THE DARKEST DAYBrittany & Jeff
Brittany and Jeff came over from the States and booked me as their Iceland winter wedding photographer for the shortest day of the year. The wedding was in Hvalfjörður, a fjord about an hour north of Reykjavík, and there were only a few hours of proper light before it was gone. This was a full destination wedding, and probably the coldest one I have photographed. The cold and the dark ended up being part of why it worked.
The morning, in the dark
Everyone had come out to the lodge together, and the morning started slowly in very little light. Getting ready happened by lamplight, with the windows still deep blue well past sunrise. On the darkest day of the year in Iceland, there is not much of a morning to speak of.
Portraits in the white
With only a few hours of light to work with, I took Brittany and Jeff out into the snow first. Hvalfjörður in December is mostly white and grey, with a dark river running through the middle of it and mountains on every side. There is a lot of open space out there, and I spent a good part of it letting the two of them be small in the middle of it. Icelandic horses were out in the snow near one of the spots I stopped at.
Hvalfjörður
This is the fjord the whole wedding happened in. Hvalfjörður sits between Reykjavík and the west of Iceland, ringed by mountains, and in December there is snow on the ground and only a few hours of low light to work with.
By the sea
The fjord opens out to the sea, and for a while the light went soft and pink low on the horizon. Brittany and Jeff walked the shoreline while it lasted.
The ceremony
The ceremony was outside, by the water, in the cold. Everyone had made the trip out to Iceland for it, and they wrapped up in wool blankets and stood close together while Brittany and Jeff said their vows and exchanged rings. Afterwards there were a lot of long hugs before the whole group went back in to warm up.
Above the fjord
Before the last of the light went, Brittany and Jeff climbed a snow-covered rise looking out over Hvalfjörður. From up there the two of them were just two marks on the snow, the fjord filling everything behind.
The black beach
There is a dark beach along the fjord where the surf comes in hard. Brittany walked down toward the water while the waves broke behind her.
Dinner
Dinner was long, candlelit and warm while it stayed black outside the windows. Everyone was around one long table, and there were speeches and a kransekake and a lot of noise for hours.
The northern lights
Late in the night the aurora came out. Brittany and Jeff wanted to see it properly, so they drove out toward Hvammsvík to get away from the lodge lights, and I went with them. This was before Hvammsvík became the place it is now. It was freezing and fully dark, and then the whole sky went green over the fjord. Standing out there in the middle of the darkest night of the year is the part everyone still talks about.
The shortest day, the coldest wedding, the longest night. Brittany and Jeff would not have traded a minute of it, and neither would I.
