Stunning epic photos from a wild winter elopement in Iceland

Wild Winter Ice Cave Elopement in Iceland – Your Adventure Wedding

“We needed boots with a decent grip to scale the side of the glacier and enter our ice cave ceremony location.” Adventurous brides & grooms, this wild Iceland wedding is for you!

Ashley and David trekked through 60 kilometers per hour winds, hail, rain, sleet, snow, and black quicksand to a majestic ice cave in Iceland for their epic nuptials. How did they keep a smile through the wild weather? Well, positive attitudes for starters but the two were well prepared with thermal underwear, hardy boots, waterproof jackets, umbrellas and even a bridal faux-fur jacket to keep warm.

And yet another adventurous couple agree that even for an elopement, you should hire a wedding planner. Their fabulous Icelandic planner was able to keep spirits high while traversing the treacherous roads (and pulling their Jeep out of the snow and slush!)

This Your Adventure Wedding stunner is a story you have to read and see for yourself.

Our Love Story

David is from New Zealand and I (Ashley) am from Canada. We met in 2013, in Paris on a 24 day Contiki tour. After the tour, we parted ways but kept in touch over the next five months. We met up in Sydney, Australia for New Years’ and began living together in Australia. We moved to New Zealand a few months later and we lived there for a couple of years before settling down in Canada in 2016.

We have a passion for traveling and whilst we were away on holiday, David proposed on a beach in Costa Rica.

Photo by Your Adventure Wedding via Bridal Musings

The Dress & Attire

Our footwear was extremely practical. We both had waterproof boots that would keep us dry at least to our ankles; so crossing shallow rivers and glacial puddles were not an issue. We also needed boots with a decent grip to scale the side of the glacier and enter our ice cave ceremony location.

My dress was from a budget website but I was extremely impressed with the quality. It managed to hold up perfectly in 60km/h winds, hail, rain, sleet, snow, and black quicksand. I also had a faux-fur shawl to keep warm during the ceremony. Under my dress, I wore white thermal pants with a snowflake on them. David also wore thermal pants with a traditional three-piece suit to keep warm.

Favorite Moments

The adventurous journey to the ice cave ceremony is a story we enjoy telling family and friends. The super-jeep we were in was massive and excellent at crossing rivers and navigating through treacherous roads. Despite this, we managed to get stuck multiple times. A recent thaw made the road very slushy and at times the jeep was almost vertical, stuck in ruts near waist-deep. Our wedding planner Anne‘s positive attitude and shots of Iceland’s famous drink Brennevin (the black death) got us through it until another jeep was able to pull us out.

We also loved our hot dog barbecue lunch in the cave and hearing Anne’s husband’s folklore tales about Icelandic trolls as we travelled through the countryside. Lastly, the blue and black ice cave with waterfall and views to the surrounding mountains made for the most epic ceremony location.

Photo by Your Adventure Wedding via Bridal Musings

Advice to Other Couples

Our advice would be to do it your way and don’t hold back on an adventure. Your family will be understanding if you elope…so long as you do what we did, and have an after-party or two (one in Canada & one in New Zealand).

Iceland Wedding Planner made our day completely stress-free with our hardest wedding decision choosing which waterfall to see. We recommend getting an experienced planner like Anne to make your wedding day as smooth as possible. She was able to improvise on the spot when the weather wasn’t cooperating and found us many beautiful locations on the fly. She was also extremely well prepared with emergency kits, staging decorations and changing dinner reservations when we wanted more time to explore.