Allison and Leah | Iceland Elopement – from Vik to Jokulsarlon
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Savannah Chandler Photography | Iceland Elopement Photographer
I’ve been asked numerous times what’s my favorite place I’ve ever traveled to, or where’s my favorite location to photograph at. The answer requires no thought: Iceland. Without a doubt, it’s the island of Fire and Ice. Every single time I’ve set foot in Iceland, there’s a feeling of belonging and home that washes over me. I can’t describe it, but there’s no where on this earth that I’ve had the same feeling of home – outside of my actual home of Colorado.
Leah and Allison found my photos from one of my past Icelandic weddings, and reached out to start planning their Iceland adventure elopement. What I always recommend doing for destination elopements is to find the location that is on your “I MUST visit here”, then start planning a logistical route based on the place(s) that are the highest on your list. Allison and Leah both knew that they wanted to start at the Black Sand Beach in Vik – so we met right as the sun broke the horizon out on the volcanic sand.
If you’re looking at visiting Vik, I highly recommend coming at sunrise. We only had a handful of people there with us, and no buses of tourists had arrived yet. It was quite peaceful (which certainly is not always the case at some of the more well known locations).
Our route for the day was as such:
Vik and Black Sand Beach > Skogafoss and hike above > Jokulsarlon
As tempting as it may be to add more and more locations into a route (for me as well since I love everywhere in Iceland), between the driving, walking, and taking photos at each stop – three to four places is the perfect amount of stops to not get overwhelmed or feel like the day is so jam packed that it’s hard to enjoy each location.
Every elopement and wedding that I attend, there’s bits and pieces of the day that will always stick with me. One such thing from Allison and Leah’s elopement day will be that Leah kept calling Skogafoss the “Basement Waterfall” since we hiked up above it for their vows 😂. Henceforth, I will also always be calling this massive beast of moving water the Basement Waterfall.
To say their vows, we hiked up into the Skogar Valley to avoid some of the crowds and get a different landscape viewpoint. One of these days, I’d LOVE to hike all the way out from this trail into Thorsmark (hint hint). When I asked my husband at the end of the night what his favorite area that we visited was from the day, he said hands down the Skogar Valley.
Capping off our day together, we all hopped in our respective vehicles and drove to Jokulsarlon. The Glacier Lagoon never ceases to amaze me – the giant chunks of glaciers floating with mountains in the distance is quite a sight to see. We timed our day to be at the lagoon at sunset, and were greeted with a sky of banded colors and seals swimming every which way.
Congratulations again, Allison and Leah! We had such an amazing time adventuring around Iceland with you. <3
And to you, Iceland, I can not wait to come back. Until next time.
