Getting married in Iceland - How it works
So your thinking about getting married in Iceland and wondering where to start.
We recommend you start by visiting
pinkiceland.is and contact them, tell them what plans you have in mind. Very important you ask to be pared with Inga for the more better quality service.
Alternatives to pink Iceland are deeper in the article. ;)
They will figure it all out for you, it usually relatively easy to work with them and when you have done making plans with pink Iceland you can pretty much just book your tickets and send out your wedding invitations. But, first, you of course, need to plan the wedding with a wedding organizer first.
So whats next? picking the location for the wedding. (Be warned, the weather is often unpredictable and crazy in Iceland - ain't that exciting!)
We recommend looking at the location photos of some amazing weddings. Pink Iceland is at it again and has made albums just for you to scroll through. Named "South-Shore-Wedding-Locations"(90% of travelers visit the south shore), Famous "Golden-Circle-Wedding-Locations" this is on everybody's todo's in Iceland, "Reykjanes-Wedding-Locations", "Westfjords-Wedding-Locations"(10% or less of travelers visit the Westfjords) and the fanciest album "Highland-Wedding-Locations" I call it the fanciest since people are taking helicopters to reach these more hard to reach parts of Icelandic nature. The rest of the country is not really that visited by travelers so if you are feeling wild. There is a lot of untouch wild unused wedding locations available.
Here are some photo's and links to the crazy portfolio of pink Iceland.
You want Alternitives? - your not sold yet?
Your not excited to work with a good wedding planner and make your life easy?
That's alright, there are alternatives. But they are a lot more DIY like you might have read in all the other articles written about the subject. You need a ceremony and the best and easiest DIY way is to contact sidmennt.is. They will help you with the paper work, do a proper ceremony with you at the spot you want. If you go this route, don't forget to also try and ask for Inga.
The Las Vegas DMV - Civil wedding
This is an option, you don't really get any instructions and the instructions are relative to the country you come from. Your country might in some cases not accept this as a marriage licence but none the less it is the cheapest DIY in Iceland.
You go to the government office with a booked time there, you get like 15 min that includes a ceremony with a government worker in front of their desk. If they are feeling nice, they might offer to take photos of you with partially white wall in the back ground. After the 15 min are over, she will literally throw you out if you are not out already. Because there are possibly other couples waiting.
This is generally for Icelandic couples who want a easy silent wedding for the legal benefits of being married.
This cost last when we checked 10.000ISK (Conv. to 90USD or 80EUR) done on weekdays during office hours only.
We generally don't recommend this option but it's up to you and it wouldn't be fair of us to not mention it.
The government email for this option is:
gifting@syslumenn.is
Are there any other ways of getting married in iceland?
Yes and they are even more DIY or more like DIWO Do It With Others!
Here's what you need to do, you need an Icelandic contact willing to help you organize, you can BYO (bring your own) or google "Iceland wedding photographers".
We recommend Halldóra and Hobie our photographer friends at
articweddingsiceland.com for this.
And you ask them to help you navigate through the other wedding options.
There are pagan/viking celebrants available, christian priests and other religions available. But you sort of need help to navigate these ones.
Remember if you go this route, remember to be nice to the person that helps you. This can sometimes borderline as volunteer work and you want to keep everyone that helps with your wedding to have as nice time as you are having.
Need to know - Legal requirements
You have to be over 18 of age.
- All documents have to be original, copies of them might have to be sent in 1 month before the wedding by email to your organizer.
- Valid Passports for the both of you
- Certificates of Marital status The both of you must submit a legal document from the government from the countries your passports are from. This is to see if you both are Married, Divorced, Single or widowed. (These documents can not be older than 56 days old prior to the wedding date and 28 for US citizens.)
- Marriage Notification this is a legal document you get filled out. You both confirming there is nothing legally preventing you from getting married. (link to the legal document)
- Certified translation, if the documents are not in Scandinavian or English. They need to be translated by a certified translator.
- Proof that you are in the country legally this can be the passports again, plane tickets and so forth.
- Divorced? Unlucky! you need to bring your divorce papers from your previous marriages.
- Widowed? I feel for you, you have to bring official documents and all legal liabilities have to be finalized.
- Still married? To another person?! I've seen a lot of soap opra's about you! - haha, or your just renewing your vows. You can't get legally married again unless you really want to complicate things for yourself. You can still have the Inga at sidmennt or artic weddings to help you out.
This is a some what idea of what you need. Of course if you get pinkiceland or sidmennt to help you with your journey. They pretty much hold your hand through it all and help you out.
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