A WEDDING AT HÓTEL BÚÐIRAmelia & Adam

Amelia and Adam got married at Búðir, in the little black church at the edge of the lava, on a grey and dramatic Snæfellsnes afternoon.

Búðir is barely a place. A black timber church, a hotel, a car park, and then a whole lot of nothing in every direction: lava fields, black beaches, the Snæfellsjökull glacier down the coast, and the North Atlantic hammering the rocks just past the church. It is one of the most photographed churches in Iceland, and one of the best places in the country to get married if what you want is drama and space rather than a ballroom. There is another Búðir wedding and an elopement on the site if you want more of it.

Amelia and Adam brought their own edge to it. There is a leather jacket with a band logo on the back in these photos, a lot of black, and a toughness running through the whole day that I loved. A wedding does not have to be soft to be romantic, and theirs made the case.

Snæfellsnes

First, the drive, because getting to Búðir means crossing a good chunk of the peninsula, and the peninsula is the point.

The morning

The morning was small and slow: a suit, a dress, a whisky, and a band jacket laid out like part of the outfit, which it was.

Búðakirkja

The ceremony was in the black church, with an Icelandic priest, a handful of people, and the door open to the weather.

The two of them

Then out into the lava for a long while, because when the backdrop is this good you do not rush it.

Last light

By evening the sky finally cracked open and went gold, which around here is the reward for sitting through the grey.

No big reception, no dance floor, just Amelia and Adam and a black church and a peninsula full of weather. If you are getting married at Búðir, or anywhere out on Snæfellsnes, and you want it to look like this, I would love to be there. Wear the leather jacket. Bring the whisky.