MARRIED AT BRÚARFOSSKatrina & Phil

Katrina and Phil flew to Iceland to get married at a waterfall, and made a day of everything around it. The ceremony was at Brúarfoss, the blue one, tucked off the Golden Circle where the tour buses do not stop. From there they drove the loop: Gullfoss, the geysers, a field of horses, a smaller falls with stepping stones across it, and light that held until nearly midnight. A Brúarfoss elopement, and most of Iceland’s greatest hits besides.

The guesthouse

It started at a guesthouse in the countryside, a map of Iceland on the wall and sheep for neighbours. Katrina got dressed, Phil sorted his tie, and nobody was in a hurry.

First light

Before the ceremony I took them out onto the black volcanic hills nearby, all moss and cinder, and into a cave where the only light came from the mouth of it. The rings came out on a rock. Iceland does not really need a set.

Brúarfoss

Then the reason they came. Brúarfoss runs the strangest blue I have photographed, a cold electric turquoise pouring over black steps of rock. They were married on the bank of it: just the two of them, an officiant, and the sound of the water. Rings, vows, and Katrina laughing through the veil before the end.

Gullfoss

Gullfoss next, which does the opposite of subtle. Two great steps of the Hvítá river dropping into a canyon and throwing the spray back up at everyone on the rim. They stood at the edge of it and let the noise do the work.

A break

Somewhere in the middle of all this there was coffee, because there is always coffee, and Phil made a proper ceremony of the pour.

The geysers

The geothermal field near Geysir is where the ground steams and spits and smells of struck matches. They walked out into the middle of it, dress and all, and let the steam close in around them.

A smaller waterfall

Later, a smaller falls with flat stones set across the top of it, wide and low and almost gentle after Gullfoss. They crossed it slowly. Nobody fell in.

The horses

By evening the light went gold and a field of Icelandic horses let them get close. Small, unbothered, more interested in the grass than the wedding.

The long evening

And then the long Icelandic evening, the sun sitting low for hours, the two of them small against all of it.

Katrina and Phil crossed the world to marry at a waterfall most people never find, and then drove the long way round Iceland to make a wedding of it. I would take that trade every time.