Afternoon, gorgeous ones!

It's been a wonderfully, chilled start to the week for us; my husband and I are celebrating our second wedding anniversary today!

[cue whoops, huge smiles and high fives all round!]

So, I thought it'd be fun to share how we've celebrated our anniversary this year. We've made it our tradition (inspired by the amazing husband wife team over at We Heart Photography) to take a self portrait on our annually on our anniversary. I've absolutely loved doing it these first two years, and I'm so stoked to look back on these shots in years to come and reminisce on each year together!

Whether you're married to a photographer or not, I love this concept for couples. The shot doesn't have to be super arty or edgy, hell it might just be a good old selfie, but to intentionally take a shot on your anniversary, to be able to look back as see how you've changed and grown as a couple over the years; it's almost a time capsule. I love it!

So, here's our second anniversary self portrait. You might notice the focus on our hands...

Yes, that's right my friends!

We celebrated this anni by getting our first tattoos together!

An equals symbol on our ring fingers. This simple little symbol holds so much meaning for us; symbolising the two of us, our second anniversary, the equality within our marriage and our strong belief in equality as a human right.

Apologies for getting a little deep on a Monday afternoon, but if you're gonna ink your skin for life, best to do it with good reason, I feel!

Our ink was inspired by, and is captured in the exceedingly more eloquent words of Paul Newman:

Beautifully said, right?

So, last Friday we took a little trip into our local city of Leicester, to the gorgeous St. Martin's square and headed to the super rad Black Market Tattoos. Where the amazing Alex Candela inked our designs.

Of course he went first! Haha!

Although we wanted our designs to be the same, my hubby is considerably bigger than me (he's a solid 6ft, compared to my 5ft 2″!) and thus his hands are notably larger too! With that in mind, the designs were created relative to our finger size, and his a little chunkier in design too.

Alex did such a sterling job, and we had such a great experience at Black Market, it had a chilled vibe, everyone was so friendly and their work is just incredible.

We took the afternoon off, ate a huge lunch in the square in the sunshine and listened to a jazz saxophonist while people watching.

It was spontaneous, dreamy and memorable.

So, as I sit and think how to sign this blog post off, coffee in hand (of course, it's me we're talking about here!) I couldn't be happier with my little tattoo.

A constant reminder of how insanely blessed I am to have my man and our beautiful marriage.

If you're considering a visit to a tattoo parlour as part of your wedding day (I've seen this done, it's INSANELY cool and makes for amazing photos), as a celebration of your engagement or your marriage, I couldn't recommend it any more! Bite the bullet, babes!

Peace + Love

Clare X