Selecting a location

Why, why, why Iceland?

Easily this is the most common question we have been asked. No, we have never been to Iceland, but there are a lot of factors that came into play–the biggest one being my spur-of-the-moment comment to hold the wedding there and Peter immediately and enthusiastically agreeing.

Some other reasons:

• I was having a hard time dealing with the stress of planning a “traditional” wedding back in Jersey
• I knew that I couldn’t afford 100% of what I wanted if we had a “traditional” wedding, and felt I might be disappointed with the outcome based on what we could afford
• Having an adventure seemed like a better and more lasting use of our funds
• We got engaged alone in the middle of nowhere, and it seemed fitting to get married in a similar situation
• We love nature, vistas, and animals
• It’s an easy flight for 90% of our invitees
• It’s a good jumping-off point to carry on to Europe or elsewhere
• Hot springs. Enough said 😉

Within Iceland

We settled on Hotel Budir and the host hotel/location for our wedding ceremony because of its isolation from anything else and from the wonderful reviews it had as truly being a destination worth visiting.

Hotel Budir is one of the most popular wedding destinations on the island. In fact, both my initial date, and my backup date were already taken, more than a year in advance when I first reached out to the hotel staff. And by taken, I don’t mean that their restaurant was full–the whole hotel was sold out/bought out for a wedding.

After much deliberation (do we choose a new destination? Stick with Snaefellsness, but a lesser hotel?), I wrote down all of the available dates per Budir, and put them in a hat. Out dog picked the winning date and we were thrilled with that!

 

Another popular wedding spot is Skogafoss, a waterfall with a dark pebbly “beach”. If we were truly eloping, I might have chosen a destination like this, but adding in my relatives and friends made the more hospitable Hotel Budir an easy choice.

Because we will be married in the Summer, it also crossed my mind to hold the wedding around Vestmannaeyjar, the puffin colony, since it’ll be puffin season. But, that held even more logistical challenges and I quickly dropped the idea–we’ll be sure to make it a tour stop after the wedding!

 

Love,

Danielle and Peter