Brendan and I were excited to go back to the Cliffs of Moher even though the weather report predicted 40 mph winds and scattered rain. However, we were extremely determined to take a once-in-a-lifetime photo on the Cliffs regardless of mother nature’s challenges.

Several weeks ago, I came up with a crazy idea that involved packing up our beautiful wedding attire, traveling halfway across the world with it and wearing it for honeymoon photos at each of the marvelous places we will be visiting. Although Brendan was skeptical about the luggage space and logistics of hiking with a wedding dress and custom tailored suite, he simply said “yes dear”.

So there we were, hiking along the edge of the cliffs with our marriage attire neatly folded into our backpack. After 1 mile of hiking, we found a location that was no longer blocked by fences and provided a breathtaking view. As soon as we began setting up the camera and tripod, the wind started to pick up. Once we managed to change into our dress and suite, the wind turned into a major gust that happened to eddy in our little nook and blow outward to sea. Still determined, we asked an Irish fellow to snap the photos and hold down the camera. Success!

The next 10 minutes were not as smooth. Each gust started to feel stronger than the previous and it was becoming difficult to stand. We had to take special care to strongly grip every atricle of clothing as we disrobed while holding the backpacks and shoes like penguins between our feet and keeping a hand on the camera. Once we were nearly re-dressed, a massive gale wind snagged one of Brendan’s dress shoes. I instinctively ran after it and resorted to an Indiana Jones dive 5 feet from the cliff edge. Similar to the referenced action hero, I missed just by a fingertip, but luckily enough the shoe held still 2 feet from the edge. As I screamed “Brendan!”, he became distraced from holding down the backpacks and the camera bag started rolling off to certain death. Brendan followed my example and dove on top of the bag while I army crawled to the shoe. Surprised, startled and hearts racing, we collected all of our belongings and quickly hiked out of that terrifyingly beautiful cliffside.

The car ride to Killarney was full of laughter as we reflected on the excitement we just experienced. We were giddy that all of our belongings survived, that we captured an amazing photograph and that we have an epic story to tell throughout the years to come!

Partway through our drive to Killarney, we stopped in a small town, Adare Co. Limerick, where we fell in love with the colorful store fronts and small Irish charm. Once we finally reached our destination, we were starved and randomly chose a pub to rest and eat at. Brendan enjoyed fish and chips and I had hearty guinness beef stew. Since we ate ourselves into a food coma, we went back to the hotel and drifted off to sleep while listening to a live Irish band playing traditional Irish songs out our window.