Happy Valentine’s Day!! or almost Valentine’s Day. In light of “love day” I wanted to share ten of my favorite date ideas for Valentine’s Day, or any other date night!
Candlelight Dinner at Home
Who says you can only have fancy dinners out? When we first got married, I would throw on a dress and spice up at home dinners with some candles for a romantic night at home. This gave us time to catch up versus our usual dinner in a rush or in front of the tv. We haven’t had a “formal” dinner at home in a while, but now that school is out, I’m excited to get back to a normal dinner routine at home.
Make a Dinner Reservation
During school, we did eat out together quite a bit and I loved it because sometimes that was the biggest chunk of time we had together that week. Since neither of us have a typical 9-5 job and I work random days of the week, we don’t have a designated “date night” day. We often meet for a coffee or lunch date, but making a reservation for dinner sometime in the week is always exciting and something to look forward to. It means quality time at one of our favorite restuarants with NO interruptions! We have a zero phone rule when we eat out and if we are somewhere more casual with TVs around, I usually sit in view of the TV otherwise, whether or not it’s something interesting, my husband can’t help but watch it haha! I get it because it’s so easy to get drawn into it and when he starts watching I turn around to see what could possibly be so interesting and get drawn into it too even if its sports or something random neither one of us watch at home haha, but at this point he already knows to sit on the opposite side haha! Anyways, the point of a dinner out is just uninterrupted time together to catch up or make plans on something we have coming up whether that’s a big project or a vacation we want to take. Regardless, I don’t think we’ve ever had a “silent” dinner and always have something to talk about so I feel like it’s important to take the time to do so.
Cook Together at Home
We cook together more in the summer when we can grill out, but it’s so much more fun cooking together than alone! It also makes a great time to catch up and the end result that we made together is just satisfying lol!
Take a Cooking Class
Right now, this is the top of the list for our next date night! There are a few local places that offer cooking classes where you can create a full meal including the appetizer, meal, and dessert together. I also love that you know what meal you’re making when you book the class that way you know it will be something you both like. We always said we wanted to do this and then with school, everything kind of went on hold, so we really want to plan this soon! This would also make a fun date night with your couple friends too!
Play a sport together
We used to go bowling all the time for a random winter weeknight because they always had crazy deals whether unlimited games or free shoes always leaving it less than $20 and was a great way to just get out for some competitive fun! We’ve also played tennis together, went to top golf and even go-carting.
Visit an Arcade
Speaking of competitive fun, I surprised my husband for one of his birthdays to a night at an arcade and omg it was so fun! We’re both young at heart and it was so much fun playing random games together!
Movie Night
We always look forward to a movie theatre date for movies we can’t wait to see but, most of the time we watch movies at home. I often use that time to catch up on emails, post on Instagram, or scroll through new releases from some of my favorite stores so putting all things aside, watching a movie cuddling on the couch together eating popcorn feels much more like a date rather than using that time to “work.” It also beats the “what just happened” or “what’s so funny” questions during a movie haha!
Game Night
Whether it’s a board game or a game of cards, it’s always a fun time when it’s a game you both love! I won’t make this post too steamy haha but you can have fun with this and add your own romantic twists to any game!
Check Out a List of Local Events
There is always so much going around the city, especially in the summertime so take advantage of these fun date ideas that you wouldn’t normally do! We usually scroll through events every now and then and have been to concerts, food truck nights and festivals we would have had no idea were going on if we hadn’t looked into them. A lot of these events are free/you only pay for food so they are definitely worth checking out!
Staycation
One of our favorite day dates is a day around the city. We’ve never actually done a staycation where we spent the night in a hotel in the city, but we’ve spent a day walking around the city eating at new restaurants we haven’t tried yet, visiting coffee shops, and just walking around taking in the views. It is so refreshing and feels like we went out of town for the day. We’ve also taken a day riding around the city on city bikes which is also so fun! Before school, we used to spend almost every weekend around town, but it’s been almost two years and it has grown SO much so we can’t wait for it to get warm so we can do that again!
What’s your favorite date idea? I’d love to hear in the comments below!
