Kristi and Luke held their far away destination wedding in beautiful Iceland! They opted to wed in the fall season when the Northern Lights may be spotted. The pair wed at the ION Adventure Hotel but the actual ceremony took place with a waterfall backdrop! And the day was full of adventure, with hikes, exploration, a visit to a black sand beach and more. Kristi shared with us a bit about their adventuresome big day.
Luke was interested in a destination wedding and I did not want the normal beach wedding because often it is blue sky and blue water. I wanted something more dynamic with a beautiful backdrop–so green hillside with a waterfall fit the bill. It was also important to us that the location be simple to travel to and a place where English was widely spoken-a majority of our families hadn’t traveled internationally. We spent time researching options in Northern England and Ireland and one night I found an awesome location in Iceland. A few weeks later, Luke was looking at options and stumbled upon the same hotel without prompting, so we took it as a sign and opted to dig in a little bit and look at Iceland! A few weeks later we decided Iceland would be our destination and it did not disappoint!
Our original location fell through shortly before the wedding and Miss Ann provided us with a couple alternatives that kept us in the Southern Iceland region. This is the area we wanted our guests to experience during the day. The ceremony backdrop of a waterfall was also non-negotiable so we opted for the location we thought, from video, would provide the best backdrop and was moderately private. Our location ended up being a public space and a handful of people arrived during the ceremony, but not mass crowds like you would experience at Seljalandsfoss or Skogafoss. Since we did have a change in venue, this also allowed us to keep the location of the ceremony a secret from our guests until the bus pulled up—which was fun!
Pastor Egil was great and allowed us to customize a majority of the ceremony so we were able to include four of our dear friends in the rite, which was very special to us. It was also a great gift to be able to share the entire day with family and friends. We love to travel, be outdoors and explore so doing that for the entire day in our wedding garb with those dear to us was a great way to share a little of why we love adventure with them.
At the hidden waterfall by Skogafoss we got drenched trying to climb behind the waterfall for pictures and the rocks were muddy from the rain shower earlier in the day. No one fell, including guests, but it added a little more excitement to the afternoon.
Some of the photos on Reynisfjara beach were taken after climbing up super sharp rocks—yes, we were still wearing dress shoes and heels! We both had changes of shoes to put on, but it seemed more of a challenge to do things in our dress shoes!
We asked the bride about the design of the day. I had a hard time with this one, I like most colors and didn’t really know which direction to head, so I asked Miss Ann for advice. She recommended brown and green—her favorite, very natural colors. Well, I think brown might be my least favorite color-primarily because Luke gets everything in brown and I think it needs some spice. I did the regular research, outdoor wedding color palates, fall wedding colors, destination wedding themes and then asked opinions of some savvy friends. All of which said, “you can do whatever you want”. So, in the end, a few ideas from Pinterest struck me as “up our alley”, aka classic and timeless. I then ranked mine from 1-4 and Luke did the same, we agreed on our #1 so gray and green-simple yet refined won out.
We chose our hotel based on the simple lines and striking appeal, so the simple color palette and decor played very well in the reception space. I also wanted a little pop of color for the ceremony, so the pink peonies in my bouquet were perfect.
Congratulations to the newlyweds!
Destination Wedding Photographer: Your Adventure Wedding
Wedding Vendors: Wedding Accommodations: ION Adventure Hotel, Wedding Planner: Your Adventure Wedding
