Our Valentine's Day Date

I always seem to be planning our date nights on a budget and Valentine's Day is no exception. Whenever I need great inexpensive date ideas, I turn to The Dating Divas. My friend, Elise, told me about this blog over a year ago and I have been a faithful follower ever since!!

I found this date idea on The Dating Divas website, called "Help Your Husband Plan a Date". Immediately, I thought that this might be a great option for us, because I always want Jon to plan dates, but the truth is that I am the natural planner in our family.

As it turned out, this date idea was perfect for Jon and I, because it allowed me to do all the planning. However, in fun and creative ways this date idea let Jon be the one to choose what we would do on our date. Stephanie helped explain how to pull off this date in 5 easy steps. You can read more about that on her Help Husband Plan Date pdf.

My general plan for our Valentine’s Day date was for Jon and I to spend some quality time together by eating dinner at home, and going out to a movie and dessert. Based on Stephanie's pdf instructions, I broke down each part of our date into fun choices. I have listed those choices I came up with below.

Old or New – {APPETIZER} – Caesar Salad or Skinny Baked Mozzarella Sticks
Easy or Difficult – {MEAL AT HOME} – Broccoli Cheese Chicken or Thin Spaghetti with Alfredo Sauce
Fast or Slow – {ACTIVITY} – Cruising the Town or Movie
His or Hers – {MOVIE} – Safe House or The Vow
Loud or Quiet – {DESSERT LOCATION} – Applebee’s or Olive Garden
Small or Big – {DESSERT} – Applebee’s: Dessert Shooters or Chocolate Chip Cookie Sundae or Olive Garden: Dolcini or Warm Apple Crostata
Hard or Soft – {TYPE OF KISS} – French Kisses or Butterfly Kisses
Silly or Serious – {GIFT UNDER $5} – Something fun from Dollar Store or Small Box of Chocolates

In the days leading up to our date, I sent Jon text messages asking him to pick one, "Old or New". I did this with each of the fun choices on my list, until he had chosen everything that we would do on our Valentine's Day date! Jon ending up choosing old, difficult, slow, hers, quiet, small, hard, and serious. Some of his choices surprised me, but that just made our date that much more enjoyable!

Jon and I before we went to church, all dressed up for our Valentine's Day date.

We got home and ate pasta with Alfredo sauce.

Our friends Bryan & Tabitha gave us this for Valentine's day! They are so sweet and it was a great last minute addition to our date night!

Jon and I ready to go see our movie. Even though Jon picked "hers" I decided that we should go see Safe House instead of The Vow, which worked out great for us!

After the movie we headed to The Olive Garden for dessert. We ended up sharing the Smoked Mozzarella Fonduta and a Warm Apple Crostata.

This is a great idea date and I cannot wait to use it again!