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Mini #1: Transporting your Suit & Gown to a Destination Wedding

It was an after-thought, one that with the sharp clarity of hindsight I should have asked much sooner when planning a destination wedding. The dress and suit were purchased; they were hanging in the closet, right there, ready to log a few frequent flier miles of their own. But how to get them across the Atlantic to our remote wedding location at Hotel Budir? The strong preference, of course, would be both "free" and "undamaged". More than a few inquiries and a lot of waiting later, I had gotten my hands on some valuable information:

  1. Icelandair, our carrier, did not allow coach passengers to reserve space in their on-board cabinet for a suit or gown. In their words:

    "You can store your wedding dress in the overhead bin, provided it is within our carry-on baggage size restrictions. The dress should be stored in a garment bag and should be folded in half to reduce wrinkling...[and] items placed in overhead bins may have other items placed on top of them by other passengers. We can not hang a gown up, but you can ask the cabin crew when you come onboard if space is available in the cabinet. Please note the cabinet is not big and the dress would be folded to fit into it if space is available. This cabinet is reserved first for Saga Class passengers." -customer service email, 10/14

  2. Many other airlines have cabinets/closets available for special usage, like wedding gowns; they operate on a first-come, first-reserved system, so email them sooner rather than later to make sure your pieces can be stored there. Ask how large the space is; your items may still need to be folded to fit.

If none of those choices are the perfect fit (pun hugely intended), there are alternatives.

  1. Pay more for guarantees. Buy a seat for your gown, or upgrade to Saga Class/First Class for a promise that space will be available in the cabinet or closet.
  2. Ship your gown. Leave plenty of time for transport and customs.

Ultimately, we ended up happy we chose to purchase pieces that travelled well when we decided to simply carry-on or check them. Having materials that were lightweight, foldable, easily steamed back to perfection were key, as was boarding as soon as possible to make sure there was room overhead. Because our wedding was in October, a chilly time of year in Iceland, and my dress was lightweight, I also tucked a faux fur jacket into the garment bag. My BHLDN dress and coat were placed neatly in an overhead compartment near our seats (I didn't want to let that baby out of sight!) and and his Bonobo's Jetsetter suit folded into our single piece of checked luggage. Wouldn't change a thing.


We bribed a friend to carry a hand steamer to the venue, but Hotel Budir has two large steamers available for guest use. Handy to note!

photographs by Emily & Ofer and Happy Confetti Photography

Our Iceland Wedding Video, featuring Maru Films

Calling it magnificent just doesn't do it justice. Watch it once. Then watch it again. There is something new and beautiful every time; we know we're biased, but really. We are forever grateful to our insanely talented videographers, Remi & Pui-Yuk, for their vision and dedication to capturing our celebration perfectly. They know their stuff and are the kindest, most tireless and brimming-with-ideas couple you could ever hope to meet. Added bonus: if you check the video out out, you can seeing what the fall in Iceland looks like! There was far more color than we anticipated, the yellows of Colorado aspens speckled with the reds of a Northeast autumn and the vivid green mosses characteristic of Iceland, all blended together and compressed down to a miniature scale, miles and miles of bright three inch high shrubbery covering the ground. 

We WILL be returning to Iceland as a photo-and-video wedding team with these two. Inquire here.

Why we love Hotel Budir, part I

Location, location, location. 

The one thing that, more than anything else, made our wedding as close to perfection as you're gonna find in this wonderful world, was the absolutely wild, majestic, untouched backdrop that is Budir.

It didn't hurt, sure, that the weather was better than we could have dreamed in October, but even if the torrential rain the previous day had continued to rush from the skies indefinitely, it still would be the spot we would choose again and again.

There is something about this place that makes a person feel very much alive, filled to the very brim with contentment, wide-eyed at the raw beauty that still exists in the world. It is expansive. Breathtaking. Panoramic. It makes you feel all the feels you'd hope to experience as you marry your love.

Stand on the black sand beach overlooking the sea, turn 360 degrees, turn again, and you can't see a single thing that's been made by man aside from the white walls that make up Hotel Budir and the little black tar church nearby to the west. (The road leading there is hidden by hills.) It's exquisitely unmarred, vast. As though you'd been plunked down from the skies into a newly discovered planet that looks kind of like earth...but maybe a tiny bit better.

Situated to the south of the hotel is a branching, churning estuary; wide to narrow and wide again, the water is blue and grey and cold and filled year-round with harbor seals. They are darling.

To the north, walking straight up from the black sandy beach, are the lava fields. The rocks rip from the earth jaggedly; you don't know quite how deeply the crevices reach or how massive the rising rocks are until you're suddenly in the middle of them and think, wow. Just wow. In all of Iceland, we saw many lava fields. These were our favorite, the most expansive, covered in spongy neon moss and covered in the tall fellow grasses that mislead you into thinking that the mounds and rolls are solid earth. In the distance, the Snaefellsjokull glacier looms. If it's rained recently, which it will have, one million (numbers are approximate) waterfalls freefall and overflow from the top of the mountains.

If you're looking for an incredibly remote spot as magical as any Iceland has to offer, but less than two hours northwest of Reykjavik, you've found our winner.