Nordica’s Destination Wedding Bucket List

Vancouver is an absolute top-notch spot for photography. It’s got the mountains, the ocean, the beaches, the big-ass buildings and everything in between.

But we’re constantly looking for adventures and we love to see new places.

Jakob’s been all over the place, visiting some 25 countries. Cole’s no slouch either having lived in places like Helsinki, northern Sweden and being suitcased all over North America during his junior hockey days.

Add that up and you’ve got two guys who are primed and ready for destination weddings.

So for today’s blog post, we thought we would give you our individual top three wedding destinations. Why three? Well, we’re two dudes with different opinions and we don’t want this post to turn into a monster.

Jakob’s Top Three

3 // Hawaii

Hawaii is pretty much as exotic as it gets for me. Maybe it’s because I come from the complete opposite side of the globe, I don’t know, but I’ve always wanted to visit Hawaii.

And I love sun, beaches, palm trees and all that stuff.

So bring on Honolulu, Hilo or any other place on the 50th state and I’m all over it.

2 // India

I’ve never experienced an indian wedding in real life, but from the photos I’ve seen and from the stories I’ve heard, it seems like an absolute dream for a wedding photographer.

The weddings go on for days. It’s an overflow of awesome colours and patterns. And there are lots of traditions.

I’d love to do a wedding in India.

1 // Florence, Venice, Rome, or anywhere else in Italy

To me Italy’s got it all. Warm climate, awesome scenery, a lot of history, wicked food and a passion filled culture.

A wedding on a nice sunny evening in Italy is top of my wish list. It’d be absolute money.

Cole’s Top Three

3 // Inverness

I image Scottish weddings to be all-class. I’m not sure if it’s the kilts, the party-till-you-die attitudes I’m envisioning at the receptions or the killer accents, but there’s just something magical about Scotland. My cousins over there are probably gutting themselves reading that there’s something ‘magical’ about Scotland, but for me, there is.

The Highlands is my favourite region in Scotland by far. There are fistfuls of scenery in every direction and the people who lived there are insanely friendly, even if you can’t understand a word they were saying. Killer combo for a great wedding experience.

2 // Anywhere in Russia

Russia is a mind-bending place when it comes to digesting all of the culture going on. A wedding with some of those good-looking, vodka inhaling Ruskies would be challenging and intense, but what an experience it would be.

Aside from the beautiful people and the gorgeous cities, I think the most interesting part about photographing a Russian wedding would be the traditions and obsessive superstitions.

I was in Moscow on a May afternoon in 2005 and remember seeing a groom sprinting at breakneck speed across a bridge carrying his new-bride, both laughing hysterically. To me, seeing this was thoroughly confusing, but I’m sure there was a very good reason for this.

So Jakob and I would be totally lost the entire time if we were ever to do this, but man, would it be an amazing experience.

1 // Reykjavik or Akureyri

Anyone who knows me is fully aware that I have a weird obsession with Iceland. My dad’s side of the family comes from there, and since I was a kid, I’ve always been ridiculously curious about this odd little island.

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, my uncle gave me a book (or I took it, I can’t remember) with a badass picture of a Viking on the cover that contained all the Icelandic sagas, and I never put it down.

I was, and am, hooked. Shit, even as I’m writing this I’m listening to my favourite radio station that I’ve listened to for years, Xið 97,7.

But I’ve never been there.

So I’m not sure it’s totally necessary to delve into the million reasons why I want to photograph a wedding there, because we wanted to keep this post somewhat small. But, I will say it would be a surreal excuse to go there considering it’s all I’ve wanted to do for many years.

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There you go folks, our destination wedding bucket list. We like weddings for many reasons, but one of our favourite aspects about a them is the cultural emphasis that occurs. So, hopefully destination weddings will continue for us in the future, and we can learn more about the world.