Thanks so much for joining us for our second installment of 20 tips for planning your Iceland wedding!  If you missed the first half of this series, feel free to go back and delight in it here.  As having been married in Iceland ourselves, we know firsthand how crazy awesome it is as a destination wedding location.  We also know how difficult it can be planning a wedding if you are unfamiliar with the country, so feel free to contact us!  We’d love to hear from you!

We hope these tips prove to be a helpful tool in deciding if an Iceland weeding is in your future!

11.  Before you embark on your journey, request that your Iceland wedding official/celebrant sends you the full service in print so you and your fiancé can review and make changes if needed.  If writing your own vows or having a unity ceremony make him/her conscious of this ahead of time.  Many of the priests and magistrates in Iceland are unfamiliar with North American wedding customs.

12.  Have your wedding budget detailed out in your own currency and in ISK (Icelandic currency).  The exchange rate changes daily.  When budget planning 12 months out from your Iceland wedding date, fluctuations in the rate (and VAT increases) can have a significant impact on your overall costs.

13.  Do not be afraid to ship in your own wedding details ahead of time to ensure they meet your standards and vision.  We imported over 16,000 freeze-dried rose petals for our Iceland destination wedding at Seljalandsfoss.  For more information on this topic, please see our blog post on Importing Your Iceland Wedding Details.

14.  Having a wedding Iceland wedding timeline card (schedule) available when your guests check-in to the hotel is a great way to help keep your guests on track.  This extra detail will let everyone know what festivities are in store during their stay.  Not sure what to include or why? Don’t fret!  We wrote a great post about Wedding Issues you can check out to ease your mind.

15.  For an extra special wedding welcome, provide your guests with an Iceland Wedding Welcome Bag.  They made the trip to Iceland to see you get married, now spoil them with some local super sweet luxuries to use during their stay.

16.  Take your Iceland wedding dress off the bridal store’s hanger and say no to plastic hangers!  Bring a personalized wooden one that says your future name (Example: Mrs. Smith), or “The Bride,” “Love,” “I Do,” etc!  This is a delightful detail for your Iceland wedding photographers to capture.  Example of what that looks like, here.

17.  Do not be afraid to talk with your photographers candidly about your vision and what you need captured, it’s important to make that clear.  See why this topic is so important in our previous blog post, here.

18.  Understand that you may not have an ideal weather day for your wedding in Iceland and just accept it.  The day might bring rain, sleet, snow, be cloudy, or be blazing with endless sunshine, who knows!  Storms approach and blow through quickly.  You may just have to wait 15 mins or so.    Above all, have a feasible “Plan B” option if holding your wedding ceremony outside.  Our advice to you is to either an indoor locale on standby or umbrellas for each guest readily available.

19.  If having guests attend your Iceland destination wedding, plan a fun post wedding day group activity that all ages can participate in.  Idea: We designed a self-drive highlight tour of the Golden Circle, Seltun/Krýsuvík Lava Field, and the Blue Lagoon the next day with our guests.  Check out our previous blog post here on that topic.

20.  Make your honeymoon a separate trip and enjoy your trip to Iceland with all who have come to share it with you.  We actually waited 6 months to take our honeymoon and were so glad we did!  Check our Bali Indonesia Honeymoon Portraits here.

Hopefully, you have enjoyed today’s post and it has provided you with some better insight into the many things to consider when planning your destination wedding in Iceland.  Think this may be for you?  Talk to us today on how Iceland Wedding Planner and Photos by Miss Ann can complement your wedding day in Iceland!  Please feel free to contact us directly here.

Today’s wedding day photo inspiration comes from a gorgeous wedding we had the pleasure of photographing on Saturday, September 7^th on the esteemed Infinity Ovation Yacht.  Beth and Jarret have become very dear friends to Chris and I over the past few years.  We were honored and super excited when they asked us to photograph the most important day of their lives!  They are a pair who is very adventurous, challenge each other, and they have a relentless love and admiration for each other that is unmistakable.

Beth was already one of the most gorgeous women I know, but to see her as a bride on her wedding day took my breath away!  Oh man and Jarret…in his bow tie, suit, and perfect smile -so handsome!  The Day:  It was an ideal moment in Saint Clair Shores with early fall temperatures and endless blue skies overhead for their ceremony.  Chris and I spilt up for an early morning start to this amazing event.  Beth and her ladies started at the MGM Casino and Jarret and his groomsmen began their day right around the corner from the Jefferson Beach Marina.

The 11am ceremony brought all who love them together in celebration.  The captain of the boat married them and the horn of the yacht blew in announcement of the newlywed Mr. and Mrs.!  How fun, right?  After the ceremony, all of the guests boarded the boat to enjoy an afternoon cruise.  A strolling gourmet lunch was served while the yacht boasted amazing views around the Detroit River including the historic Ambassador Bridge!  Jarret and Beth, we hope these images speak to you and forever seal that marvelous moment in time for you!  Thank you for choosing Photos by Miss Ann to tell your wedding day story!   Now please delight in their wedding day BLISS below…

Lots of Smiles and positive planning vibes, Ann & Chris Peters

Husband and Wife Iceland Wedding Planning & Photography Team

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

The post 20 Tips for Planning Your Iceland Wedding (Part 2 of 2) appeared first on Iceland Wedding Planner.

There you are engaged, starry-eyed and in love debating on destination wedding locations… When you stumble over the idea of having your wedding in Iceland!  Is it even possible?  Do people actually get married in Iceland?  Of course it is! We did it and now specialize in planning and photographing weddings for other amazing couples in Iceland!  Okay, so now that we have you super excited that it’s possible, contact us for more information on being your wedding planner and Iceland wedding photographers!

Today we begin a two part series on advice for planning your Iceland destination wedding.  Here is our 10 out of 20 Iceland wedding  planning tips for this week!

1.)  Give yourself an absolute minimum of 6 months to plan your destination wedding in Iceland.  If you’re planning to elope in Iceland, plan for a minimum of 4 months before.  To insure your Iceland wedding dream spot is available book 12-16 months before your date.

2.)  Apply for a credit card that offers free foreign transactions.  When we were planning our Iceland destination wedding, we chose the Chase Sapphire Card.  We earned points for every dollar we spent while avoiding that 3% transaction fee on every international purchase.  This savings on your Iceland wedding budget can be put towards that epic honeymoon!

3.)  Fully explore all of the possible locations you could hold your Iceland ceremony.  Maybe on top of a Glacier?  In the middle of lava fields?  Seljalandsfoss Waterfall?  Vik Beach? Gulfoss? Ranga River?  Lake Mývatn? Dettifoss Waterfall?  In an Icelandic country church? Downtown Reykjavik?  Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon?  In one of Iceland’s many gorgeous canyons?  In front of a basalt rock formation?  The natural wonders for Iceland wedding venues are endless, so think hard on where you see yourself getting married.

4.)  Do your research on the time of year you want to marry in Iceland.  The amount of daylight varies depending on the day/month so be mindful.  Iceland can range from 4 hours to 22 hours of daylight a day.  We have a fantastic post here on the “Best Time to Marry in Iceland.”  Also check out one of our favorite sites: Time & Date for specific information on how many hours of daylight you may have on your proposed Iceland wedding date.

5.)  Currently you do not need a “permit” to marry at any of Iceland’s natural wonders.

6.)  Make sure you’re in Iceland at least 2 business days before your wedding date.  In order to obtain your Iceland marriage license, you must be in the country 2 business days before you get married.  Hard copies of the documents are due 2-3 weeks before you arrive in Iceland.  Please keep this in mind as you finalize your travel plans.

7.)  Trip Advisor, Google Images, and Wikipedia are magnificent tools for understanding where things are in Iceland and what they look like as you plan your Iceland wedding adventure.

8.)  When you’re getting ready to send out your Iceland wedding Invitations, create a wedding website detailing your chosen location, your booked flight information, Iceland wedding host hotel information, activities you want to do, coupon or booking codes, and your week/end Iceland wedding schedule so guests are comfortable booking ASAP. Send your Iceland wedding website URL with your wedding invitation.

9.)  Change it up by having a “Love Letter Ceremony” in place of a sand ceremony, unity candle or tying the knot ceremony.  It is very unique and will provide a very special moment for you both then and years later.

10.)  If you plan to say “I do” at one of Iceland’s gorgeous waterfalls (like Seljalandsfoss Waterfall)  we recommend renting a sound system with a wireless microphone. It is tough to compete the roar of a epic waterfall in the background.  Having a sound system insures every word is heard and that music can be included in your ceremony.

We hope you have enjoyed our post today on tips for getting married in Iceland!  Stay tuned next week for the remaining segment on this wonderful topic!  (If you’re just joining us see the continuation to this post at 20 Tips for Planning Your Iceland Wedding (Part 2 of 2)).

And if you just can’t wait or find “Part 2” here it is!

11.  Before you embark on your journey, request that your Iceland wedding official/celebrant sends you the full service in print so you and your fiancé can review and make changes if needed.  If writing your own vows or having a unity ceremony make him/her conscious of this ahead of time.  Many of the priests and magistrates in Iceland are unfamiliar with North American wedding customs.

12.  Have your wedding budget detailed out in your own currency and in ISK (Icelandic currency).  The exchange rate changes daily.  When budget planning 12 months out from your Iceland wedding date, fluctuations in the rate (and VAT increases) can have a significant impact on your overall costs.

13.  Do not be afraid to ship in your own wedding details ahead of time to ensure they meet your standards and vision.  We imported over 16,000 freeze-dried rose petals for our Iceland destination wedding at Seljalandsfoss.  For more information on this topic, please see our blog post on Importing Your Iceland Wedding Details.

14.  Having a wedding Iceland wedding timeline card (schedule) available when your guests check-in to the hotel is a great way to help keep your guests on track.  This extra detail will let everyone know what festivities are in store during their stay.  Not sure what to include or why? Don’t fret!  We wrote a great post about Wedding Issues you can check out to ease your mind.

15.  For an extra special wedding welcome, provide your guests with an Iceland Wedding Welcome Bag.  They made the trip to Iceland to see you get married, now spoil them with some local super sweet luxuries to use during their stay.

16.  Take your Iceland wedding dress off the bridal store’s hanger and say no to plastic hangers!  Bring a personalized wooden one that says your future name (Example: Mrs. Smith), or “The Bride,” “Love,” “I Do,” etc!  This is a delightful detail for your Iceland wedding photographers to capture.  Example of what that looks like, here.

17.  Do not be afraid to talk with your photographers candidly about your vision and what you need captured, it’s important to make that clear.  See why this topic is so important in our previous blog post, here.

18.  Understand that you may not have an ideal weather day for your wedding in Iceland and just accept it.  The day might bring rain, sleet, snow, be cloudy, or be blazing with endless sunshine, who knows!  Storms approach and blow through quickly.  You may just have to wait 15 mins or so.    Above all, have a feasible “Plan B” option if holding your wedding ceremony outside.  Our advice to you is to either an indoor locale on standby or umbrellas for each guest readily available.

19.  If having guests attend your Iceland destination wedding, plan a fun post wedding day group activity that all ages can participate in.  Idea: We designed a self-drive highlight tour of the Golden Circle, Seltun/Krýsuvík Lava Field, and the Blue Lagoon the next day with our guests.  Check out our previous blog post here on that topic.

20.  Make your honeymoon a separate trip and enjoy your trip to Iceland with all who have come to share it with you.  We actually waited 6 months to take our honeymoon and were so glad we did!  Check our Bali Indonesia Honeymoon Portraits here.

With a smile, Ann Peters + Team (Iceland Wedding Planning and Photography Team)

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

The post 20 Tips for Getting Married in Iceland (Part 1 of 2) 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.