Icelandic Glacier Elopement - Þetta reddast.
Photograph by Christian Dooley
My wife and I chose to elope in one of the rawest places on earth; Iceland. We imagined beginning our marriage somewhere wild, surrounded by landscapes we had dreamed of exploring. Getting there tested that dream.
Coming from Florida, without family support, we faced the challenges of arranging a wedding in another country. Our date set on August 8, 2024, thinking ahead we planned to fly out on August 4 allowing additional time to settle in and make final preparations. Then severe weather canceled our flights on back-to-back days due to a tropical storm.
We barely slept as we desparately searched for last-minute flights, trying to find any way out of our home state. When we finally landed in Iceland on August 6 after a red-eye, we were exhausted. Two days of our seven-day journey were gone.
We updated our glacier-guided officiant and photographer, the only people who knew our plans. Our officiant replied with an Icelandic phrase:
Þetta reddast. - “It will all work out in the end.”
Those words have held a special place in our marriage ever since.
Some excursions had to be abandoned, but what followed felt like a fairytale. All five days brought calm winds and clear skies wherever we traveled. Our guide joked that Iceland should be called “windland.” Having experienced such stillness, we could hardly imagine the place she described.
I like to think the universe was preparing something special for us through those early struggles. On August 8, we exchanged vows on the ice above Katla, a volcano beneath a glacier. We opened our hearts to each other, and it felt as though Iceland opened hers to us.
One excursion we were able to keep was a small puddle hopper flight near the glacial river outlets south of Vatnajökull. As a photographer working toward a professional practice, I had long dreamed of capturing Iceland’s braided rivers from above.
With my Sony A1 and 24–50mm f/2.8 G lens, I photographed the glacier run-off weaving through dark volcanic sediment. This frame became one of my personal favorites from a flight that gave me some of the strongest photographs I had ever made.
To me, this image holds more than a remarkable landscape. It holds the sleepless nights, the plans we surrendered, the vows we exchanged, and belief in my recent Icelandic motto; Þetta reddast.
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