Ryan and Lucy eloped in August on a black sand beach in Iceland. Ryan actually only officially proposed three days earlier! “We had visited Iceland back in March”, Lucy explained. “Many friends said they were expecting us to come back engaged. However, once we returned Ryan had confessed to having investigated the possibility of us getting married whilst we were there, but there hadn’t been enough time before we went for this to happen. My response to this was ‘Let’s go back and do it!'”

Within a weekend they had planned and booked a ten-day trip for August, where they were going driving around the whole country with their son. They also found their accommodation and confirmed their celebrant and photographers.

“We still weren’t officially engaged, so we chose the ring together and decided that Ryan would also propose whilst we were out there”, Lucy continued. “I didn’t want to know when or where he was going to ask me so I could still have the surprise of when he would do it. Ryan chose the most perfect spot, overlooking the town of Siglufjörður where our favourite TV series Trapped was filmed. With our son filming, he went down on one knee and said, ‘Will you remain trapped with me forever?’. Our son didn’t know this was going to happen, so he was incredibly excited, and having him be part of it, made it even more special. We gave him his own wedding invite two days later and when Ryan asked him to be his best man, his excitement reached a new height!”

The couple chose Vikurfjara Beach, one of their favourite spots in Iceland, for their ceremony. “We explained to our celebrant that as introverts, we didn’t want to read vows aloud,” Lucy said. Instead, they answered a set of questions separately, which the celebrant used to create a personal script. “Hearing what Ryan had written about me and us was incredibly touching,” she added. “Our celebrant finished off with an Icelandic poem and us only having to say, ‘I do’.”

They also gave their son a wedding band, which although he will grow out of, he will forever have a keepsake of the day. “We wanted him to feel as much a part of this as we did”, Lucy explained. “He also filmed parts of the ceremony with a camcorder, giving us a unique perspective to look back on.”

After the ceremony, the trio spent the day exploring and capturing moments at various locations, including Dyrhólaey, Hjörleifshöfði and Thakgil. “We had our photos taken overlooking Dyrhólaey, which was particularly special because that’s where our son was conceived six years ago,” Lucy revealed.

The day continued with lunch at Black Crust Pizza in Vik, wedding attire and all, followed by a visit to a local supermarket to pick up a cake. The celebration concluded at their glass lodge where they danced, cut their cake (decorated with a supermarket figurine), and enjoyed the sauna and hot tub. “We filmed everything on our camcorder to create our own wedding movie. The evening ended with the most stunning late sunset.”

For Lucy, keeping the wedding a surprise made the planning process exciting rather than stressful. “It felt freeing and organic”, she concluded. “There was’t a huge amount to plan and the Icelandic authorities and our photographers made it a very smooth process. Everything was handled in such a supportive and caring manner and the speed of communication was second to none. We never felt like we were waiting or were in the dark with anything. The beauty of getting married in Iceland was that we could have a legal ceremony anywhere – ice cave, mountain top, lagoon, but Vikurfjara beach was always going to be our place. Both our celebrant and photographers were also very relaxed and didn’t need a fixed location or time, allowing us to work with the sunrise and the elements. Quite the opposite to what it seems in the UK. The hardest part of the process was sorting the pre and post paperwork in England!”