Getting married in Iceland as foreigners: civil, religious or symbolic

Iceland asks no residence of couples who marry there, and its law lets the ceremony leave the office or the church when the officiant agrees: a Church of Iceland priest can marry you outdoors, Ásatrúarfélagið holds most of its weddings outside, and Siðmennt’s celebrants have married couples by waterfalls and on beaches. What Iceland asks for is paperwork from home, checked in advance by a single office in the Westman Islands, and a wedding within 30 days of that check. Most Icelanders still marry outside the commissioner’s office: in 2019 only 727 of 2,075 marriages were civil (Statistics Iceland, whose table stops in 2020).

Which ways can you marry in Iceland?

Can you marry in Iceland if neither of you lives there?

Yes. The Marriage Act asks that you both be 18 or over, not closely related and free of any earlier marriage, and a district commissioner checks it — where neither of you lives in Iceland, in the district where either of you is staying (art. 14, as rewritten in 2022). Since 1 September 2022 the District Commissioner of the Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar) has done every check in the country (Regulation 55/2013, art. 1); couples without an Icelandic ID number send the paper form by email. No page we read sets a minimum stay, but you must both be at the ceremony (art. 24). A celebrant from home can’t marry you legally here: officiants under foreign law may do so only where their state has an agreement with Iceland (island.is).

Which documents does the commissioner ask for?

For each of you (island.is; Regulation 55/2013, arts. 2–11):

• A birth certificate.
• A certificate of marital status from the country of your legal address, no more than 12 weeks old when you submit it. If your country issues none, bring an official confirmation that it doesn’t; you then each make a formal declaration of your status, and the commissioner decides whether a sworn statement will do (art. 16).
• Photo ID — passport, driving licence or ID card — and, for a foreign citizen, a copy of the passport certified by a notary public.
• If either of you was married before, proof that the marriage ended — for a divorce outside the Nordic countries, the judgment marked as having full legal effect (art. 7) — and that the property was divided, or the estate settled if you were widowed (art. 10; Marriage Act art. 12).
• The marriage notification form (A-204): your details, the planned date and place, your declaration on your honour that nothing stands in the way, and the signatures of two trustworthy persons who vouch for the same. They need not come to the wedding (Marriage Act art. 13; island.is).

Translations and apostilles are not automatic. Papers must be originals or certified copies; the commissioner may ask for a certified translation (löggilt þýðing) or one from your embassy, decides which languages will do, and may ask for proof that a foreign certificate is valid, such as an apostille — at the couple’s cost (art. 11). A check already made in Denmark, Finland, Norway or Sweden — Sweden’s hindersprövning, say — counts here, so couples who live there may not need a new one (arts. 15–16; Siðmennt).

How do you apply, and how far ahead?

1. 1Book the ceremony first. The date on the form is not a booking: agree time and place with your officiant — the commissioner’s office (by phone or email; online in the capital area), the priest, the goði or Siðmennt. For July or August, book months ahead.
2. 2Email the form and documents to gifting@syslumenn.is and pay ISK 6,700 by bank transfer to the Westman Islands office; foreign bank charges come on top. Instructions for the next steps follow by email.
3. 3The check usually takes about five working days (District Commissioners, 2022); island.is says processing times vary and advises asking “well in advance”.
4. 4The certificate is written on your form and must reach your officiant before the ceremony: a wedding cannot take place until the priest has it in hand, the Church of Iceland says.
5. 5Marry within 30 days of its issue (Marriage Act art. 15). If it lapses, the whole check has to be done again.

What does it cost?

As published in October 2026, in krónur, with euros at the European Central Bank’s rate of 23 October 2026 (€1 = ISK 136.20):

Ásatrúarfélagið quotes on request; churches charge for the church, the priest and the organist as each sees fit.

Where can a civil wedding take place?

At the commissioner’s office, in office hours, unless you and the officiant agree otherwise (Marriage Act art. 23). On request the ceremony can move outside the office or after hours, but that “depends on the circumstances of each office”, for an extra fee (island.is). There is no dress code, rings are optional, and guests are welcome as far as the room allows — up to eight in the capital area. Iceland has nine district commissioners; write to the one where you want to marry:

Whether an office will travel to a waterfall or a beach, and at what cost, is its call: ask before you fix the place.

A Church of Iceland wedding

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland is the national church; 56.3% of residents belonged to it at the start of 2026 (Statistics Iceland). Its weddings are legally binding, and its own page answers most of what couples from abroad ask (kirkjan.is):

• Where. Most often in a church, but a priest can also marry a couple at home or even outdoors. Two witnesses must be present.
• Which church and which priest. Any: all the Church’s priests perform weddings, and couples often choose their priest and their church wherever that priest serves, limited only by the church’s and the priest’s diaries.
• In what order. The commissioner’s certificate first; the wedding cannot take place until the priest has it.
• Membership. kirkjan.is says nothing of it, but some churches ask: Reykjavík’s Hallgrímskirkja wants one of you in the national church, marries foreign couples on Mondays and Fridays after 1 pm and confirms bookings at least three weeks ahead; the priest and organist are paid separately.
• Þingvellir. The church built in 1859 at the old assembly site, inside the national park on the Golden Circle, is rented for ISK 20,000 through the park (thingvellir@thingvellir.is); its priest serves from Skálholt.

Ásatrú, humanist and other registered organisations

More than fifty faith and life-stance organisations registered in Iceland had members at the start of 2026; after the national church, the largest is the Roman Catholic Church, with about 4% of residents (Statistics Iceland). The organisations’ heads, and representatives they authorise, marry couples legally once a district commissioner has authorised them (Marriage Act art. 17); a Catholic wedding also follows the Church’s own preparation, so start with your parish at home. Two organisations hold their weddings in the open:

• Ásatrúarfélagið, the old Norse faith, recognised as a religious organisation in May 1973. Its weddings take place outdoors “in the vast majority of cases”: the goði hallows the place and the moment, you swear an oath on an oath ring, usually in your own words, and a drinking horn passes among the guests. The goðar guide couples through the legal preparation; prices come from its office (asatru.is).
• Siðmennt, the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association, has married couples legally since 2013, “in front of waterfalls, on the beach, in summer houses”. Its fee is ISK 90,000, paid in advance. Couples living outside Iceland need the commissioner’s certificate first; Nordic residents may bring their own country’s.

Same-sex couples

Law 65/2010 rewrote the first article of the Marriage Act to cover the union of “two individuals”; passed unanimously, it took effect on 27 June 2010, the day Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir married her partner. A civil wedding is open to every couple on the same terms, and the Church of Iceland voted in October 2015 to marry same-sex couples in its churches. If your own country won’t issue a certificate of marital status for a same-sex marriage, the commissioner decides whether a sworn declaration will do (Regulation 55/2013, art. 16), and since 2022 a couple married in Iceland may divorce here if they cannot where they live or are citizens (Marriage Act art. 114). Ask at home first whether your country will recognise the marriage.

A symbolic ceremony, and permits in the parks

A symbolic ceremony has no legal weight, so the place, the words and the celebrant are yours: a waterfall, a black-sand beach, the foot of a glacier. Many couples sign the papers at home and celebrate here, or marry at a commissioner’s office first. What limits the place is not marriage law but the land:

• Protected areas — Skógafoss, Gullfoss, Geysir and Dyrhólaey among many — are in the care of the Nature Conservation Agency (Náttúruverndarstofnun), which took over from the Environment Agency on 1 January 2025. It issues permits for photography, filming and drones: processing costs ISK 83,200 for photography or filming and takes 15 days, 30 around Mývatn.
• Vatnajökull National Park, which takes in Jökulsárlón and Skaftafell, asks for an event permit for gatherings — “weddings, birthdays, family reunions” — applied for as far ahead as you can; filming and advertising need a permit 30 days ahead.
• Þingvellir issues its own: photography is allowed in principle, a single photographer carrying their own equipment needs no permit, and commercial shoots need the park committee’s permission, 7 days ahead for up to 10 people and 30 days for more.
• Drones follow EU rules — register (on flydrone.is from outside the EU), fly within sight, up to 120 m (Icelandic Transport Authority) — and the parks add theirs: none at Jökulsárlón and Fellsfjara from 15 April to 15 July, set hours the rest of the year, a permit for commercial flights.
• Beyond the park boundaries the landowner’s permission may be needed. And on the black-sand beaches, mind the sea: at Reynisfjara, Safetravel’s red warning closes the beach — see the South Coast & Vík.

After the wedding: certificate, apostille and home

• The certificate. Your officiant notifies Registers Iceland (Þjóðskrá), which records the marriage; its marriage certificate gives the date, the place and both your names, birth dates and birthplaces, for ISK 3,200.
• The apostille for use abroad comes from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, handled by the capital-area commissioner in Kópavogur: ISK 2,700 a document. Without an Icelandic ID number, ask at the desk or by email to apostille@mfa.is; from 26 October 2026, by appointment through Noona.
• At home, it is up to you. Belgium’s embassy in Oslo, for one, receives nothing from the Icelandic register and asks Belgians to register the marriage themselves, with an apostilled Icelandic certificate under six months old; the UK registers no marriage made abroad but recognises one that was lawful there and would be allowed under UK law (GOV.UK). Ask your own authorities what they need before you leave.

Seasons, light and roads

Iceland’s wedding seasons follow the light: in Reykjavík the midsummer sun sets just after midnight and rises before three; at the winter solstice there are about four hours of daylight, and from late August to April the northern lights can show on clear nights. Highland roads usually stay closed from mid-September until June or July, and in winter “conditions on the roads may change rapidly” (Safetravel): check safetravel.is, umferdin.is and vedur.is, and keep a spare day — the certificate gives you 30. The months and the light, region by region, are on the Iceland page.

A timeline, in relative terms

Where your photographer fits in

• Commissioners’ offices keep office hours — in the capital area Monday to Thursday 8:30–15:00, Friday until 14:00 — and take guests as the room allows, up to eight there: ask whether your photographer counts as one.
• In church, ask the priest about photos and where the photographer may stand; Hallgrímskirkja books its nave for at most 45 minutes and arranges no photographers or flowers itself.
• Outdoors, check the permits above — a photographer working alone needs none at Þingvellir — and fly a drone only where and when the rules allow.
• Find photographers in Iceland, and see how to choose a wedding photographer and the wedding-day timeline.

Next: the regions — Reykjavík & Reykjanes, the Golden Circle, the South Coast & Vík, Jökulsárlón & the East, Snæfellsnes, Akureyri & the North — or all of Iceland. When you have a date, tell us about your day and see who is free, or browse the photographers in Iceland.