How we planned out Juneau, Alaska destination wedding at Skater’s Cabin near Mendenhall Glacier in six months. Includes all vendors (photography, officiant, food, transportation), cost, and photos of our wedding.
How We Planned Our Alaskan Wedding
In 2019, my boyfriend (BATMAN) & I were planning our summer wedding (yep, that’s right- we started planning before we got engaged!). He is in the Marine Corps living in WA state & our families are from multiple states (IL, CO, PA, AZ, VA, etc) not to mention our friends (NC, NE, etc). We knew that whatever we chose it was going to be non-traditional.
We knew whatever we did it would have to be:
FUN & Adventurous
Total cost under 15k
LOW stress
We didn’t know exactly what that would look like, so when our families started mentioning that they really wanted to take an alaskan cruise that summer, which we thought sounded awesome, it started to fall into place.
The timeline from our families mentioning the alaskan cruise to our actual wedding was exactly 6 months. By this time, we realized that all of the “on board” wedding chapels were already booked up. At first, it freaked me out since I would consider those the “safest” options. In reality, it turned out to be the absolute best thing that could’ve happened to us. In reality, sometimes being spontaneous & “last minute” while planning a wedding can actually work out in your favor!
Let’s talk about what it actually looked like before we walk you through how we did it.
We got married during our first stop in Juneau, AK while traveling via the Norwegian Bliss that sailed through the inside passage of Alaska. It sailed from Seattle and stopped at Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and Victoria before returning to Seattle. It also included sailing through Alaska’s Glacier Bay, which happened to be on July 4th, which was fun timing. We embarked on June 30, 2019 and got married on July 2nd, 2019 at Skater’s Cabin in Juneau, Alaska at 4pm.
I got ready on the ship (did my own hair & make up, so proud of this moment!). Then we met for drinks at 11:30am at the Mojito Bar (my fav drink so it was perfect, ps batman was not invited, haha), ate lunch, & then did first look pictures with our friend/my cousin on the ship before we got off!
We disembarked the ship around 2:30pm on July 2nd, had our photographer pick us up (future bride + groom) and take us to Fred Meyers, fancy right?! The rest of our guests boarded a rented school bus and went straight to Skater’s Cabin. While we were at Fred Meyers we picked up our pre-ordered appetizer trays & canned beer (more of the logistics of this later!). Our Photographer, Joe, then drove us over to Skater’s Cabin, where our guests were unloading. Our guests + us then set up the reception on a picnic table, put all the canned beer in collapsable coolers, and got ready for the ceremony by handing off BATMAN’s cellphone with my “walk down the aisle” song to his brother in law to play via a bluetooth speaker.
We then had our officiant marry us on the public beach (we did have to ask two groups of people if they would mind vacating the area for 20 minutes while we got married, they were super kind and didn’t mind, thankfully!). We then took pictures on the beach, signed the marriage license, & started the reception with a solid playlist BATMAN made!
We did the first dance, father-daughter dance, & mother-son dance + speeches after pictures were done & then danced the rest of the afternoon away. We then loaded everyone up on the bus & went to the Visitor’s Center. Our photographer then took pictures with the Mendenhall Glacier even closer in the background than it is at Skater’s Cabin, then we did a 30 minute blitz photog session off the side of the road on the way to dinner at Twisted Fish & Co.
We ended the night with dinner & drinks at Twisted Fish & Co. Then had the bus bring us back to the boat at 10:30pm. The end of the night, there was a 90’s dance party, so those of us who were still awake went to the “club,” & danced for a few more hours!
The end of the night we were tired, but it was the MOST perfect day.
so here’s exactly what we did to have our fun, simple, adventurous, cost effective dream wedding
Choose the dates, itinerary, ship by coordinating with immediate family
We started by figuring out when we could get married. Turns out between my brothers work schedule, my schedule, & my future sister in law’s schedule there were two weeks that summer we could do it. So we picked our ship (Norwegian Bliss) & the itinerary.
The big reason we picked the Norwegian Bliss was because it had a good itinerary, looked really fun (laser tag/go-karts), & had a bunch of things we were interested in (craft beer on draft, mojito bar, whiskey bar, observation lounge with huge windows).
Our biggest mindset shift here was finding peace that if only our immediate family was able to come, we would still have the best wedding ever. We had to tell ourselves that anyone else who came were a huge bonus, otherwise I would’ve been disappointed & second guessed our choice. We still were heart broken a few times, like when my friend Katlin & her family booked their flights to Juneau only to find out within 24 hours that not only was her husband’s leave denied, he was also deploying that month. So trust me, having a destination wedding will have its moments of disappointment, but it will still be worth it <3.
pro tip: There are different room types depending on what type of guests you have going. We did the spa balcony so we got “free” passes to the spa (which was amazing), but I would only do the spa if you know you’ll use it or you know your family will do it too (my dad loves hot tubs, so we made sure to have a father/daughter spa time set aside before the wedding). Typically the inside rooms book up the fastest (they’re cheaper), but there are also solo rooms for guests who are traveling alone that are awesome too! The 8th floor is the best for glacier viewing in my opinion & the 16th floor is awesome because it’s super close to the observation lounge. The suite balconies ARE bigger even though you can’t really tell on the floor plans, this is awesome if you have a big group. We viewed glacier bay from Batman’s parent’s suite balcony on the 8th floor & it easily held 6+ people.
Book the cruise by setting up a group & Pick/pay for deposit (immediate family)
When booking with Norwegian, we only had to pay a deposit to secure our rooms. The deposit was $200/room (when we booked in 2019). The total amount was due within 90 days of the cruise though, so if you’re like us and didn’t give your guests much time, make sure you let them know that the deadline to pay in full is 90 days out. For us that was the end of March for our June 30th sail date.
pro tip: when booking with Norwegian (or any cruise line) make sure you book as a group. Our group got money back + our drink packages were free ($1600 value that we all used!). We only needed five total rooms to book as a group.
send out free evite with information to close friends & extended family as equal as possible x50 people
Budget was super important to us + we didn’t want to waste any time letting people know (since we only gave them five months notice before wedding day!). We used the evite service & it was super easy + helpful to send messages out to everyone. The only tricky thing was getting everyone’s email addresses including extended family & my parents friends. It took a few days to officially send them out to everyone, but less than 20 minutes to set up. I did consider for one second to pay $20 to take the ads off, but I realized that if I was going to send an evite wedding invitation I should just own it & stick with the free version ;)
pro tip: We invited 50 people and ended up having 30 people (including us) join us on the cruise. Honestly, if we had many more than 30 people it would’ve been tough to spend the amount of time with everyone that I wanted to, plus our bus fit 38 people but we needed a few seats for the beer coolers + food + umbrellas. When figuring out your guest list, make a bunch of lists & figure out your ideal max number based on cost (more people = bigger budget).
Set values & learn about what stresses you out
This is probably the most important step that I intentionally focused on during the months leading up to our wedding. It was really important to Batman that I didn’t stress out & that planning our wedding + our wedding was as fun as possible. That being said, planning a wedding has a lot of to-do’s whether you do it from afar or in-state. There are a lot of things you just don’t know you don’t know, so you have to figure them out.
Personally, I looked at planning the wedding kind of like a part time job. I tried to set aside about 5 hours a week for research/tasks, any more than that I would’ve lost my mind. I also planned out what months I needed to do what things & I didn’t do anything more than what was scheduled for that month.
I also realized fairly quickly that “research” on pintrest did NOT fill me up & in fact stressed me out. But it was totally necessary at times. So I outsourced it to my two besties (one who could come to the wedding & one who couldn’t). They helped me find my veil on etsy, decide whether to get fake flowers or not, find the cutest personalized coozies that came in man-friendly colors. This way, they felt included & I could simplify my choices so it didn’t constantly exhaust me on the endless options. It helps if your besties have excellent taste!
pro tip: have a mantra or seven to help you stay focused on what’s really important. For me, it was “everyone else is a bonus,” “fun over everything else,” “what we want is important,” and as it got closer, “can’t care” repeated x100 until the stress passed if something didn’t work out or I wasn’t sure of something (like what my fiance was going to wear to the ceremony: he kept saying board shorts).
Find Photographer & Book them
I remember the moment I realized we were going to have to plan this whole thing ourselves, instead of what I thought would’ve been a much easier “on board” wedding. I was sitting at the counter of our kitchen & googling “juneau alaska photographers” and “alaska wedding photographers,” when I came across Chugach Peaks Photography, based out of Anchorage Alaska, but frequently travel to other AK destinations during the peak wedding season. I fell in love with their portfolio & called.
I talked to Joe and literally he solved every single one of my problems. I was looking to hire a wedding photographer & I got a wedding planner & fun new friend who literally is all knowing in the wedding industry. He was flexible & laid back but knowledgeable to the point where he put a crazed awkward almost bride at ease in twenty minutes. I booked HIM specifically within 24 hours. In fact, Joe was the one who suggested Juneau, AK as the island/destination we should have the wedding at & I’m eternally grateful for that advice!
We ended up getting a package + pre-paying for three photo albums (one for each of our moms + us) coming at a total of around 4k. It was the single best decision of the ENTIRE planning process. If you’re thinking of getting married in Juneau, AK or Alaska in general I would literally IMPLORE you to call Chugach Peaks, especially if you want amazing photos + awesome, fun people to hang out with who have connections with everyone. Also, if you haven’t yet, check them out on instagram & lose a few hours drooling over amazing glacier photos.
pro tip: have you booked Chugach Peaks Photography yet? If not, do so here
“you are my home & my adventure all at once..”
Book Restaurant & Transportation & ceremony location
Restaurant: I fell in love with the menu at Twisted Fish & Co after finding them on this photography post of a fellow Skater’s Cabin Bride. I called to make reservations in February (4 months out) via their phone number listed and got connected to their sister restaurant. I called to verify reservations when they opened in May and they didn’t have any record (cue momentary heart stopping), but not to worry they re-made the reservations for two long tables for 31 people. The food was amazing, craft beer came in pitchers, & our total bill for 31 people was less than 2k or (50-65/plate).
Transportation: We rented a school bus & Batman’s response to “what if it rains,” was that we could just get married on the bus & you’d still have an aisle, haha. It didn’t rain, thankfully (although the rain photos from Chugach are also incredible). We rented a medium sized school bus + the alcohol package from First Student Charter Bus. Our bus rental for 30 people was $850 + 20% tip (in cash day of) brought the total to $1,020. We had an awesome experience with our bus driver & she even agreed to take care of our left over beer/food at the end of the night (since we couldn’t take it on the ship!).
Ceremony: Joe from Chugach Peaks Photography was the person who suggested that we get married at Skater’s Cabin in Juneau, AK. It’s six miles from the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor’s Center and the Glacier is visible from the beach. The cabin itself is stone with a porch and cut out windows (as in there’s no glass, just holes), but the cabin itself makes for amazing photos.
The area around the cabin is available for rent from the USDA forest reserve and I would highly recommend calling to reserve the cabin itself if you plan to get married there. It’s gorgeous, there’s a fire pit, & enough space where you could hold a totally awesome reception including space for guests to sit on the stone wall.
We rented Skater’s Cabin from 1-7pm for $50 total, which is an insane steal considering the average cost of a reception space is $3,000-11,000 in the US. The Forest Ranger I spoke to mailed us the permit and a “reserved” sign after I paid by credit card over the phone. I then mailed the “reserved” sign to our photographer who agreed to post it earlier in the day to make sure people knew to vacate by the time we got there. I also put the permit in the same folder as our marriage license which went in the bag that we were bringing to the wedding with all the “accessories.”
pro tip: check out the slide show below for photos taken at Skater’s Cabin. We booked Skater’s Cabin 4.5 months out, but personally it’s such an awesome location that I would book it ASAP when you know you want to have your ceremony there. PS it’s even better in person, promise.
Get Engaged — this might be the first on the list for you ;)
We got engaged April 20th, 2019 after planning our wedding since January 2019 :) If you’re looking for an amazing ring box holder for workouts & adventurous proposals check this one out off amazon.
Apply For AK Marriage License & BOOK OFFICIANT
Marriage License: This was probably the most annoying & stressful thing we had to deal with. Alaska requires you to pick up your marriage license IN PERSON. However, depending on when you sail into Juneau (or wherever in AK) you may not have time to drive over, pick up the license, and then show up at your own ceremony. In fact, I called multiple people to see if we could get the piece of paper mailed to us in advance & some said yes, others said no, and at the end we had to push back our ceremony to plan to do it in person. At the last second (ok a month out) they finally called me back & agreed to mail it, Hallelujah!! If you’re at all worried about having enough time to pick up your license, I would FIGHT to have them mail it to you, but know that they might hold their ground.
I would also DOUBLE & TRIPLE check your license that EVERYTHING IS CORRECT. We had to get ours mailed to us THREE times because they kept messing up our birthdays (we’re both born in June).
Officiant: We decided to book an officiant mostly because of logistic reasons & because it seemed like the least stressful option. We wanted everyone to have fun & not have the weight of whether our marriage was legal or not resting on their shoulders. We went with Tom from Alaska Weddings. We ended up getting a discount because Joe from Chugach Peaks Photography recommended us to Tom, but all together his services range from $250-375. The reason we really wanted to have an officiant was because they are the ones who have to turn in the marriage license into the Juneau, AK office IN PERSON, so since we didn’t have time to do it that day & we were sailing out of Juneau that night, we needed someone who was able to do that for us!
Buy Accessories for Wedding
We bought a bunch of things for wedding (obviously).
Bride Stuff: I got my boots from North Face & these adorable + warm boots socks, my veil from etsy in platinum, my wedding dress sweater from morning lavender, this waterproof backpack that is also cute, and a bunch of cute Alaskan Cruise vests/tshirt dresses from amazon: military vest, this dress with pockets in lilac, this dress with cut outs in grey, anything striped like this long sleeve, this dress in dark grey, this knock off jcrew vest I’ve been wearing every week since July, this amazing gf/fiance/wife sweatshirt.
Groom Stuff: Silicone wedding band(s)
Ceremony Stuff: six of these collapsable coolers (one for each type of beer), 30 clear umbrellas in case it rained, customized coozies with our names + Juneau, AK map on the other side.
Guest Gift Bags: eye masks for the Alaskan Summer sun, itineraries DIY from canva & printed on thick paper from staples (see photos below), my mom also bought lanyards for everyone with a clear ID holder for the cruise which were a huge hit, & my aunt bought magnets for all the rooms which was another big hit.
Order Food Online From Fred Meyer
We ordered fruit trays, sandwich trays, and cookies for appetizers, bottled water cases, silverwear, plates, and napkins during our reception at Skater’s Cabin, which we were able to do online. This was awesome because the appetizers we picked up at the deli counter, the rest was delivered to the car by someone, and we picked up the cans of beer which we called in to order & paid at the liquor section of the store (it’s kind of separate). It was all incredibly quick. We picked Fred Meyer because it was closer to Skater’s Cabin & had the best canned beer selection (New Belgium, Alaskan, etc).
So that is all.the.things, ya’ll! I think this blog post legit took me four hours to write, but I didn’t want to leave anything out, since I KNOW how hard it is to plan something from afar. In case your itinerary is different than ours (you have to get ready out in town or don’t want a beach ceremony) here are two other blog posts that helped me!
“let the adventure begin.. ”
AUTHOR: Dr. Lauren Baker, DPT, PT, ATC, MTC is a Physical Therapist/Athletic Trainer, Online Fit Coach, Military Wife, & Circus Addict who is obsessed with sharing all her adventures & knowledge so that you know that literally ANYTHING is possible with a little bit of Google & a WHOLE lot of courage.
Dr. Lauren Baker, PT is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com (as well as other affiliate programs). *I only link products I love & use & to make it easier for you to purchase so you don't forget the name of the product when you go to buy it. I looove using amazon wish list functions to "save for later." Please see disclaimer page for further affiliate information.
