Elopements

A Rainy Southern Iceland Wedding Adventure With a Cave Ceremony

Ria and Jordan knew when it came to their wedding, adventure was the priority. They found themselves planning an epic southern Iceland wedding adventure, complete with a romantic wedding ceremony in a cave with twinkle lights inside. Get all the details below

Are you ready to elope? Use our elopement directory to start planning.

About This Southern Iceland Wedding Adventure

Jacilyn M Photography

“Ria and Jorden explored southern Iceland, just outside of Reykjavik, on the day of their elopement. That morning they ventured to waterfalls, black sand beaches, and cliff sides rich green in color. After a much-needed nap and warm up from the icy rain falling outside, they got ready outside of their camper van, playing cards in the campground as they waited for their late night ceremony. The lights twinkled from inside the secret and sacred cave as they promised forever together.

They even had an Icelandic dessert (Pönnukökur). They’re laid-back vibe vs material details. Friends, family, and blankets to get warm after were all they needed.” [Jacilyn, the photographer]

Permit and LNT Information For This Adventure

“Their ceremony took place at a cave on private property. Other couples can contact this planner to consult about this location. I’ve signed a non-disclosure on the location and name of it but it’s a beautiful property on private property that they did have to get a special contract and permission put in place, no permit that I know of, and LNT policies in place to leave it exactly as it was.

Fortunately, it’s all black sand and rock which made it easy for photographing there. The lupines were in prime season but there were many trails through the area on that property that allowed us to use the trails and shoot from other trails without damaging the flora.” [Jacilyn, the photographer]

Learn how to leave no trace on your wedding day.

Top Tips for Eloping in Iceland

“Let worry fly with the wind of Iceland. Be ready to go with the flow. Iceland is a place of ever-changing climate and weather. We had several other ideas with locations and such and everything is always changing. Uncomfortable wind. Closure for conservations at night. The day started with the sun and then ended in freezing temps and pouring rain and making decisions of embracing or pivoting. But that’s part of the beauty of Iceland.” [Jacilyn, the photographer]

Check out our Iceland elopement packages.

Deciding to Plan a Micro Wedding in Iceland

“The thought of a regular wedding didn’t even cross our minds. We’ve traveled throughout our entire relationship and it just fit out MO to do a destination wedding. No one expected anything less of us. We wanted something beautiful while being able to adventure at the same time.

I fully contribute our location choice to Pinterest. Iceland has never been on our list before but once I started looking into the country and researching more we fell in love.

For planning – wow just lots and lots of research, honestly. The actual wedding part itself was super easy to plan… I felt like I was planning for the actual vacation part more. The only part that it got tricky was getting the paperwork to get married there. You have to send in documents within 3-4 weeks of your wedding date and no later than five days before.” [The couple]

Plan a micro wedding here.

Wedding Cost Breakdown for This Southern Iceland Wedding

“Cost can be daunting but compare it to catering and all of the extras that a wedding would cost in the States! Plus this is SO much less work.

For the trip part of Iceland, we spend $3500 on the Campervan and lived in that for 2 ½ weeks. Plus food! You go to the grocery store and stock up on camping food. You can also bring up to 3kg of food into the country from home.”

Learn about elopement costs here.

Memorable Moments During This Iceland Adventure

From the photographer:

“Their ceremony at midnight as the Summer Solstice began. Summer solstice is a big deal in Iceland. It’s the time of midnight sun so there was light but inside the cave was dark. They used rocks to hold up stakes to hang solar curtain lights to give a little light and intimate magic to their ceremony. There are legends on Iceland of summer solstice as a night of mischief with the elves and trolls and other mythology of the land.

Many couples doing destination weddings will get legally married before or after and for convenience use a family member or friend to officiate their wedding but these two didn’t do that and had a local Icelandic officiant and she shared some of these stories and culture in their ceremony and it was so beautiful! I loved that they respected the culture of this place and included it vs ignoring it all together.”

From the couple:

“Our most favorite part was living in the campervan.

We were in Iceland for two and a half weeks total. We rented a campervan and lived in that the entire time! It was the most wonderful thing and for anyone that is thinking about going to Iceland…. I encourage you to travel like this. A) you save money because you aren’t buying a hotel room AND rental car. B) You are free to travel at any time of the day and you don’t have to be in a certain spot (hotel) for the night. If you are wide awake, you can keep driving all night. If you are tired, you can pull over at a campground and sleep for a few hours.”

Final Words of Advice

From the photographer:

“When planning destination elopement don’t shy away from adventure all day + all day coverage. Don’t plan every detail and timeline to allow room for being free + in the moment together, those will be the moments that make the greatest impact.”

Learn how to elope.

Vendors