You know the place that if I could snap my fingers and be there right now, I would.  Believe it or not, it’s an easy answer for me- it’s Hvítserkur Sea Arch.

This hidden gem is off-the-beaten-path in the untouched Vatnsnes Peninsula of Northwestern Iceland.  Some say from a distance formation looks the like a dragon is drinking water- you be the judge! The road to get there is a little bumpy but take it slow.  Park, breathe in a deep breath of the crazy awesome fresh air, and then hike down (or walk out to the left until you’re in front of it and then try to traverse down) from the parking point.  I have found it far more fun to traverse my way down from that point and then walk the beach to the sea arch.  It’s stunning and at low tide you can actually walk right to it and touch it.

One of my fabulous previous brides feel in love with this spot too, so we decided to do a Iceland post wedding bridal session followed by a pretty little styled session at a nearby hotel.  Today this striking session is featured on Crazy Beautiful Weddings blog so I thought I’d share some of my faves from Hvítserkur Sea Arch here too, enjoy!

With a smile, Ann Peters (Iceland Wedding Photographer and Planner)

© 2015, Iceland Wedding Planner /  Photos by Miss Ann, All Rights Reserved

The post Northern Iceland Post Wedding Bridal Session at Hvítserkur Sea Arch appeared first on Iceland Wedding Planner.

Did you see us featured today on the ground breaking wedding inspiration blog: Burnett’s Boards?  We are over the moon excited… so take a moment to fall in love with Iceland over and over again…. HERE!

Hugs and Love,  Ann + Beth

The post Iceland Wedding Photographer + Planner Featured on Burnetts Boards appeared first on Iceland Wedding Planner.

Perched on the Northeastern shores of Lake Myvatn and in the shadows of the Dimmuborgir Lava Castles, sits the beautiful jewel, Hotel Reynihlid. You’ll find 41 comfortable European styled double rooms and each room offers excellent views.  Hotel Reynihlid is truly a full service hotel that offers year round accommodations. The friendly knowledgeable staff and fabulous amenities allow you to enjoy any length of stay or host your unforgettable Iceland Destination Wedding, as it would be a perfect choice for any Iceland wedding guest size.  Reynihlid boasts a banquet space big enough for 60 people seated for a Iceland wedding reception and a lovely 4 star in house restaurant called “Myllan.” Serving beautiful local Icelandic fare not limited to lovely lamb dishes and scrumptious Arctic Char, there is something delectable for every palate.

Be sure to plan your stay with plenty of time to check out the natural wonders all around; you’ll be able to fill every moment of daylight with some really unique Icelandic adventures. But first, start your day of sightseeing, with a lovely breakfast at Reynihlid, with its extensive continental spread it will surely get you off on the right foot!

If you’re looking to become one with the natural wonders of the area you can take an easy drive to one of two of the most grand waterfalls in the world, Dettifoss and Godifoss. Both are under a one hour drive from the hotel and many other natural wonder sights are on the way. Then make sure you stop for a walk around the bubbling mud pots of Namafjall, or take a carefree stroll through the Dimmuborgir volcanic chimneys with their dwarfing towers of lava rock and brilliant earthy colors. Both locations are less than a 10 minute drive from Hotel Reynihlid. Finish your day with a dip in the natural geothermal hot baths nearby, to sooth the aches of a fabulous day of adventure in Iceland’s dazzling outdoors.

If you’re interested in day tripping around the area you can venture into the little quaint town of Husavik, where the beautiful wooden church (named Húsavíkurkirkja, built in 1907) can be found! The area would be easy to do a fun self-guided tour and of course make sure you include a lunch or dinner stop at one of the amazing local seafood restaurants that operate right at the docks. There are also several spots for you to purchase authentic handmade Icelandic wares, crafts or to sign up for an unforgettable whale watching tour. As you can see, there is enough to keep you busy for at least an entire day and it is only a short 40 minute drive from Hotel Reynihlid.

Iceland Wedding Planner’s Visit to Hótel Reynihlíð:

On a fabulous summer morning in Northern Iceland, we began our trek from the Trollaskagi Peninsula and after a 45 minute drive south we arrived in the bustling city of Akureyri. We pressed thru so that we could have lunch in my absolute favorite city in Iceland – Husavik! We spent a few glorious hours there…Sad to leave the little fishing town but we were stoked to start heading south to the area of Lake Myvatn where Hotel Reynihlid resides.

With a quick stop to Godafoss, Dimmuborgir, and Námafjall, we arrived to Hotel Reynihlid by 8pm which was just in time for a delicious dinner in their fabulous restaurant! As soon as you walk into the hotel you’re greeted with warm smiles from the staff, delicious smells coming from the restaurant, and a feeling of being “home.” The lobby invites you to pull up a chair to enjoy the view or a good book. If you travel further into the formal check-in lobby area you’ll not only find the staff ready to check you in or answer any questions but you’ll also find a little sundry shop! The shop has all sorts of Icelandic snacks, souvenirs, and nic-naks so make sure you stop and check it out!

If you head over to the left side of the lobby you will find a computer that is internet accessible so you can check your email and stay connected to the world.  Beyond that you’ll find the regular side of the bar and if you venture to the other side, you’ll find the “MannaBar” filled with high tables, couches, piano, and a large television.  What a fabulous place to hold a wedding “happy/cocktail hour” for your Iceland wedding reception!

The hallways of Hotel Reynihlid have framed photos of the incredible natural wonders throughout Northern Iceland so enjoy as you walk to your room. Iceland Wedding Planner Travel Tip: If you have anyone who has a disability and cannot make the trip up stairs, please make sure you let the staff know at time of booking to reserve a first floor room.

Upon entering our room on the second floor, we loved the instant view we had of Lake Myvatn! The room also had fabulous amenities at our fingertips, including Duke & Lyle luxury Scandinavian toiletries! After settling in we jetted down to the restaurant for dinner and we delighted in the following scrumptious delectable dishes at the Myllan Restaurant:

• Poached Arctic Char with red onion and garlic toast.
• Shoulder of Lamb with bell peppers, potatoes and red onion.
• Locally caught baked Salmon with carrots and citrus sauce.

One of my favorite things about Reynihlid is the easy access to all of the top Northern Iceland attractions such as the following locales:

• Akureyri: 45 minutes
• Akureyri Airport: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Dettifoss (Note the Iceland Nature Pass is in affect): 50 minutes
• Dimmuborgir: 8 minutes
• Godafoss: 40 minutes
• Husavik (Fishing town and the best whale watching): 40 minutes
• Myvatn Nature Baths: 8 minutes
• Námafjall Geothermal Area (Note the Iceland Nature Pass is in affect): 10 minutes
• Hvitserkur Sea Arch: 4 hours 20 minutes
• KEF Airport: 6.5 hours

In the Iceland summer months (May-September), you’re able to easily navigate the roads from Southern Iceland but in Icelandic winter months (October to April).  But we would strongly encourage you to fly from the Reykavik Airport to the Akureyri Airport and then rent a car to continue on to Hotel Reynihlid.

Whether looking for your Iceland wedding to be in spring, summer, or winter, Hotel Reynihlid can support your vows in any season! With so many activities whether sun, rain, or snow, you and your loved ones will always have something new to experience. When your day’s adventures come to an end, you’ll be able to head back to the comfort of the hotel, enjoy a glass of wine or a cocktail from Reynihlid’s full service bar and watch the sunset from the comfort of their beautiful and welcoming sun room while going over your day. All preparing you for the bedtime story of the Midnight Sun or the dazzling Northern Lights before settling into bed to catch some rest for your new adventures tomorrow.

We encourage you to contact Hotel Reynihlid for your next trip to Northern Iceland, you will not be disappointed! In the meantime, please delight in the images we photographed there this past summer when we did an Iceland Styled Session onsite there along with a few little tidbits around the area.

Hotel Reynihlid’s Contact Information:

• Website: http://www.reynihlid.is
• Address: 660 Myvatn; Myvatn, Iceland
• Phone: +354 464 4371
• Hotel Reynihlid GPS Cordinates: 65.6453341?N, -17.0626309?W

Stay tuned next time for another pick on our 2014 Top Iceland Wedding Hotel list! But just in case you missed the previous weeks posts… go back and check out our other 2 favorites from this year:

• Hotel Borg
• Brimnes Hotel & Cabins

With a smile, – Ann Peters (Iceland Wedding Planner and Photographer)

© 2002-2014, Photos by Miss Ann, All Rights Reserved

The post Northern Iceland Wedding Location: Hotel Reynihlid appeared first on Iceland Wedding Planner.

Today, we continue on with our list of this year’s “Top Iceland Wedding Hotels,” woohoo are you excited?!  If you missed last week’s post, head back here to delight!  Did you know there is a precious pearl of a hotel that I honestly feel has been one of Iceland’s best kept secrets, hiding out in Northern Iceland?  This years award for the best Iceland Elopement Hotel hands down goes to Brimnes Hotel and Cabins.

Nestled amongst the stunning peaks and fabulous fjords of the Trollaskagi Peninsula, and snuggled in the sleepy town of Olafsfjordur, is the quaint and lovely, Brimnes Hotel and Cabins.  With its eight Finnish styled cabins at water’s edge, Brimnes can support any length of stay for an Iceland wedding group size ~35 people or less.  Each fully furnished bungalow comes completely equipped for your stay with full kitchenettes and with their own hot tub on the patio.  The cabins especially, are warm and cozy with impressive geothermal heating and snuggly linens! What a perfect way to celebrate and relax after your Icelandic nuptials or Iceland wedding reception.

If you are looking for something a bit simpler, the main hotel across the street features 11 double in suite bathroom guest rooms as well, each with stunning views and modern Scandinavian design.  You’ll find that it is comfortable and what you need, without taking any of the spotlight away from the scenery outside.

With its own restaurant in the heart of the main hotel lobby, you’ll find yourself starting each day with a full Icelandic breakfast spread.  On that same note, you’ll also find a menu for dinner ranging from a lite bite to a gourmet Icelandic three course dinner. Brimnes, has ensured that you can make any occasion special, by savoring the stunning view from the floor to ceiling dining room windows, which easily makes the swoon factor in their restaurant high!  …You could even be so daring to ask the staff to place a table out on the dock for a romantic dinner for two!

Iceland Wedding Planner’s visit to Brimnes Hotel & Cabins:

Our adventure to Brimnes Hotel began after finishing a gorgeous Iceland summer wedding in the South. We drove a fabulous 4 hours north on Route 1 to make our first stop at my favorite natural wonder in Iceland…Hvitserkur Sea Arch.  I could seriously spend hours here and in an upcoming post you’ll see and understand why =)  Next on our agenda, was driving 1.5 hours to delight in one of the oldest and most famed sod church referred to as, Víðimýri. As we drove, one of the most surprising of things about I found through Iceland’s Northern Fjords, is the enormous amount of one lane tunnels (Eeeek, my nemesis!).

Luckily though, if you can make it past the 4-6ish tunnels, and bear through less than an hour’s drive from the sod church you’ll reach Brimnes Hotel & Cabins and be oh-so glad you did!  With the picturesque location at the base of the mountains and shimmering lake very easily set the scene for true relaxing and any romantic Iceland wedding weekend.

Having the pleasure of staying in the main hotel, we found the amenities to fit our needs for the night and the view, simply unforgettable.  Travel Tip: If arriving later than 9pm, make sure you have had dinner or purchased snacks as the hotel does not offer a formal service for food after that hour. Also my fair ladies, remember your hair dryer if you need one =) The staff at Brimnes was attentive and accommodating and we seriously cannot wait to go back!

Brimnes can be an ideal location as headquarters for your Northern Iceland Wedding Adventure or even a stop in your honeymoon itinerary after your Icelandic Elopement! In summer, you’re able to easily navigate the roads from Southern Iceland but in Icelandic winter months (October to April), we would caution you or strongly encourage you to fly.

You are approximately the following time frames from the important locations below:

• Akureyri: 40 minutes
• Húsavík: 1 hour
• Lake Mývatn: 2 hours 15 minutes
• Reykavik: 5 hours
• KEF Airport: 6 hours

One of my favorite features of the hotel is the fact you can walk out from your room and go jump in a row boat to explore their lake, play lawn games, and walk the grounds in awe.  Downstairs in the main hotel, you’ll also find a recreation room which has a large pool table and a television for viewing your favorite shows in the evening.

From Brimnes Hotel and Cabins, there are many activities to do during the day, in the summer months there’s limitless hiking around the fjords and mountains, bird watching (hello puffins!), day trips by ferry to the Arctic Circle Island of Grimsey. Plus, if you would like to learn a bit more about Iceland’s history you can explore the Icelandic Emigration Center in Hofsos or the Natural History Museum in Olaf or the unique Herring Museum! A bit further of a drive and you can visit the quaint seaside fishing towns for incredible an whale watching adventure or just a relaxing afternoon of sight-seeing, Icelandic shopping and fantastic seafood.

Don’t miss out on the stunningly impressive Dettifoss Waterfall which is unlike anything you’ve ever seen, and is only a 3 hour drive east from the hotels door.  During the winter months there’s many outlets for adventure such as skiing, snowboarding, and snowshoeing, ice fishing, and snowmobiling.  All great activities before settling back in for the night.  Also, ensure you keep an eye out for the ever prevalent northern lights which are a winter norm at Brimnes Hotel being so close to the Arctic Circle and all!

If I was eloping in Iceland, Brimnes Hotel & Cabins would be on the top of my list to consider if I wanted a location that was unique, fully immersed in nature, and in such a primo location between my favorite Iceland natural wonders!  We would encourage you to add them to your Iceland travel itinerary, please check out their contact information below. Also enjoy the Iceland Styled Session we did there with the theme of “To Iceland with Love!”

Brimnes Hotel & Cabins Contact Information:

• Website: http://www.brimnes.is/
• Address: Bylgjubyggð, 625 Ólafsfjörður, Iceland
• Phone: +354-466-2400
• Hotel Brimnes GPS Cordinates: 66.069843″N, -18.658700″W

Stay tuned next time for another pick on our 2014 Top Iceland Wedding Hotel list!

With a smile, – Ann Peters (Iceland Wedding Planner and Photographer)

© 2002-2014, Photos by Miss Ann, All Rights Reserved

The post Iceland Elopement Hotel: Brimnes Hotel & Cabins (Northern Iceland Weddings) 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.