Eden and James’s wedding has a long story behind it. They were planning a wedding in England, and almost two years passed between our first email and the day itself.
About three months before the date, a new email arrived: the UK wedding was cancelled, they were moving to Iceland, and instead of a big wedding there would be an elopement. I just stared at the screen for a while.
Then I got excited. I booked flights for May (the photographer) and Nikol (my wife, behind the Super 8 camera), rented a car and started packing.
It was my second time in Iceland, so I knew what I needed most: lots of Super 8 film. The ceremony was at sunrise on Diamond Beach, so I went for Kodak 200T, a slightly faster stock for the low morning light.
Iceland tempts you to pose couples at the famous Instagram spots, and many people expect exactly that. As you can see in the film, wherever we were, Eden and James simply stayed in their own world, as if we weren’t there at all.
Sunrise at Diamond Beach
Eden and James got there ahead of us, and we met at six in the morning at the Fosshotel near Diamond Beach, a black sand beach on Iceland’s south coast where huge pieces of ice from the glacier lagoon wash up on the shore.
Blue-white ice on black sand is an unreal setting for an elopement, and as a filmmaker I was in my element.
We were there before the sun came up and had a few quiet minutes just to take it in. Then the ceremony began: just us, the silence and the words of the vows. One of the most beautiful moments I’ve filmed at any wedding.
Exploring with our guide Ryan
For the rest of the day our guide Ryan Newburn took us around. We walked through Skaftafell in Vatnajökull National Park, on the edge of Europe’s largest glacier, and stopped at Jökulsárlón, Iceland’s famous glacier lagoon.
The highlight came later in the day: Fjaðrárgljúfur, a canyon more than a mile long, cut into rock thought to be around two million years old.
Planning an elopement in Iceland?
If you’re planning an elopement in Iceland, or anywhere else, and would like me to film it, get in touch. I’m happy to answer any questions.