If you follow me on social media, then you saw that I was in IRELAND last week!! It’s hard to find the right words to summarize this trip…but I’m going to try my best for the sake of this blog post!! I’ll rewind and start from the beginning of the story and how this trip came together…

Last March, a sweet photographer named Alyssa attended my Senior Photography Workshop. I just remember her adorable, bubbly personality being so much FUN and I loved her!! She emailed me after the workshop and the subject said “Ireland or bust?!”…WHAT!? I opened the email and I’m pretty sure I remember jumping up and down screaming, but no biggie. She shared with me that her and her husband, Travis, have felt called to serve local churches with their photography business. They had been contacted by a church in IRELAND to photograph families for them as a missions trip and she wanted Drew and I to be a part of it! What an HONOR. I immediately called Drew and within 10 minutes, we were IN. We spent months and months planning the details and I still can’t quite believe it all happened last week!

For the first two days of our trip, we spent almost all of our time at Lifegate Baptist Church. I have never in my life experienced a group of kind, serving, God-loving people like this church body in Dublin. They welcomed us with open arms, served us like family and made us feel more loved than ever. I don’t think I will ever forget the love we felt through these people-they are the epitome of loving as God loved us. During those two days, we photographed over 30 families and Alyssa + Travis created a promo film for their church. These families were more gracious and appreciative than anyone I have ever worked with…it brought tears to my eyes almost every time one of them shared a story with me. The majority of them had NEVER had a family photo together, and lots of them had a brand new baby or had family travel into town just for these photos! I will never forget each and every one of these amazing families. I may never cross paths with them again on this earth, but as they said when telling us goodbye: “hopefully we will get to catch up again in Heaven”! Here are a few of my favorites from my missions experience in Dublin!

After the most amazing 48 hours at Lifegate Baptist, we packed up and headed into the city of Dublin to begin a 5 day tour of Ireland!!! We traveled almost everywhere-Dublin, Killarney, Ballsbridge, Bunratty and more. We stopped at all of the famous landmarks and explored some local nooks and crannies. We ate at the most delicious restaurants and celebrate Drew’s 21st birthday while we were there!!!

I typically like to keep my camera away during vacation time so that I can truly feel present and capture memories on my phone. But, I am so thankful Drew decided to shoot on a “REAL” camera during the trip so we have some professional-quality memories!!! Here are some of my faves:

Hahahahaha, SOOO typical Drew.

Annnnd now for my favorite part…our trip in iPhone photos!!! 🙂 We flew through the night so we had an AMAZING sunrise view from the plane…

After our first day at Lifegate Baptist Church, we decided to stay up late and get on Ireland time. So, we took the local tram and explored downtown Dublin with hot chocolate in hand 🙂

Tour of the Dublin castle!!

This was one of our FAVORITE days of the tour: Blarney Castle!! So much beauty and amazing history!

Not sure if we were supposed to wander off as far as we did to find the building on the right…oh well 🙂

On day 3, we started our drive around the Ring of Kerry!! So many breathtaking views that I will never forget.

Drew made lots of local friends on this day 🙂

The final day of our tour was to the Cliffs of Moher!! Easily my number one favorite day. Also, pretty sure this photo perfectly describes our relationship:

If you enjoyed this post, you may also love:

New Zealand + AUS | Part 1 

Chelsey + Marc

Smith Mountain Lake Birthday Trip Recap!!!