Romantic photos under a beautiful snowfall, dogsledding to the wedding venue, and the ceremony in the igloo hotel – Irene & Stian’s adventure winter wedding in Alta (Norway) was a pure magic!
When you own a 10-20 huskies who are a big part of your life, you can’t help but include them in your wedding day’s celebration! When Irene initially inquired with me and told me about their plans (dog-sledding from their home to their wedding venue – igloo hotel Sorrisniva), I thought it was the most exciting winter wedding I’ve heard about so far! And I was so happy when they chose me to capture it!
Getting ready and the first look at home
While many brides and grooms choose to get ready separately – either in a hotel room or in a hairdresser salon, Irene and Stian did it in their own home. They still wanted to have some excitement before seeing each other. Therefore they got ready at the separate storeys.
When both of them were ready, Stian waited downstairs together with their son, their maid of honor and the bestman. Irene walked slowly down the stairs, looking utterly stunning. No wonder some tears were shed when they saw each other!
Bride and groom portraits with the dogs under a beautiful snowfall
Then it was time for the bride and groom portraits outside! Logistic-wise it was the best solution to take the photos before the ceremony. This way, it wouldn’t be too long between the ceremony and the wedding party, and we could take advantage of the daylight while we had it.
We didn’t need to go far for the bridal portraits since the couple had a great location right outside of their house! And just when we started the photo session, we got the most beautiful snowfall! It created a magical atmosphere for their beautiful winter wedding day! After some photos under the snowfall, we got a few pictures with the bride and groom’s huskies. Finally, it was time for Irene and Stian to go to their wedding ceremony!
Dogsledding to the winter wedding ceremony in igloo hotel in Alta, Norway
Irene and Stian aren’t just owning all these huskies. They train the dogs for the long distance dogsledding race. Irene has even participated Finnmarksløpet (Europe’s longest sled dog race) where she ended up in top-10 in her class.
No wonder bride and groom decided to dogsled from their home to their wedding venue. And to make this winter adventure wedding even more complete, bride and groom chose the ice chapel in the local igloo hotel for their wedding ceremony. After their romantic wedding ceremony in the igloo hotel, bride and groom said good bye to their dogs and went to their reception venue for a dinner and the party with their guests.
How to prepare for a dogsledding winter wedding in Norway
Number one: experience and training. Remember, dogs are not your photo props. They are living creatures and you have to know how to behave near them. Before you plan any dogsledding trips for your wedding day, make sure that you get some training and experience in dog mushing first. If you have never done that before, maybe it could be an idea to try it out first, just to see whether it’s something for you?
If you’re sure you want to include the dogsledding as an activity for your winter wedding day in Norway, you can do it with your own dogs or as a tour with one of the vendors who specialize in dogsledding. For example, in Alta you can check these vendors: Holmen husky or Trasti og Trine.
Number two: make sure you’ve got some great warm layers under/over your wedding attire as well as good warm shoes! No matter what month your winter wedding in Norway will be, it’s going to be cold. Yes, even if it is April!
Number three: make it short and sweet. You don’t need to have a full husky race on your wedding day. You only need to have some fun experience and make sure you’ve got some great photos of you with the dogs. Take a short trip, like 30 minutes or so. This way you’ll get a nice, fun and memorable adventure without getting too cold!
Wedding photos under Aurora Borealis, stars and milky way
To make this adventure winter wedding even dreamier, some time after the wedding day we went on the Northern lights chasing tour together. Although the sky was clear in the beginning and the aurora forecast was good, northern lights weren’t as intense as we were hoping for. However, we were still able to capture some nice splashes of the aurora borealis and this beautiful bride and groom. In addition to some bridal portraits under the northern lights, we got to see a really beautiful starry sky and a very clear view of the milky way. It was both romantic and so dreamy!
This wedding has also been published on Whimsical Wonderland Weddings – an international wedding blog and an amazing source of inspiration for planning your wedding or elopement day!
Wedding vendors
- Wedding photographer TS Foto Design
- Ceremony venue – Sorrisniva igloo hotel
- Wedding gown – Maggie Sottero