Eloping on Iceland’s Stunning Black Sand Beaches

Susan & Joe travelled from sunny Florida to have their symbolic ceremony in Iceland. The couple had hoped for moody weather -quite opposite from sunny Florida and where else to experience it the best.

Susan & Joe’s elopement morning started slowly and enjoying breakfast with their friends. After that, they started to get ready in separate lodges. The couple had rented two lodges with their friends: Seljalandsfoss Horizons. The lodges are known as luxury lodges with panorama windows, located close to the famous Seljalandsfoss waterfall. The lodges were built in 2019 so they are pretty new and very wanted accommodation! First stop – hair and makeup! Susan got her hair and makeup done and soon the two of them were off to their first look.

Intimate Ceremony on the beach

After the first look, we drove more towards South Iceland and they had their intimate elopement ceremony on a more private black sand beach. Susan & Joe’s friend spoke throughout the ceremony and the couple exchanged their vows. South Iceland is a very popular place for intimate weddings because of its dramatic beauty – with its sweeping views of the ocean, surrounding cliffs, volcanic fields and basalt columns.

When the ceremony was done, Susan & Joe celebrated as newlyweds at Skool beans while enjoying very taste hot drinks.

The elopement adventure.

For Susan & Joe, it was important to have an adventure that looked theirs. Having an adventure elopement never means you should be doing big activities on your day -it can be doing small river crossings with your car or walking on rocks and try not to fall into a cold river -just so you get to explore locations that have Lord of the Rings vibes. Iceland rain tried to do its best to stop the fun, but this couple didn't let it stop them. We needed to make a couple of location drops because of heavy rain and since we weren’t able to do river crossing with the car. But Susan & Joe loved every moment of their day.

Susan and Joe also valued having the following moments captured from their Iceland elopement day: photos of them sharing their vows, photos of their friends, some funny photos and them exploring Iceland.

Hair and makeup: Asthildur

Wedding flowers: Thordis

Getting ready cottage: Seljalandsfoss horizones

Safety considerations with eloping on a black sand beach.

There are quite many black sand beaches in Iceland. The most known Black sand beach in Iceland is Reynisfraja which is located in the South Iceland region. Reynisfraja is also one of the most visited locations and during summer it can have thousands of visitors in a day! Reynisfraja is a place to visit, but it can be hard to get some privacy if you want to have that during your ceremony. Luckily there are some more private Black sand beaches in the area that do offer more privacy for your ceremony and aren’t that much visited by tourists - beaches where the tour companies don’t drop off any tourists!

Reynisfraja is also known for deadly sneaker waves that can pull you out to the ocean itself. Just in the year 2022, there have been 3 deaths because of the sneaker waves. You might want to consider this is having Reynisfraja the right option to have an elopement or wedding ceremony there. Other Black sand beaches in Iceland don’t have such a big problem with sneaker waves as Reynisfraja does.

The Black sand beach you will see in the pictures is from a bit more private Black sand beach where the couple had a lovely time and privacy to read out their vows.

If you want to elope at Black sand beach in Iceland, you can read this guide of Black sand beach elopements in Iceland.