So rather excitingly on the 11th May we had an engagement photoshoot with our amazing photographer Clare Kinchin http://www.clarekinchinphotography.co.uk/ . We’ve both known Clare for a couple of years now since as she is based in Plymouth and we’ve met her at a couple of wedding fairs we’ve exhibited at. She also did all the amazing photography on this website last year and I also happen to have recently designed her new logo and branding for her.

Saying all that me and Ant really don’t like having our photo taken! I suppose a lot of people don’t. I always feel awkward – don’t really know what to do with my hands, face, generally blink and close my eyes! Ant also doesn’t feel particularly comfortable having his photo taken and generally pulls funny faces as soon as someone points a lens at him!

So even though we knew Clare already I still felt it was important for us to have an Engagement Shoot so we felt totally at ease on our wedding day next year. I also really felt it was time, after 10 years together, that we actually had some nice photos of the two of us! I’m not one for having photos of myself all over the house but it would be lovely to have a couple that we really loved.

So at 10am on the 11th we packed up the car with a few clothing options and some vintage suitcases and blankets and went and met Clare up at Haytor on Dartmoor.

We’d initially discussed doing the photo shoot in our new home town of Torquay but then we were discussing it further and we just really felt that as we’d not been here long Torquay just didn’t really feel like it represented us as a couple just yet … and also to be brutally honest I’d seen so many Engagement shoots of couples on beaches lately that I didn’t want our photos to look ‘generic’ ( absolutely no offence to you if you’ve had your engagement shoot on a beach! ). So we decided on Dartmoor – we loved living next to Dartmoor for the last few years and it was also coincidentally one of the first places we went on holiday together, long before we thought of moving to Devon.

On the day I was disappointed to wake to really stormy skies and rain but to be honest it’s the best thing that could of happened as the skies were so dramatic over Haytor that it made for some really amazing photos. I had said to Clare how much I loved the book Wuthering Heights and so I really loved Dartmoor for its feeling of desolation sometimes – and so the skies and weather conditions to be honest couldn’t have been more perfect!

Clare, knowing that we’d included a skull motif on our Save the Date cards, had also brought some skulls she had with her as props and these proved to be some of my favourite photos of the day. I absolutely love the photos of us with the skulls in front of our faces. Its just a really beautiful photo regardless of whether we’re in it and I’ve definitely ordered this one as a piece of art for our walls – it kind of solves my problem with having photos of myself up in the house!

We had a really fun morning and I would definitely recommend an engagement photoshoot to anyone as it really made me feel more relaxed in front of the camera and ready for having photos taken on our wedding day.

Nikki x