City venue guide

The 9 best wedding venues in Reykjavík

Reykjavík weddings concentrate in the 101 postcode, inside a walkable ring around Tjörnin and the old harbour. The rooms couples book most are Harpa's glass halls on the waterfront, the 1897 craftsmen's house at Iðnó on the edge of the pond, the gilded ballroom at Hótel Borg facing Austurvöllur, and the 1926 cinema hall at Gamla Bíó. Move out of the centre and you trade walkability for setting: Nauthóll on the shoreline below Öskjuhlíð, the old potato stores turned art house at Höfuðstöðin in the Elliðaárdalur valley, or the community hall at Hlégarður in Mosfellsbær. Ceremonies here sometimes go outdoors, but dinner almost never does.

Researched and last reviewed 2026-08-17. We have no commercial relationship with any venue listed.

Reykjavík, Iceland — where couples marry — Reykjavík · Photo: Antony-22 · CC BY-SA 4.0

No. IHarpa

No. I

Harpa

Concert hallAusturbakki 2, old harbourNorðurljós holds 456–516 theatre-style; Flói is 1,000 m² on

Fourteen hireable spaces sit inside Henning Larsen's 2011 building on the harbour front, behind the coloured geometric glass Ólafur Elíasson drew out of Iceland's basalt landscape. Weddings tend to climb through it: vows in Háaloft, a 200 m² room on the eighth floor carrying the same mirrored ceiling as the foyer and a view west over the city to the harbour, the bay and the mountains, then dinner in Norðurljós, 540 m² under nine-metre ceilings with two dressing rooms included. Because this is a working concert hall, your date competes with the performance programme, so the useful question is which rooms are free rather than which you would prefer.

Coloured glass over the old harbour

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Harpa

No. IIIðnó

No. II

Iðnó

Historic assembly hallVonarstræti 3, beside Tjörnin110 seated, 240 theatre-style, 300 standing

Reykjavík's craftsmen put this timber house up in 1897, and the Reykjavík Theatre Company was founded inside it the same year. It stands on the bank of Tjörnin, so the pond and City Hall land in the background of the group photograph without anyone leaving the pavement. The big Hátíðarsalur is on the ground floor, with the lighter Sunnusalur and a small President Room above it looking over the water. That is enough separation to run drinks, dinner and dancing as three distinct rooms while nobody steps outside, which in November is the entire point. Kitchen, stage and PA are all in the building.

The city pond at the front door

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Iðnó

No. IIIHótel Borg

No. III

Hótel Borg

Art Deco hotelPósthússtræti 11, AusturvöllurGyllti salurinn takes 100 seated, 130 theatre-style, 150 sta

Jóhannes Jósefsson wrestled for Iceland, made a fortune touring America as a circus strongman, then came home and opened the country's first luxury hotel on the corner of Austurvöllur in 1930. Couples book Gyllti salurinn, the Golden Hall, which has its own street entrance and a foyer holding the cloakroom, the bar and the receiving line, so guests never cross the hotel lobby. It divides in two for smaller parties and opens out to a garden. Parliament, the cathedral and the square are a few steps from the door, which is as central as Reykjavík gets.

Gilded 1930 ballroom, own street entrance

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Hótel Borg

Gamla Bíó — wedding venue in Reykjavík, Iceland

Photo: Willem van de Poll · CC0

No. IV

Gamla Bíó

Former cinemaIngólfsstræti 2a, city centreUp to 280 at round tables, 300 at long tables, 750 standing;

Peter Petersen built this as a cinema in 1926; the Icelandic Opera later made it home; it now works as a hire hall with an adjustable stage, cinema screen and curtain, and full production sound and lighting already rigged. That standing infrastructure is why the larger Reykjavík weddings land here — few central rooms take a live band and a three-course dinner for 280 without a truck of hired equipment turning up first. Petersen svítan, the bar and rooftop floor at the top of the building, books separately and suits either the drinks hour or a party of 150 on its own. Catering comes through Lux.

Opera-house scale with a rooftop bar

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Gamla Bíó

No. VKornhlaðan

No. V

Kornhlaðan

Converted grain warehouseBankastræti 2, city centre85 seated, 150 standing in 111 m²

One room of 111 m², thick stone walls and original timber: the grain store built at Bankastræti 2 in 1834, a bakery for much of the century that followed. What is sold is a full-day exclusive buyout, ceremony through to after-party in the same space, with staff resetting light and sound between each phase. In an Icelandic winter that is simply practical — moving 80 guests between buildings means moving 80 coats. The kitchen is in-house, from canapés up to a three-course seated dinner. The door sits where Bankastræti meets Lækjargata, so guest hotels are minutes away on foot in any direction.

One room from vows to last dance

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Kornhlaðan

No. VINauthóll

No. VI

Nauthóll

Waterfront restaurantNauthólsvegur 106, Nauthólsvík120 seated, up to 250 standing

The hall faces straight out over the bay, at the foot of Öskjuhlíð beside the geothermal beach at Nauthólsvík. It arrives wired: sound system, lectern and projector, and a lighting rig with enough range to change the look of the room between courses. The kitchen writes menus that run from the canapés through to a midnight snack, which is how an Icelandic reception normally finishes. Decoration and cake you bring yourself. The domestic airport is the immediate neighbour, so this is a five-minute drive from downtown that still reads as well outside it.

Sea views and a midnight-snack menu

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Nauthóll

No. VIIThe Reykjavik EDITION

No. VII

The Reykjavik EDITION

Design hotelAusturbakki 2, old harbourBallroom up to 300, divisible in two; three studios combine

Sharing the harbour block with Harpa, the EDITION keeps just over 500 m² of private event space, the bulk of it a ballroom that halves and takes 300 whole. Three studios join up for 142 and absorb a rehearsal dinner or a morning-after brunch, and the pre-function area handles drinks for a hundred. The argument for a hotel here is logistical rather than romantic: guests who flew in sleep upstairs, the harbour and Harpa are outside the door for photographs, and nobody is negotiating a taxi at two in the morning. Interiors run to pale wood and low light rather than anything period.

Rooms upstairs, harbour outside

Visit venue site Get an invitation for The Reykjavik EDITION

No. VIIIHöfuðstöðin

No. VIII

Höfuðstöðin

Art venueRafstöðvarvegur 1a, Elliðaárdalur100 seated, 130 standing in a 200 m² hall

The old potato stores on the power-station road in Elliðaárdalur now hold a 200 m² hall run as an art house, built around the permanent work of Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, who signs as Shoplifter. The ceremony goes outdoors in the valley or indoors as the weather decides; furniture moves freely, there is a bar, a sun terrace, four bathrooms and free parking at the door, and you may bring your own caterer provided the wine service is the house's. The unusual part is Chromo Sapiens, Arnardóttir's walk-through cave of synthetic hair that filled the Icelandic pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale and now lives here permanently — it can be hired as part of the wedding.

A wedding with a Venice Biennale installation

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Höfuðstöðin

No. IXHlégarður

No. IX

Hlégarður

Community hallHáholt 2, Mosfellsbær160 seated in the 204 m² main hall, 60 in the 140 m² second

Mosfellsbær's félagsheimili, a fifteen-minute drive out of the centre, is the plain-spoken choice: a 204 m² main hall seating 160, a second 140 m² hall carrying the bar and lounge for 60, and a 60 m² foyer whose coat storage matters far more than it sounds when 160 people arrive in Icelandic weather. Book the large hall and the small one comes with it. The rate is published rather than quoted — ISK 370,000 takes the building for 36 hours, keys at five the evening before and back by noon the day after, so you decorate the night before and clear up the morning after. It fills early: the hall states that every 2026 wedding date has already gone.

The whole building for 36 hours

Visit venue site Get an invitation for Hlégarður

Marrying in Reykjavík?

Want an invitation designed for your venue?

Tell us where you’re marrying in Reykjavík, Icelandand we’ll build the invitation around it — the venue’s own colours, an illustration of the building if you want one, your map and timings already in place. One link for every guest, with live RSVPs.

Make ours for Reykjavík See the designs

Planning a wedding in Reykjavík

The legal side runs through the District Commissioner, not the venue: the capital-area office at Skógarhlíð 6 issues the certificate of no impediment (könnunarvottorð) and performs its own civil ceremonies, charging a set fee for the ceremony and a surcharge to send a registrar out to your venue instead. Those figures are statutory and get revised, so take them from the office rather than from a planner's blog. Halls, not dates, are the bottleneck — Hlégarður says outright that its whole 2026 wedding calendar is gone, and central Saturdays in June and July go the same way. Wind rather than rain is what wrecks an outdoor plan: July is the calmest month of the year and still averages around 12 km/h, gusts arrive with no warning, so every garden ceremony needs a room standing ready behind it.

When to marry — June and July are the practical months, with close to 21 hours of daylight around the solstice, the year's lowest average wind speeds, and light good enough to photograph past midnight; late May and early September are quieter and cheaper while still holding usable daylight.
What it costs — Hall hire across the capital area starts around ISK 300,000 for a community building — Hlégarður publishes ISK 370,000 for a 36-hour wedding let — and runs to roughly ISK 1,000,000 for exclusive use of a landmark room. Catering and drinks are quoted separately and usually cost more than the room itself.

Once the venue is settled, the next thing most couples deal with is telling everyone. A digital wedding invitation carries the address, a map, your timings and a live RSVP on one link — which matters more than usual when guests are travelling to Reykjavík and need directions, and plenty of notice.

Questions

Marrying in Reykjavík: your questions.

Can we legally marry in Iceland if neither of us lives there?

Yes. Iceland sets no residency requirement, so a foreign couple can marry here on the same legal footing as Icelanders, provided both are 18 or over and free to marry. You submit passports, birth certificates and proof of marital status — plus a final divorce decree or a death certificate where relevant, translated and often apostilled — and the District Commissioner then issues a könnunarvottorð, the certificate of no impediment. Lodge the documents a few weeks ahead rather than the week of. The resulting Icelandic marriage is legally valid in its own right, so you do not need a separate civil ceremony at home first, though your own country may want the Icelandic certificate legalised or registered once you are back.

What does a Reykjavík wedding actually cost?

The venue is rarely the largest line. Hall hire ranges from around ISK 300,000 for a community building — Hlégarður publishes ISK 370,000 for 36 hours — to roughly ISK 1,000,000 for exclusive use of a landmark space, while catering is charged per head on top and normally exceeds the room. Two costs catch visiting couples out. Alcohol is heavily taxed in Iceland and is almost always bought through the venue rather than carried in, so the bar is a bigger number here than it would be at home. And the civil ceremony carries its own District Commissioner fee, which rises if you want the registrar to travel to you or to officiate outside office hours; that fee is set by statute and revised, so confirm the current figure with the office.

When is the best time of year to marry in Reykjavík?

June and July, on the light alone. Around the summer solstice Reykjavík gets close to 21 hours of daylight and the sky never fully darkens, which means photographs at what would elsewhere be midnight and no pressure to finish the ceremony before dusk. July is also the calmest month for wind, the constraint that actually decides whether anything outdoors is possible. December is the opposite case — four to five usable hours, sunrise near 11:20 and sunset by half past three — so a winter wedding needs a venue with real interior light and a timeline built backwards from a mid-afternoon ceremony.

How far ahead should we book, and in what order?

Secure the venue roughly a year out for a summer Saturday and do the paperwork almost last. Reykjavík has a small stock of halls: Hlégarður has sold out its 2026 wedding dates entirely, and Harpa and Gamla Bíó release dates against a concert programme rather than a wedding calendar, so availability is genuinely narrow. The certificate of no impediment works the other way, because it expires — applying months early simply means applying twice. Book the room first, confirm your officiant, then start the certificate a few weeks out, checking the current validity window with the District Commissioner rather than assuming it.

Keep looking

More wedding venues near Reykjavík.

Dublin County Kerry Oslo Amsterdam Normandy Copenhagen Brussels Stockholm

Or browse every venue guide.

Marrying in Reykjavík?

Want an invitation designed for your venue?

Make ours for Reykjavík See the designs

The 9 best wedding venues in Reykjavík

Researched and last reviewed 2026-08-17. We have no commercial relationship with any venue listed.

Want an invitation designed for your venue?

Planning a wedding in Reykjavík

When to marry — June and July are the practical months, with close to 21 hours of daylight around the solstice, the year's lowest average wind speeds, and light good enough to photograph past midnight; late May and early September are quieter and cheaper while still holding usable daylight.

What it costs — Hall hire across the capital area starts around ISK 300,000 for a community building — Hlégarður publishes ISK 370,000 for a 36-hour wedding let — and runs to roughly ISK 1,000,000 for exclusive use of a landmark room. Catering and drinks are quoted separately and usually cost more than the room itself.

Want an invitation designed for your venue?