know what we are on about, we recommend you start reading up on Iceland, here is a good source for some basic information. But if you really want to get to the unfiltered heart of the Icelandic culture & people, browsing through some of Hugleikur Dagsson comics is also a good place to start. Be warned though this is not for the faint of heart.
On to elopements. Back in the day this term covered the act of two lovers running away from everything to get married in secret. In recent years the meaning has shifted quite a bit with the rising popularity of unconventional weddings. Now elopements are associated with very small weddings, sometimes just the couple, sometimes with a handful of friends or family members that often take place in unconventional places and have an air of freedom and adventure about them. Couples that want to brake free of traditions, forge their own path and celebrate their love for each other in a way that is meaningful to them. A lot of the times this happens to be outdoors, surrounded by nature and the elements, you know, the adventury stuff. And that’s why Iceland and elopements are a great mix.
Iceland + elopements = adventure of a lifetime!
Now that you are all caught up on Iceland and elopements, we can start talking about why this idea of yours to get married in Iceland might actually be a pretty good one, albeit a bit crazy… but good. We are guessing you started to think about Iceland as an option for your wedding because you already have a connection to this island. You’ve either visited it before and seen the otherworldly landscapes your self or you’ve heard stories of the magical island in the far north with it’s many wonders and thought to yourself that this might just be a place that is adventurous enough to celebrate the wild love you and your partner have for each other. And you would be absolutely right, Iceland is a wild place.
Rugged and raw landscapes constantly being battered and shaped by the extreme elements. Rain, wind, snow, frost, oceans and volcanos are really showing off their artistic side in Iceland, creating landscapes that are hard to find anywhere else on earth and nowhere else can you find them sitting so close together. Offering a real cornucopia of crazy views in a relatively short drive anywhere on the island. If you then add to this the unpredictable and extreme weather of the north Atlantic that shapes and forms the light in so many ways, you have the perfect playground for an adventure that is both very picturesque and offers you experiences that will sit with you for a lifetime.
What time of year is best for eloping in Iceland?
Is a question we get asked a lot by our couples and we are afraid that we have to give you the same answer they always get, that there is no easy or simple answer. To get to the bottom of this we have delve into geography, meteorology and the electromagnetic spectrum (fancy word for light) but first and for most we have to look with in ourselves and ask us what it is we really want.
Like you know by now, because you’ve done your research, Iceland is an island close to the arctic circle. This means that the change in seasons up here is very extreme. Basically nothing looks the same in winter and summer (except for the hot dogs, we have a state mandated look on hot dogs but that’s a topic for another blog post).
Summer
In summer, from late May through August, green is dominant in the colour palette, the weather is as nice as it get’s up here (you can still experience our signature rain and wind of course), we have light for basically 24 hours a day, you get to experience the midnight sun, see blooming flowers, birds flying everywhere, goofy, cute puffins strutting around and all the roads are open so you can go where ever the heart desires. But this is also the time most people want to come and experience Iceland so you can expect there to be quite a lot of people in the more popular places.
Another thing to consider for your elopement is that because of the midnight sun and the 24 hours of daylight, the best time for photos is usually very late in the evening and the light during midday is very harsh (hello racoon face) something you might need to factor into your planning for the day. More about that here.
Fall
After summer comes fall, now nobody in Iceland seems to be in agreement as to when fall exactly starts or stops (this is probably due to the fact that this is more up to the weather gods then us mere mortals) but we like to call the months of September and October the Icelandic fall. If you are a fan of dark and moody images this is the time to elope in Iceland. The colours are changing and fading, the sun getting lower in the sky and the tourist high season is coming to an end. This all creates the perfect set up for some dark cinematic magic in your wedding photos. With the lowered sun also comes a more convenient timeframe for the optimum photography light. Many of our personal favourite photos have been taken during fall.
Winter
Then winter is upon us. November through April offer the cold wintery conditions. The temperatures drop, the storms roll in and the snow comes along. Temperatures usually hover somewhere around 0°C or below, so this is far from being the coldest place on earth (heck even New York City gets colder than here) but what we lack in extreme temperatures we make up for in extreme wind. This is the season of the northern lights, ravens, ice caves and darkness. In December there is a 4 hour window of daylight and that’s it. But those 4 hours can provide a glorious display of a combined sunrise/sunset during midday. So if you are brave enough to face the cold wind and the occasional blocked road due to weather you can experience unique adventures in the Icelandic winter. When traveling in Iceland during winter we highly recommend keeping a close eye on the Icelandic weather forecast as well as the Icelandic Road administration for road and travel conditions all over the country. Safetravel.is also features some very handy and useful info on current conditions both on the roads as well as the main tourist attractions.
Spring
Iceland sadly doesn’t really have a season called spring. April is still pretty wintery although we do get some good days in between. Then May offers some pretty decent weather but the vegetation doesn’t really start to bloom until mid May and then it’s basically summer. But the upside to these months is that you get warmer temperatures and way less people since the tourist season hasn’t kicked in yet.
Ok I wanna get married in Iceland can I?
Yes you can! Anybody can get married in Iceland but you will have to fill out some boring paperwork though. We highly recommend you get your officiant or wedding planner (if you have one) to help you out with the process to make sure this is all legal. Here is the official list of the required documents, to get you started.
You will have to send in the required documents a head of you and then arrive no later than 5 days before your ceremony to get all your things in order. So the process is pretty easy and straight forward although this also depends on the bureaucracy in your home country in getting all the required documents.
Iceland doesn’t discriminate against nationalities, religions or sexual orientation and an Icelandic marriage certificate is accepted in most countries. You can also get married outside, pretty much where ever you want and there are a few options available when it comes to what kind of a ceremony or officiant you want.
Ceremonies
When it comes to wedding ceremonies there are four main options that are the most popular.
District Commissioner Office This is the most simple and cheapest way to get married in Iceland but not necessarily the one we would recommend. These ceremonies are usually performed at the office building of the local district commissioner in your area and usually take about 5 minutes and are devoid of any personal touches. You can ask for a ceremony in another location but that raises the costs considerably and we would then rather recommend getting in touch with Siðmennt (see below) for a much better and more personal experience, worthy of your adventurous trip to Iceland.
Christian weddings in a church. Iceland has numerous churches all over the country, most of them are Lutheran churches but there are a number of Catholic churches as well. They range from being huge structures, like the famous Hallgrímskirkja in down town Reykjavík to all the tiny country churches you can find in the Icelandic countryside. Most churches have a specific pastor that tends to them and holds the ceremonies there, it can be tricky to find out who that is and how to contact them. But your friendly local photographer or wedding planner should be able to help with that.
If you are not religious you can also opt for a ceremony with the Humanistic Association of Iceland, Siðmennt. Their ceremonies are based on shared human values and tend to be very personal and often more light hearted than the religious ones. The ceremonies can take place where ever you want, most opt for doing them outside in a beautiful location.
The fourth option is a pagan Ásatrú wedding ceremony. Only in Iceland, Denmark and Norway is the way of the old gods considered a specific religion. These ceremonies are performed by a Goði or Nordic Chieftain usually outside as there is always a strong connection to nature, reading of ancient texts from the Edda Prose, drinking from a drinking horn and swearing oaths on an oath ring (and you can ask for a fire!). These ceremonies also tend to be quite fluid and can vary depending on the surroundings and the chieftain involved.
What do I wear to my Iceland elopement?
One of the main things you have to consider when choosing an outfit for any Elopement or destination wedding is what activity you’ll be doing on the day and what the landscape and terrain will be like. If Iceland is your dream destination, we are guessing exploring nature is high on your list. So hiking to your ceremony location, treading over rocky terrain to reach a black beach for a photoshoot or saying your vows in front of an epic waterfall are all highly plausible scenarios. For those kind of adventures we highly recommend breathable fabrics, light-weight materials and your movability is essential.
For further information on wedding outfits for Iceland check out our What to Wear Guide.
Other service providers
The wedding industry in Iceland has come a long way in just a few years and there are more and more vendors and artists that are specialising in wedding related things. We have been fortunate enough to work with some of the best in the business and now have a whole list of favourite artists that not only do exceptional work but are great to work with as well. We can recommend planners, hair and make up artists, florists and officiants. We would how ever recommend you shop your wedding attire at home since the selections here in Iceland are not that good. In fact many Icelandic brides buy their dresses abroad or online.
How to Plan your elopement Day?
Elopements offer a lot of freedom and you should use that to your advantage and plan out the day exactly like you want. But there are some factors that are good to keep in mind when planning the day. We also highly recommend keeping a relaxed and flexible attitude when planning anything in Iceland, as sometimes this island just takes over and changes all your plans completely and as we already touched on in the “What time of year is best” section the optimum timeline will vary a lot based on the time of year. But there are a few key elements to consider for the plan and we have written a separate post on that here.
We hope this post has helped you get started on planning your elopement in Iceland and you feel confident enough to start making things happen and make your dreams come to life.
