Ultimate Guide- How to Plan an Elopement in 2022 During an Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic | Iceland Elopement Planner & Photographer

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How to plan an elopement during the COVID-19 Pandemic, when the Pandemic isn’t over, yet (and after).

UPDATE- it’s now 2022 and though the pandemic seems to not be over, there have been updates!

• travel restrictions into Iceland have been lifted as of early 2022.

• COVID restrictions have been lifted in Iceland as of early 2022.

• there are no longer any testing sites or tests needed in order to enter Iceland.

• still, as always, please be responsible and take COVID measures so as to not spread the virus to others, especially those vulnerable in our wonderful society.

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So, how do you plan your adventure elopement when the world seems like it’s still slowly burning to the ground?

Holy wow, 2020 finally ended. Now, it’s 2021 and I’m sure most of us out here are thinking the same thing- “When is this all going to END?”
WE. ARE. READY.

I wish I had the answer for you.

But, I don’t, so I am here to offer you the next best thing:

a 5 step Ultimate Guide from an elopement specialist in the world of COVID.

It’s been just shy of a full year of the world seeming like it came to a screeching halt and in that time I have been side-by-side with my couples who were planning their elopement and hoping to have their weddings in 2020. In that time, I have had to change with the world as well, pivot how we plan elopements, and keep rolling with the tide.

Since I’m not able to see the future, I assume like most of you, I can only help with the now. In this resource you will have a helping hand from real life conversations I’ve had with couples, from how I’ve had to help couples pivot, and hopefully to give you some hope for your adventure elopement- whether it’s an Iceland Elopement or not.

Here’s a free elopement planning resource to help you plan during a current pandemic in 2021.

Step 1 in Planning Your Elopement During COVID-19 Pandemic:
Don’t Lose Hope

This is actually really important.

Right now with so much uncertainty, with economies and job markets being fragile, with stores running out of toilet paper- AGAIN - it’s really, really easy to lose hope. To look at something you really, really want and think you must put it on the back burner. To think of your elopement dreams, then think about the potential costs and the travel, and think there is no way to make it happen. There IS a way.

Keep your dreams of your adventure elopement alive and well.

Some conversations I have been having with my Iceland Elopement couples who were supposed to be getting married in 2020, who at this point have moved their dates 2-3 times, is that this is something to look forward to. Something AMAZING, something MAGICAL, and something that keeps the weight of the world off your shoulders for just a bit as you dream about the cold waterfall mist covering your smiling face.

It’s really important right now that people have something to look forward to. It’s way, way, way too easy for our brains to focus on the negative right in front of us and feel hopeless. In fact, our brains are programmed to do just this in order to keep us alive. I want to remind you that it’s 10000% ok to still want an epic adventure for your wedding. Having that little thing to look forward to, and something your heart is telling you that you want for something SO IMPORTANT as celebrating your love with your babe- will really help you currently.
Just this little glimmer of fun will help light up the dark we are in right now, still.

Remember why you want to elope every time the dream seems far away.

Step 2 in Planning Your Elopement During COVID-19 Pandemic:
Keeping Logistics Realistic

Keeping your elopement logistics realistic will not only help your stress levels, but it will also help if / when things need to pivot. The beauty of elopements are that they’re already, by default, way less logistics to pull together than a conventional wedding. There are no caterers to manage, a venue to re-book, a ton of tiny decorations you now need to keep in storage somewhere and hope you still want those exact decorations when your venue can fit you back in.

So see, you’re already a step ahead by choosing to elope in the first place.

Keeping your logistics realistic means to be realistic about what can happen and what might need to change. To prevent some stress before it happens. At this point in the pandemic, it’s more unrealistic to think that everything will go 100% as planned. And, if I’m being honest, that was the case before the pandemic, nothing ever goes as planned. BUT, being realistic right now means being realistic about the chances of things needing to change being much more likely.

How do you keep your logistics of an elopement (and an elopement abroad) realistic?

1. Hire less vendors if necessary.
   OOOOOF, I can already feel the laser burn of my colleagues on the back of my head. However, being the planner with my couples who has been in the trenches postponing 2020 dates and dealing with the frantic, scared couples- I stand by this. The less people you hire the easier it will be to shift things around should you need to shift things around.
   
   - This might mean to hire a badass photographer who is also a badass planner (* wink *). The benefits to this are that there is only one person to communicate with when things might need to be shifted. Additionally, there is only one retainer payment to deal with and only one person’s schedule to fit into.
   - You can do your own hair & makeup as a last resort, like this bride in her Kirkjufell Mountain Iceland Elopement. Now I’m not saying that hiring a HMU artist is not worth it. I always suggest hiring one, however, it will be far less stressful for you to have less logistics to manage on potential postponements, scheduling start times, etc. If you get to the point of no return, where it looks like everything is a go (about 30 days out it currently seems), you can always reach out and hire someone who has open availability. Your planner & photographer will have a list of people to contact.
   - You can pick up flowers at a local flower shop instead of a professionally made bouquet, like this brides bouquet she got with her mom doing her Rainy Day Iceland Elopement.
   THOUGH I WILL SAY, this would be the easier vendor to change because florists can typically make multiple bouquets for the same date as they make them ahead of time. SO shifting this wouldn’t be as hard if necessary.
   - You don’t need to hire an Officiant (Celebrant). I will get into this in a paragraph below. But, if it’s really important to you to get your paperwork legally done in the country / place you’re eloping- you can always do a ‘court house ceremony’ (Civil Marriage Ceremony) upon arrival. In Iceland, you need to declare this (make an appointment and show the required paperwork) no later than 3 weeks in advance.

2. Plan for a potential 5 days quarantine when flying in and buying plane tickets. (Or, using those vouchers from your postponed 2020 trip.)
   As of right now this seems to be the standard for International travel at the borders, and well, it’s also the responsible thing to do at this point with what we know of the virus and how infections manifest. So as you are planning your flights and total time being away from home, go ahead and pad an extra 5 days (or more) at the beginning of your trip before your planned elopement date.
   Worst case scenario is the 5 day quarantine is lifted and you now have an extra 5 days of being in an elopement adventure trip bliss.
   If you plan this ahead of time it won’t feel like something to stress about later.

3. Plan for potential flight delays.
   This is always a thing, even before the pandemic. Here in Iceland the weather is super whacky so flight delays are really common. The airlines do their absolute best to get you on the next flights so typically the delays are not too long.
   However, now with the flight patterns being changed due to cancelled flight paths from a change in passenger numbers- also plan for a cancelation. If this happens, just reach out to your planner / photographer / vendors to get your date pushed.
   It’s not a big deal as long as we have a game plan and expect the potential change.

4. Take new precautions that you wouldn’t have needed before.
   Prior to COVID-19, it wasn’t a big deal to be close with your vendors or other people you come into contact with. I typically have my couples in my car with me as we drive around for their location itinerary. Now, I would suggest that we be as safe as possible and to plan for that.
   - Plan to be in your own car during your elopement adventure itinerary.
   This won’t affect your adventure at all. In fact, now you can sit down with your babe and make the Ultimate Elopement Spotify Playlist to listen to your favorite songs together. You can also pack the car full of extra food, extra clothing, and things that might be hard to travel with in another person’s car- such as checking out of the room you’re getting ready in the morning of the elopement. You can even work with your planner & photographer (hi) to have your itinerary end somewhere other than where you started so the following day you can continue on your OWN adventure without having to potentially double back. EFFICIENCY. [insert Spongebob gif with rainbow]
   - Bring a mask with you as most places are going to be requiring masks to enter for a while it seems. A cloth mask that you can wash and hang dry over night would be stellar.
   - Bring your own cups / faux-glass / customized Chalise / giant goblet to have a celebratory drink of bubbly (beer?) in. It takes up very little space in your luggage and is a pretty rad custom elopement piece to drink out of every year at your anniversary. Typically I bring champagne flutes for my couples, but, the safer way would be to bring your own. This couple had family heirloom goblets and a craft beer from their home brewery at their elopement.

5. Plan for it to be just the two of you instead of trying to organize a guest list to join you.
   This could feel like a relief for some or make you feel a bit sad. Logistically, it makes the most amount of sense and will save you probably the most amount of stress during this entire planning during a pandemic process. We will talk more about this, later, as you can still celebrate with them back home.

Step 3 in Planning Your Elopement During COVID-19 Pandemic:
Work With Your Elopement Vendors

If there is one thing to be certain of during this whole fiasco that was 2020 and now into 2021 is that

your wedding vendors are on your side.

I promise you.

We want your elopement to be the most dreamy, epic, amazing day of your life up until that point. Our whole passion in business is to help deliver that for you. No matter if it’s your photographer, your planner, your florist, your HMU artist, the goat yoga you hired for the morning after, the glacier tour you hired- whoever it is.

We want your elopement experience to be amazing.

I have been so fricken lucky to have such kind, wonderful couples who hire me and have understood that everything in a vendors policy is for a reason and for them to trust me. Which I am endlessly thankful for. But, I see a lot of chatter in wedding planning groups and wedding vendor groups of couples not wanting to work with their vendors and assuming people are just trying to make their lives awful.

I promise you, we do not want to make your life awful.

This might be a little peep behind the curtain for some people who are not wedding vendors, but I just want to stress that working with your vendor to find a mutual solution is definitely what vendors want- because they want the best possible solution for you. I feel like it would be a disservice to be a specialist in this field and not help people NOT in this field understand how some of this works.

What’s that solution in case your 2021 or 2022 elopement gets postponed?

For you to still have the elopement of your dreams- even if it’s just a little bit later than expected.

Or, to have a Plan B so you can still have an epic experience.

When the vendors’ cancelation policies (or postponement policies) state that the non-refundable retainers are non-refundable, it’s not because they are wanting to scam or take any money ‘for nothing’, or are ‘money grubbing’ as I often see referenced. [sad face]. It’s the opposite. The retainer payments are there for a few reasons:

• To retain the date.
  When a vendor is saving a date or spot for you, they are passing up other people. Telling them a big ole “no-can-do-buckaroo, I already have an amazing couple for that date”.
  Think of the dates as inventory, vendors can only have a certain amount a year to give and can not produce more dates. When time travel happens, this might change. So the retainer is to retain their services and to allow them to tell other couples they are unavailable (aka passing up other opportunities for income). Therefore, it’s not for ‘doing nothing’; it’s to save your spot as the only one being the only one.

• For time taken prior to the elopement date.
  This is something a lot of non-industry folk don’t realize is happening, which is a good thing. The couple shouldn’t know or feel all of the work happening behind the scenes.
  
  Imagine if you got a notification from the behind-the-scenes crew of a play every single time there was a rehearsal before opening night, every time there was a script change, every time a ticket was sold, every time the production crew had to work on admin things.
  
  That would be overwhelming and take the fun and magic away form the play, right?
  
  Same with your elopement. The second you reach out to a vendor, even before you have hired them, they are working for you. The communications, setting up your ‘project’ in their systems, phone / video calls, all sorts of things. Then, after they are hired, there is another set up that needs to happen to implement workflows, give you all sorts of super juicy helpful VIP Planning Resources, similar to this epic free Iceland Survival Guide.- but my couples get exclusive resources reserved only for my booked couples.
  Then there is a plethora of admin tasks, additional communications prior to the date (sometimes 1.5-2yrs worth). It’s a lot of things and the retainer goes towards that.
  It’s for the time we spend that we can never get back. Again, when time travel becomes a thing, maybe this will change.

• Business expenses and taxes.
  Whenever a retainer has been made, I promptly have to pay for things to make your elopement experience super dope. And, the tax man comes knocking on my door every month. These are a must that we have to pay and can not get back as well. It’s all for you to have a really awesome experience from start to finish. (Even this little platform I have to write helpful resources for you like this one costs me money every single month.)

So, to wrap this step up, here are the steps to take to make planning during a pandemic less stressful:

1. Talk to your vendors before hiring them about the non-refundable retainer if you need any reassurance or just to know how it’s handled if your date needs to be postponed after all.

2. Stay in communications with your vendors after you hire them. If it’s looking like you might need to push the date, keep an open line of communication and know that they also want the best for you.
   Same team.

3. Know that we are in this WITH you. The pandemic has also greatly impacted our lives and our livelihood. For couples it is one date to change, for vendors it is typically 30+ at once with a lot of lost income. Know we are in this with you and finding a solution is SO important to us.
   Your happiness is so important to us.

Being in open communications with your elopement vendors and being prepared to work with them will save you a lot of stress in this time of COVID.

Step 4 in Planning Your Elopement During COVID-19 Pandemic:
Do The Legal Paperwork First at Home

Getting the paperwork done in the country / place where you are getting married that isn’t your home country or state could save you a lot of stress down the road. Each country has a very specific timeframe and paperwork requirements to get legally married there. This is something a lot of my couples really love the idea of but 2020 has had a few of them pivot to doing the paperwork process at home.

Won’t that feel like the elopement isn’t the real thing? Nope.

This just means that you are signing the papers at home. The celebration hasn’t happened, the vows haven’t happened, and the party you might be having with your families & friends hasn’t happened yet. Your elopement IS your wedding, no matter when the paperwork was signed.

Did you know that at most conventional weddings, the paperwork isn’t even signed at the ceremony? It typically happens before or after and the ceremony is just that- a ceremony.

Here’s a few reasons for doing the paperwork in your own home country / state:

1. Doing your paperwork at home will give you more flexibility should your elopement plans need to change a little.

2. You won’t be held to a timeframe you can potentially not hit, you won’t have to gather extra pieces of paperwork for the country you’re getting married in.

3. It will take the stress off of your shoulders of a MUST for your elopement- you no longer must have your elopement on the declared date you have to declare months in advance.

Lastly, you can shake things up a bit and do the typical elopement festivities backwards to give you something even more to look forward to. Instead of having your elopement and then having a party at home- you can do your paperwork, have a party, and then celebrate & say your mushy vows on our elopement adventure.

Elopements are so flexible so do what would be easiest on your stress levels during a pandemic.

Step 5 in Planning Your Elopement During COVID-19 Pandemic:
Use the Extra Time to Your Advantage

At this point in the pandemic it is a little shaky for me to say with certainty that planning and booking your elopement for a 2021 date is the best course of action. For all of us vendors, most if not all of our 2020 booked couples have had to postpone into 2021 and some into 2022. If you were planning your elopement for the USA there is a good chance that after a few months of lock down you were able to move forward with having your elopement later in the year. I have seen in my network of colleagues that some elopement photographs still documented upwards of 30+ elopements in 2020 in the USA.

For Iceland, this is not the case. Our borders have been closed to North American citizens and other countries most of my couples come from. Or their flights were cancelled due to flight path changes. So for people needing to travel outside of their country for their elopement- more than likely they have postponed into 2021.

Why am I telling you this?

Because as the elopement specialist giving you a peep behind the curtain,

I can give you advice on booking your elopement for the 2022 year in order to save some stress.

1. Remember when I mentioned we have date inventory?
   Most of our 2021 dates are being held by our postponed 2020 couples. So if you plan for 2022 instead, not only will you be more likely to get the date you want but you also will not have the added stress of waiting to see what will happen in 2021 with the borders, flights, openings, etc.

2. You can take more time to find the elopement attire and accessories you really want.

3. The extra time will be easier on your payments.
   You can take longer to pay your vendors, and in fact, you can probably splurge a bit more than you could if you were getting married in the same year you’re booking them. Elopements are a total treat-yo-self moment so why not get the vendors you super, seriously want who will help craft the experience you super seriously want.
   It will still cost you less than a conventional wedding.

Since we are all so unsure how 2021 will unfold with restrictions, why not plan and book your elopement for 2022 (or even 2023 if vendors have their calendars open that far!).

As I finish up writing this helpful elopement planning during a pandemic resource for you,

a rainbow just appeared outside of my downtown Reykjavík, Iceland apartment right over the sea harbor and Esja Mountain pass. I always see rainbows when I am needing just a little bit of hope. I wish my sea salt covered windows would allow me to get a nice little photo to show you, but alas, you will just have to envision it in your mind. Visualize this rainbow as your own sign of hope.

Everything will be ok.

And your elopement will be the experience you are really wanting without having to settle for something else.

xoxo Steph

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Check out more helpful resources & contact me to chat about planning your elopement.