This quote very time I read it gives me goosebumps and after I read it, Crystal and Devin’s wedding day instantly comes to mind.  Why?

The love they exude.

Their endless addiction to adventure.

Their wedding ceremony.

The locations.

The ever-changing Icelandic weather.

Every single element of the day impacted them (and their guests).  The epic moments throughout their journey will forever be in their hearts for the rest of their lives.  Iceland is apart of them and their love story.

These two Florida natives found themselves searching for a unique awe-inspiring wedding location that would break the mold of the traditional American “destination wedding” experience.  I know this is how the majority of our offbeat couples find us, but this was even more critical than usual, because Devin is a fellow destination wedding industry entrepreneur (check out Swag Decor).

After indulging in photos of glaciers, volcanos, black sand beaches, hidden caves, secret waterfalls, and the greenest mountains on the planet, Devin and Crystal quickly found themselves obsessed with Iceland.  It was the answer.  So please follow us along today as we experience their incredible Iceland adventure wedding!  Then also head over to the awesome POPSUGAR / MSN to see more from their amazing day!

With a smile, Ann Peters + Team (Iceland Adventure Wedding Planners)

How pretty are these Iceland wedding invitations?!

The adventure began where luxury meets homey-charm: Hotel Ranga.

You all know we’re a huge fan of Iceland wedding welcome bags, right?  How fantastic for your Iceland wedding guests to receive the below?!

The BEST Iceland wedding dress combo right here folks!  Long sleeve lovely elegant dress plus some warm but stylish Sorel boots!  #yesalldaylong

Serious kudos goes out to the fabulous Vault of Wonder on Etsy who created my personal and all time favorite ring box EVER, below:

I love when the bride and groom write love letters or exchange Iceland wedding day gifts before seeing each other!

Crystal’s Iceland wedding bouquet is one of my favorites because she had it made of maps of all of the areas they have explored together!

Before sunrise and we all loaded into super jeeps for the day, Crystal and Devin shared a private “first look” at the hotel.

Then we were on our way to a private side of a glacier for their unforgettable Iceland wedding ceremony!

Crossing rivers whether it be in a super jeep, by foot, or dodging glacier quicksand, our couples are the coolest!  Crystal and Devin were fearless!

The private glacier area our Iceland wedding planning team has access to, was super moody looking that gorgeous fall morning!

There are many amazing celebrants to choose from for your Iceland wedding ceremony.  In the end, Crystal and Devin chose to go the old-world Norse route and have a Asatru wedding ceremony.

It was surreal seeing these two profess their love to each other at the base of this amazing glacier side!

…and who doesn’t want to share their first drink from a horn during their Iceland wedding ceremony?!

Have you seen greener mountains for a wedding in Iceland?

Ughh, so moody and dramatic!! …an Iceland wedding photographers DREAM come true!

The shapes of the Icelandic mountains still be-still my heart years later!

Pit Stop!! Lunch in a private cave… A traditional Icelandic BBQ of Hot Dogs!

After lunch it was onto secret waterfall hunting during Crystal and Devin’s Iceland wedding day!

The variety of Iceland wedding locations during their adventure was stunning!!

More often than not, you only run into sheep during our Iceland wedding days…

Sunset on a black sand beach!  Reynisfjara is not one of our usual stops for our Iceland adventure weddings, but we are happy to oblige if a couple has it on their “must have” list.

Oh la la THAT LOVE!

Ha, typical Iceland depicted here… Downpour of rain and sun at the same time!

Misty secret canyons… a fave for Iceland wedding photos!

After relaxing and refreshing guests enjoyed a delicious meal at Hotel Ranga during Crystal and Devin’s Iceland wedding reception!

How sweet are these Iceland wedding favors?

Closing out their adventure wedding in Iceland Crystal and Devin attempted to launch chinese lanterns as a send off… Sadly the wind decided we go with “plan b!”

I always seem to have sparklers in my Iceland wedding planner “go” bag =)

Crystal + Devin,

So many epic moments that still leave me speechless months later.  Thank you for being so willing to adventure in the rain, climb, and hike!  You’re freaking amazing together, thank you for choosing our team to plan and photograph such an EPIC day in your lives!  Okay, so hurry and come back so we can go on another exploration together!!  ?

© 2017, Iceland Wedding Planner /  Photos by Miss Ann, All Rights Reserved.

The post Iceland Glacier Wedding || Devin + Crystal’s Adventure appeared first on Iceland Wedding Planner.

<<Insert serious cheese alert>>

As someone once said, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”   No joke folks, it rains in Iceland more often than not so if you are planning to have a wedding in Iceland you must embrace this simple fact and be excited to run around in it.  Come along with us today as Gina and Terry show you exactly how to do that!

A sunrise start in mid September began this Iceland adventure wedding day!

After crossing a few rivers via super jeep and then on foot, Gina, Terry, and their intimate wedding party made their way to their ice cave wedding ceremony spot!

The funny thing about rain on your Iceland wedding day, is that most of my couples don’t seem to notice (or care) because they are so high on adrenaline and love!

They may have been soaked and shivering at times, but they got married in front of their gorgeous ice cave in Iceland!  ….Note: Our teams always have your safety in mind so unless an ice cave is fully stable we cannot take you inside.

Gina and Terry held a traditional Asatru Ceremony in front of that ice cave in Iceland. It’s the closest thing to a Viking style wedding ceremony where you hold oath rings to say your vows and take your first drink as newlyweds out of a horn!

This ice cave was formed by snow that fell hundreds of years ago that has been traveling slowly down the glacier.  Pretty neat, huh?

Rain or Shine, this place is pretty flipping EPIC to explore!

One of my favorite moments of the day… It had rained so hard during the ceremony that the water levels were out of control making our bridge we brought useless.  Don’t worry, we always a “plan b” and  “plan c” in our pocket!  The bride and guests took “plan b” which was a piggyback ride through the river and the groom took “plan c” forging it on his own!

Sometimes we find it fun to breakup the Iceland wedding ceremony pieces.  So we continued the awesome “drink from the horn” Asatru tradition at another location.

Lunchtime brought a stop at a mountain hut to dry off and warm up during their fall Iceland wedding day!

What I enjoyed the most about Gina and Terry during their Iceland wedding day was that they genuinely loved and laughed their way through the rain savoring every silly awesome second of it! #couplesgoals

Our secret caves often provide fantastic shelter from the rain during Iceland wedding days!

Woohoo!!  A rain free moment and a rainbow!

But in Iceland they say… If you don’t like the weather, wait a few seconds, it’ll change! And change it did!

Rain is often challenging when it comes at you sideways, these two took it like seasoned champs and made it look GOOD!

Weddings and Waterfalls just go together on Iceland wedding days!

…and then sometimes you have to find your way to Mars to find some sunshine

After an action packed adventure wedding day, Gina, Terry, and their fabulous guests found their way to a delicious dinner!

© 2017, Iceland Wedding Planner /  Photos by Miss Ann, All Rights Reserved.

The post Rainy Yet Radiant Iceland Wedding of Gina and Terry appeared first on Iceland Wedding Planner.

This past week was a perfect example of April showers bringing May flowers.  Three days of rain suddenly brought green grass, blossoming trees, tulips, engagements, weddings, and babies!  Crazy amounts of sweet newborns have come through our home studio in Plymouth, Michigan for newborn portrait photography (hello 2013 spring baby-boom!).

This week, we’re backing up to update you on one of our previous posts… Several of you ladies have emailed us to get more background on why we chose to have a Love Letter Ceremony when we held at our Iceland wedding at Seljalandsfoss waterfall in April of 2012.  Good news, we wrote a fabulous Iceland blog post on this last year entitled, “Alternative Unity Ceremony Idea: Love Letter Ceremony,” so please check it out first!

In the meantime, I will give you a little more background and an update to that post!  You see, when we were planning our Iceland destination wedding, we tried finding Icelandic traditions to possibly incorporate.  Although neither one of us is from Iceland or any of our guests, we definitely wanted to bring in the uniqueness of the country being nothing like any other.  It is seriously unlike any other country you will visit, so embrace it!  Most of the Icelandic traditions involve having very simplistic wedding plans like holding the ceremony at a local country church and reception at the bride’s family’s home.  Nevertheless, we did come across three Icelandic traditions we did want to integrate into our action packed wedding day at Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, Vik Beach, with a stop at Thorvaldseyri Farm (at the foot of the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano that famously erupted 2 years before- exactly to the date of our wedding day), and Hotel Ranga, follow below:

1. Holding a wedding welcome dinner the evening before our Iceland destination wedding.  Icelandic natives turn their weddings into a span of a few day celebrations.
2. Providing our guests with a 5 course wedding meal.
3. Love letters: In early Iceland, we found that love letters were the foundation of courtships.

From everything my husband and I read, researched, and have experienced we have found that the Icelandic culture loves the outdoors no matter the temperature, celebrates with fresh foods, smoked meats, strong drinks, and camaraderie.  Very much in tune with what we were after for our Iceland destination wedding.  So along with planning and providing a 3 course “welcome dinner” the evening before our wedding day for all our Iceland wedding guests, we also felt it was important to have a 5 course Iceland wedding reception meal so that our guests could partake in the unique, fresh, and memorable food Iceland had to offer.  The third thing that was Iceland inspired for our wedding day was integrating the love letters, by adding our own unique twist.  We made the letters tradition a part of our Iceland wedding ceremony at Seljalandsfoss waterfall and had that be the foundation of our unity ceremony.  It was a unique alternative to the other unity ceremony options we see every weekend.  Feel free to read our Iceland blog post on this topic for specific details and wording for the unity letter ceremony.

If you’re a weekly visitor of ours (thank you!), you know that Chris and I just celebrated our first year wedding anniversary on April 14th with an Iceland inspired couples session last month, check it out here if you missed it!  After we took photos inspired by our Seljalandsfoss wedding and the gorgeous Vik beach cave and rock formations, we said our wedding vows to each other again, and then we also did an update to our original Love Letter Ceremony.  Okay, so we actually didn’t “lock” our love letter ceremony box when our Iceland wedding officiant closed it during our Iceland wedding ceremony because we had to stuff more things inside of in order to pack efficiently.  When we returned home we did just as the ceremony said, we displayed it in a prominent spot in our home (our china cabinet we pass by many times throughout the day).  But the more I thought about the meaning behind the ceremony itself and how much our lives have changed in the last year, I thought it would be important to do an update and write another letter to our future selves.

Now selling my husband, Chris on the idea was tougher (lol).  Lucky me though, he sees the value in it.  So on the actual day our wedding anniversary, April 14^th we opened up our last bottle of our Iceland wedding champagne from Domaine Chandon, pulled out our last Papyrus stationery card, and wrote a new letter to each other.  I personally wrote about how much I have struggled with finding the right balance. Most of the married couples that have come back to us through the years for Plymouth, Michigan portrait photography all say the first year is the hardest, and I must agree.  Mainly because you are finding that balance for communicating, domestic chores, planning and cooking meals, working crazy schedules, idiosyncrasies and still finding the time to go out on dates!   So! Chris and I toasted to another great year, sealed the letters together and wrote on the outside of the envelope “Written on our 1^st Anniversary.”  How fun, right?  I think this is an awesome addition to a love letter ceremony tradition, so much that maybe we’ll do this every year on our Iceland wedding anniversary!  Gives me chills just thinking about the impact all these letters will have on our future selves!

Have you thought about what sort of unity ceremony you will have for your Iceland destination wedding?

Our destination wedding style in Southern Iceland (Hella, Iceland) was very adventurous, action-packed, romantic, energetic, and very particular about food and drinks (in quality, quantity, and menu uniqueness) for ourselves and our guests.  It was important to Chris and I to plan an Iceland wedding reception that was focused on those elements versus “partying” or dancing.  So if you’re thinking of a comparable focus for your Iceland wedding, please contact us to be your inclusive wedding planners and photographers!

Keep smiling and Iceland wedding planning,

Ann Peters

Expert Iceland Wedding Planner & Iceland Wedding Photographer

© 2002-2013, Photos by Miss Ann, All Rights Reserved

The post Icelandic Wedding Traditions: Love Letter Ceremony Update appeared first on Iceland Wedding Planner.

Life for us here at Photos by Miss Ann is somehow stuck on the fast forward button so please forgive us on the delayed posts!  The baby-boom of 2013 has come!  So many little ones have come through the studio in a past few weeks, lots of baby snuggles!  Chris and I have also begun looking our “final home.”  We currently live in Plymouth, Michigan and have a 1920’s home just outside of the downtown.  Gorgeous, but we need more room!  So we’re on the hunt for the home where we will have acres of land to photograph our clients, woods, pathways, a separate studio on the property, and the perfect home where we will one day raise a family and retire in.  Big decisions and big excitement is surrounding us and we are blessed to be savoring every minute of it!  If you are apart of the Photos by Miss Ann Family- be excited!  Big exciting things are happening for the rest of 2013 and 2014!  Woohoo!  Feel that energy?! Now lets channel it back to Iceland wedding planning!

Today’s topic: Iceland Wedding DETAILS!

Last week Photos by Miss Ann mailed out a super awesome welcome package to a newly booked Iceland destination wedding couple.  The intent of the package serves several purposes.  First it is a “thank you for booking us and we are really excited to be working with you!” gift.  Second, it gives the bride and groom some instant details!  Third, it provides wedding inspiration tailored to the type of wedding the bride and groom are envisioning.  For this specific Iceland Bride and Groom, we included the following items:  Burlap “bride” bag, “I do” blue bridal shoe stickers, “She’s Mine” groom shoe stickers, a Diamond Ring Key Chain (design inspiration to be used as a napkin holder), “Love” Cookie Cutters (wedding favor inspiration), Heart Wine Cork (favor inspiration), Heart Purse Hook (design and favor inspiration), Mini Sewing Kit (always prepared!), Mr. & Mrs. Luggage Tags, and a few other PBMA items like a thank you card, Photos by Miss Ann pen, and business cards.  This sort of package instantly provides whirling ideas and starts the destination wedding planning momentum!

Details in Destination wedding planning may seem small and monotonous but they are the amazing little touches your guests will see and appreciate.  Most times, those details are the ones that set your wedding apart from other weddings.  So you ask…. How does the detail planning start?

1. Color schemes!  Play with them =)
2. Pick your Iceland ceremony location and Iceland reception place (An Iceland waterfall wedding? A church in Budir? Hotel Ranga? Vik Black Sand Beach? Glacial Lagoon,? Or have a wedding under the Northern Lights?)
3. Picking your one of a kind Iceland wedding dress! Vintage? Modern? Romantic? A traditional veil? Bird cage veil? A romantic hood?
4. Creating Save the Dates and Wedding Invitations that compliment your destination wedding location and colors.
5. Choosing what your future husband will be wearing!  It’s okay to be more on the simplistic side when getting married outdoors in Iceland.
6. Figuring out what your maid of honor and best man will be wearing.
7. Now it’s time for the fun decisions!!!  The food!  5-course sit down or buffet? Photographers will usually (if they are pro level like us) take photos of this because 20 years from now you will not remember how awesomely delicious it looked!  Your Wedding Cake: Have sample photos of cakes you like to communicate your vision.  Ensure your baker or wedding planner knows what style you are after.  Then comes flavors!!  Yum!  We were non-traditional and decided no formal wedding cake but rather each guest received their own chocolate lava cake with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream!  Maybe be unique and have Icelandic Skyr cake for your wedding dessert?
8. Other food decisions would be whether or not to have a cocktail hour, snacks for your guests, a champagne toast, a themed cocktail at the bar (Like: “Cranberry Kiss,” “Godiva Chocolate Martini,” Wedding Oasis,” etc.!)  So fun for guests and personally, I love to photograph these type details!
9. Party Favors at each place setting and/or a welcome bag.  These can be fun-themed by the country you are holding the wedding in, special to you and your soon to be, and/or useful items the guests can use later and think of you both!
10. Flowers:  Flower colors are very important to the details.  From your bouquets, boutineers, corsages, petals for the isle way, guest petals to throw or bubbles, to the centerpieces at the Iceland wedding reception tables.
11. Memorial Flowers to remember those who have passed before or unable to make the journey to your Iceland destination wedding.  Couple of ways to do this…  At our wedding we incorporated our passed love ones in 4 sets of white roses and ribbons and had the flowers in the first row at our ceremony and then someone carried them around as we did group photos.  One of my favorite ways I have seen this done is a bride ties small little locket size portraits of the grandparents.  See our below photos for examples and this shop on Amazon if you’re curious to purchase.
12. Table Design for your reception.  Will you have seating name tags?  How will you determine how your meal is being handed out to each guest- color code? Table runners? Pin-tucked Place-mats? Formal Napkins?  How do you want them folded? Silverware settings? Charger?  Will you have water glasses, champagne glasses, and 2 types of wine glasses on your table?  Round tables or long coupled tables?  Will you be at a sweetheart table? Bridal party table? Bride and Groom banner sides for your seats?
13. Gift table design?
14. Bar Design and Bar Menu
15. Decorations!  Elaborate or Simplistic?
16. 5 Course Wedding Meal: Will you have a menu card?
17. Will your maid of honor or best man be decorating the honeymoon suite?  Let the Iceland wedding photographer know, those setup details are special!
18. What sort of hanger will you hand your dress on?  Look into getting a gorgeous personalized on that says, “The Bride,” “Future Mrs,” Mrs. Peters,” etc!  My favorite website Classy Bride sells them, check it out.  Awesome details for your Iceland wedding photographer to capture.
19. Will you be traditional and have the something new, something old, borrowed, and something blue?  Lay it out for your photographer.  Details you spent so much time picking out should be captured!
20. The rings!  If they are in a special box like Tiffany’s have it out so your photographer can get some fun shots.
21. I know it’s going to sound silly but details that are often overlooked… Are the big kiss and cake cutting… practice!  Make sure you’re comfortable!  If doing a cake cutting, Photos by Miss Ann walks you through in the moment what needs to be done (and I always provide forks, lol!).

I hope this blog post today, has provided insight on some of the awesome things you get to plan for your epic wedding day in Iceland.  Chris and I planned our own wedding at Seljalandsfoss Waterfall and hand picked all of our vendors.  We would love to have the opportunity to help you plan your flawless wedding day in Iceland and capture your epic Iceland wedding portraits!

Lots of smiles to you!  Yours truly as experts in Iceland wedding planning and Iceland Wedding Photography, -Ann Peters

© 2002-2013, Photos by Miss Ann, All Rights Reserved

The post Iceland Weddings: Detail Planning appeared first on Iceland Wedding Planner.