The most epic and moody AF Iceland elopement

This gallery from a recent elopement in Iceland is just the collection of images I sent to the couple as their sneak peek. I am wildly too impatient to wait for me to edit the full gallery before sharing with the world on our blog- so behold- a literal magical elopement in Iceland.

This was actually a two-part elopement back in late November. The night before the scheduled elopement, I texted the couple to check in and they replied “um Michelle, it looks like 45 mph winds, should we reschedule?” Ultimately, I left the decision up to them because I’m bold and I’ll shoot in anything. I also think the universe has a fun way of working and wild elements in Iceland was your elopement destiny, than so be it. So we met the officiant in the parking lot of a lesser-famous waterfall on the south coast of Iceland (about 2 hours from Reykjavik) and attempted what we thought would be their all-day elopement. The winds, overspray from the waterfall, and cold temps were too much for our couple who didn’t have the luxury of fleece layers, a winter coat, gloves, and a hat- so they decided to call it and try again the next day.

Fast forward to day two and we meet back at the same waterfall. Allison still fresh eyed and excited and Josh looking just as handsome as he did the day before. There’s something about high school sweethearts that we just love documenting- and these two self-described science nerds were no exception. Their playful banter, weird jokes, and ease in each other’s presence was calming and made our 6-hour day FLY by. It felt like we were hanging with old friends, funny how that theme continues to pop up for us.

After we wrapped at our first location (the epic waterfall), we headed for a quick espresso warm-up before heading to a glacier. Yup, you read that right. A glacier. On your wedding day. WHAT. It wasn’t as cold as it looks, but I will say that photographing an elopement in a place where the sun doesn’t actually rise in the winter and there’s only 4-6 hours of “daylight”, made for a moody AF elopement gallery. My work typically isn’t thatttt moody, but today it is. Because our wedding documentary style is “looks like how the day felt”, so there you have it.

After shivering our way through the glacier and getting our asses scared off by a chunk falling off that sounded like an explosion, we departed the icy mountains (complete with a goodbye rainbow!) and headed for our third and final location- the most dangerous beach in the world.

Yup, the most dangerous beach in the world. I wanna put an LOL here but I won’t because people actually die at this beach and there’s no LOL about that. In all seriousness, we did have a safety chat with the couple before we started shooting here. We went over ground rules, sneaker waves, and not doing anything epic for the shot. As much as I was stoked to shoot on the basalt stacks, it wasn’t in our cards this day as both us and the couple decided against it. So we frolicked on the black sand and then an intense hail storm forced us into our cars, ultimately calling our day for good.

Now that you’ve listened to me babble, feast your eyes on this three-part elopement- a waterfall ceremony, a glacier snuggle sesh, and a black sand beach send off. If Josh and Allison’s boldness to run off to Iceland in the middle of winter to get married inspires you, for the love of god reach out to us. The magic of this place will never leave us and we’d be stoked to share this feeling with another couple in 2023. We’ve actually already scouted a new location for July of 2023, which means NO TRAVEL FEES!