Are you an adventurer? Why not marry beside waterfalls in Iceland?!

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You fly halfway across the globe, with your gown, your best gals, and your love, to the destination wedding of your dreams. Cue the ceremony, and suddenly it starts raining with the force of all the waterfalls around you. An expected scenario in Iceland, and that spontaneous show of nature is exactly what makes an Icelandic destination wedding so special.

Chelsey and Alex needed an adventurous wedding befitting a thrilling proposal, and they found the perfect answer in Iceland. Volcanos, waterfalls, dramatic cliffs, glaciers, natural springs, vast pastoral plains with majestic horses, Iceland has everything for an adventurous couple.

Wearing one of our favorite designers, Berta, Chelsey adapted to the sudden downpour with a quick fishtail braid (we’re so impressed with her braid perfection!) and thus becoming even more of an ethereal, Scandinavian princess bride.

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Our Love Story

Our engagement was so epic! After we took a long trip to Indonesia in August 2015, Alex decided to get the proposal ball rolling. It was our first extended trip together and though it definitely was challenging at times (delays due to volcanoes, “Bali Belly” food poisoning, tumultuous boat rides), it brought us so much closer together.

During December, Alex asked me to keep my schedule open for a coming Saturday; to my surprise, he had planned a sunset helicopter tour all over our city of Los Angeles!

We flew over Bel Air, Santa Monica & Hollywood. After flying over Dodger Stadium, we landed on top of one of the skyscrapers. I was a bit confused but brushed it off as standard procedure. After taking in the beautiful skyline at sunset, I turned around to see a small table with drinks. I grabbed us a couple of drinks and we sat at the edge of the building to watch the rest of the sunset. Alex gave me the biggest hug ever, explaining that the last 5 years had been the best in his life and he was ready to conquer the next chapter of life together as a team.

At that moment, he dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him. It was unreal and so perfect; it left me completely speechless. We finished off the night at one of our favorite restaurants in Beverly Hills. I truly couldn’t have asked for a better proposal; he went above and beyond!

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The Wedding Destination

We knew we wanted to have a destination wedding, as it would allow us to extend our budget by having a smaller group of close friends and family. We also were sold on the idea of a destination wedding because it would force our hard-working guests to take a vacation; we wanted our wedding to be an extended experience, not just a single day.

One of the most popular questions we were asked was how we decided on a place like Iceland. Our response? “Why not!” Iceland is one of the most beautiful and pristine countries on Earth, and having our wedding there would provide our guests with the opportunity to see and do so many things they would not be able to do elsewhere. We also loved how unique Iceland is, considering many destination weddings are held in warmer and more tropical locations.

We wanted to play up the dramatic scenery and color palette Iceland has to offer, we kept our wedding style and colors as clean and minimal as possible while still maintaining an element of romance. We loved the idea of white flowers, greenery, and copper accents.

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The Attire

With gray being one of our favorite colors, we decided to bring some touches of grey into the attire – bridesmaid dresses and shawls, the groom and groomsman ties, as well as Alex’s pocket square.

Wedding guests were encouraged to wear clothing suitable for any type of weather – nothing is impossible in Iceland, as it poured rain for the 20 minutes during our ceremony!.

I was so happy to have found my Berta gown at a salon in Southern California. I had tried on probably 20 dresses by the time I found it. The sample fit me like a glove and I knew I had to have it. And the detachable train? To die for! No dresses compared to the quality and craftsmanship of my Berta.

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Favorite Moments

There were so many favorite moments from our wedding day. The ceremony was unbelievable; it was absolutely beautiful and so raw to share one of the most emotional moments in our lives in nature in the pouring rain with all of our family and friends.

The locations we mapped out on our itinerary were breath-taking; our favorite was the mountaintop overlooking the ocean (what a rush to look over the cliff into the water). We also still talk about the amazing speeches and toasts given by loved ones during dinner…so many tears of happiness and laughter, even from the non-criers!

Another one of our favorite moments was after the hot spring around 2 AM, we went back to our room and Alex opened his gift, which was a compilation video of all of our family and friends giving wedding advice and letting us know their favorite memories with us. After watching the video, we watched the sunrise come up behind one of Iceland’s many volcanoes. It was the perfect ending to an unforgettable day.

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The Details

My grandmother and I spent the year prior to the wedding thrifting to find all of the taper candle holders. It took hours to clean, sand, and paint them copper; however, once we saw the final product on the day of the wedding, we cried out of happiness with how beautiful it looked.

As my “something old”, my grandmother let me wear her grandmother’s ring. It was such an honor to wear, especially with it being nearly 100 years old!

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Photo by Your Adventure Wedding via Bridal Musings

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Advice to Other Couples

Most of the time, something will go not according to plan (and that’s okay!) As mentioned, it down-poured during our entire ceremony. Though we luckily had umbrellas, we still got fairly soaked and had to regroup at the hotel; I even had to throw my hair in a braid. During dinner, there were some issues with meals being served to the wrong people, and one of our appetizers served was not what we thought it was going to be (the look on everyone’s faces when they were told they were being served “puffin” was priceless).

Though all of these things seemed like a huge deal at the time, they’re some of our favorite stories to tell and make our wedding day that much more awesome. Embrace the unforeseen incidences; they keep things interesting and make the day even more memorable.