It’s almost here; Valentines’s Day! The day when you should remember all the people in your life who you love and cherish, not just the significant other. So, remember to send a text, or even better, a card to your friends reminding them why they are so important to you :)
There’s a lot of us spending the day nestled in pink cotton candy, enjoying chocolates from a heart-shaped box while admiring the flowers that were delivered to your office, but I’m aware that love comes in many shapes and forms. So, I decided to assemble some ideas on arranging the ultimate date night, which can work both ways; with a group of friends as well as with a significant other.
I love organizing events, big and small, so this post was something I really enjoyed writing. I hope you will find useful tips and ideas here for you next date night.
Recipe For Ultimate Date Night
Plan
Of course everything starts with a plan. Let’s not forget, well planned is half done. First up, think what it is that you and your significant other most enjoy doing together? Do you like to cook at home accompanied by an excellent bottle of wine? Or would some sort of sporting activity be your cup of tea?
When planning dates, remember that you’re not planning it for yourself. There’s this other person involved as well, so think about things to do that they really love, and then go with the option that pleases you too.
Restaurant works every time, and is easy to arrange, but how about adding a little bit of extra to the flavoursome date? For example, instead of just booking a restaurant, try finding a place where they also have live music. It can be just a piano playing on the background or a whole jazz band performing.
In New York we got to enjoy some amazing live jazz music with our dinner at the Roxy hotel where we were staying. Roxy has live performers every Saturday night. Here in Tallinn me and my boyfriend love restaurant Chicago 1933 where they also have live jazz music every night. Ultimate chill, right there.
Another option to consider could be a cooking class. I haven’t done this myself but a lot of my friends have, and it sounds like an amazing amount of fun! I’m planning to arrange a double-date with our friends at one of these places, where we could then have a little competition: which couple cooks better.
In addition to jazz music, me and my boyfriend share a great liking to wine. Wine tasting is a great idea for a date, and now you don’t even need to leave your comfy home for it. Instead you can order a selection of wines straight from the producers and invite some friends over.
Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you’d need to earn 5k a month to afford arranging wine tasting at home. Check out the WINC Wine Club; this is a California-based online wine club. In addition to providing you with all the information you need on wine, they deliver a selection of Californian wines straight to your doorstep. We discovered Californian wines on our holiday to Hawaii and I can vouch for them being excellent.
There are 2 ways you can do wine tasting at home:
Option 1: Learn a bit about each wine and you can act as an educator for your friends, or just your significant other, while they’re tasting the wines.
Option 2: Give everybody a taste of each wine. Then one person is blindfolded or sent to another room while others pour new tasters of each wine. Then the blindfolded person tastes each glass and tries to guess which wine is which. Do this with everyone and see who guessed knew best.
Book
Booking whatever you end up deciding on is not always required, but I would definitely recommend it. Too many times we’ve been looking for a restaurant walking around town for hours because all places were full or didn’t have the style of food that we wanted.
By booking early you can make extra wishes in addition to the actual booking. For example, ‘could you give us a table upstairs by the big window‘; ‘can you please make sure that the wine tasting includes enough food that we don’t need to book a dinner separately‘; ‘we would appreciate a table with a great view of the band‘.
In most cases you can book anything online, bisch bosch, done. But here’s a handy tip: I prefer to either call or e-mail places because it’s easier to get extra services and favours included to the mix when you’re dealing with a human being instead of an online system. Simple but effective.
Surprise
Particularly now that Valentine’s Day is behind the corner, I don’t think it’s only men’s responsibility to happily surprise us gals by sending flowers to our office, etc. We should make an effort as well.
A surprise doesn’t need to be anything big, the thought is what counts, right? I’ve been twirling an idea around in my head about getting my boyfriend a scratch map, where he can scratch off each country that he’s visited, which at this state is rather considerable an amount. It would be cool to see how far he still has to go until he’s done every country on Earth.
Great idea, I thought, but then I saw and fell in love with the following concept:
Now, this is not a collaboration post, I’m not getting a penny for telling you about any of these companies, but I want y’all to be aware of this one in particular because it. Is. Awesome. Chocolate lovers, hear me out!
When talking about chocolate, everybody always thinks about Swiss or Belgian chocolate. Allow me to break your bubble: those chocolates are disgusting, to put it nicely. Waaay too sweet and I can’t taste any actual chocolate in any of them. You’d be surprised to hear that the best chocolate in the world, like many other best things, comes from Finland.
The brand is called Fazer, the world’s best chocolate called Fazer Blue, and you need to familiarize yourself with it immediately!
Fazer has now launched a campaign where you can design your own chocolate wrapper. It is a brilliant way to surprise someone on their birthday or, in this case, Valentine’s Day. They print the chocolate wrapper with your greetings to the recipient and the 15€ price includes delivery to all European countries.
Get designing!
Enjoy
After all the preparations are done it’s time to execute! And the way to execute a successful date is to enjoy it, and especially the company. Whether it’s your significant other or a group of friends you’re spending the evening with, they deserve your undivided attention.
First up, discard your phone and focus on the present. Seriously, your phone should never be present on a date. You may check your Instagram when your date goes to the bathroom but don’t you dare keep that phone anywhere where it’s visible, especially on the table.
Secondly, take a deep breath, push all thoughts of work tasks and responsibilities out of your mind because, in all honesty, they’re not important enough to waste a date night worrying. All you need right that moment is there with you so provide them your full attention.
Concentrate on the moment, the good food (or whatever activity your participating in) and, most importantly, the company.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY EVERYONE! ♥