Vík’s white church with its red roof above a field of purple lupins, green mountains behind

Getting married on the South Coast & in Vík

Waterfalls pouring off the old sea cliffs, black-sand beaches with basalt columns and sea stacks, and the red-roofed church above Vík — Iceland’s classic coast for an elopement.

Photographers When to marry here

East of Hvolsvöllur the Ring Road, Iceland’s Route 1, runs between the sea and the glaciers of Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull. Seljalandsfoss falls 60 metres, with a path that runs behind the water; Skógafoss, twenty minutes on, drops another 60. Beyond the headland of Dyrhólaey and its great sea arch lie the black beach of Reynisfjara, with its basalt columns and the stacks of Reynisdrangar, and Vík, under green cliffs, with its white church on the hill above the houses.

This is where many couples elope: the two of them, a photographer and an officiant, vows on the black sand or in the spray of a waterfall, a warm car as the rain plan, and portraits late in the evening, when the day tours have gone back to Reykjavík. Larger weddings gather at the farms and country hotels along the Ring Road.

A bride and groom kissing on the black sand of Reynisfjara, with the Reynisdrangar sea stacks behind

A couple in white holding hands at the foot of Skógafoss, small against the falling water

The view from behind Seljalandsfoss at sunset, the water falling against a pink sky

Through the year

When to marry on the South Coast & in Vík

June to August are the mildest months, with highs of 12–14 °C, and June is the driest, with about eleven days of rain. But this is the wettest and windiest stretch near the capital: twice Reykjavík’s rain over a year, and a summer wind about as strong as the capital’s in winter; on a few days each summer fog drifts in from the sea. September brings rain on about eighteen days and the first autumn storms. In winter the waterfalls ice up, the path behind Seljalandsfoss closes and storms can shut the road — beautiful, but only with a flexible plan.

January: Quieter
February: Quieter
March: Good with planning
April: Quieter
May: Good with planning
June: Best
July: Best
August: Best
September: Good with planning
October: Good with planning
November: Quieter
December: Quieter

Early summerFrom mid-June to mid-July the lupins turn the slopes around Vík purple, the cliffs fill with nesting seabirds — from 1 May to 25 June visits to Dyrhólaey can be restricted to protect them — and the nights stay light.
High summerThe mildest weeks, green cliffs and full waterfalls; the falls and Reynisfjara are busiest from late morning to late afternoon, and quiet again in the late-evening light.
Autumn and winterBig surf, storms and the first northern lights from September; then short days, ice at the waterfalls and snow on the black sand. Expect closures — the path behind Seljalandsfoss in icy weather, the beach at Reynisfjara on red-alert days.

In numbers

Hottest month, average high: July · 13.7°C; Veðurstofa Íslands (WMO)
Average high in the best months: Jun 12.0°C · Jul 13.7°C · Aug 13.6°C; Veðurstofa Íslands (WMO)
Days with 1 mm of rain or more, best months: Jun 11.2 · Jul 12.2 · Aug 14; Veðurstofa Íslands (WMO)
Sunset on 21 June: 23:36 (Vík); NOAA

Weather station: Vatnsskarðshólar, normals 1991–2020 · Checked 16 October 2026

Places

Where couples marry here

The kinds of places — ask your photographer which ones they know well.

Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss
Walk behind the first in summer and stand in the spray of the second: vows by falling water, then portraits on the path above. Skógafoss is a protected natural monument — a drone needs a permit there, and may never fly in the canyon in front of the fall.
Reynisfjara
Basalt columns, black sand and the Reynisdrangar stacks at sea — a beach as dangerous as it is beautiful, where lives have been lost: sneaker waves surge far up the sand without warning. Read the lights at the entrance (yellow; orange, stay at least 25 m from the sea; red, the beach is closed and only the viewpoint is open) and never turn your back on the waves.
Dyrhólaey
The headland’s 50-metre-wide sea arch and its lighthouse, with the coast, Reynisfjara and the glaciers in view. It is a nature reserve: visits can be restricted in the nesting season, and drones need a permit.
Vík
The white, red-roofed church on the hill, framed by lupins in early summer, and the black beach and sea stacks right below the village — the classic portrait.

Light

How the light falls

At midsummer the sun sets at Vík at about twenty-five to midnight and rises again at three, and from late May to mid-July the night never really darkens. The evening sun comes from the north-west, over the mountains, and lights up the spray of Seljalandsfoss; in winter it stays low over the sea to the south, from about eleven until half past three. Day tours from Reykjavík take some ten and a half hours there and back, so photographers here work early in the morning or after dinner.

Travel

Getting there

Fly into Keflavík; Seljalandsfoss is about two hours from Reykjavík on the Ring Road, and Skógafoss and Vík lie further east along it. The wind on this coast can be fierce and winter storms close the road, so check umferdin.is and the Met Office warnings every morning. The only ferry runs from Landeyjahöfn to the Westman Islands, in about 35 minutes; Þórsmörk, behind the glaciers, lies at the end of an F-road with unbridged rivers, open in summer only and best reached by highland bus. Since the summer of 2026 the edge of Sólheimajökull glacier has been unstable: go there only with a guide, if trips run.

Photographers