A friend of mine got married last summer and every month makes sure her and the other half celebrate their ‘monthiversary.’ Whether it be meeting for a quick drink after work, dining on a slap up meal or skedaddling down to the cinema they regularly take time out of their busy routines to mark the occasion with a night reminiscent of the early months of dating.
James and I are lucky to spend the main bulk of our fairly limited free-time socialising, however it’s probably fair to say ‘date night’ isn’t much of a regular occurrence in our house. In fact we spend so much time with other folks until we went on our megamoon we hadn’t even been on holiday on our own! Aside from short city breaks we’d never managed to break away just the two of us. Spending time together as a couple was one of the many reasons our trip to South Africa was one of the best holidays ever, though we’ll bypass the fact we spent some of the honeymoon at a wedding with a whole gaggle of people from back home.
As with most relationships, it’s different strokes for different folks. We do make sure we make time for each other; more recently we’re cooking together as well as making sure we eat at the table so we can have a good old chinwag about our day. Once in a while it would be nice to escape from the mundane and have a quick drink together though!
With the promise of longer evenings and warmer days what better time to revisit the whole ‘date night’ thing. Yes, it’s not particularly spontaneous but with hectic schedules why not get the diary out and formalise some quality time together? It just can’t be this week, or next but there’s an opening in a couple of weeks…
So you lovely lot what do you get up to on date night? (No, not that you naughty little minxes). Where do you go? What activities do you do and how often do you get time together just the two of you? I’ve got a friend who is after second date ideas (and beyond hopefully) so hoping there are some great suggestions suitable for both.
I’m looking forward to reading other people’s suggestions too!
Since moving to a new city last year, the Mr & I have been spending much more time hanging out together while we try to sound out/make our new social circle. Prior to moving we had fairly separate social lives & didn’t spend the same sort of time together as we do now. That said, I am glad we haven’t driven each other mental (yet!). We’ve been pub quizzing as a team of two – might be a bit sad, but we like catching up over a few drinks and then getting the old grey matter working; out for dinner at new restaurants so we can discover our new “favourites” and get to know the local area a bit better – still on the hunt for a good Indian if anyone has recommendations in Aberdeen?!; coffee & cake dates are always popular in our house – I guess the addition of cake is always a winner. We probably need to venture away from eating/drinking to something a bit more adventurous though! We did try Brit Mil Fit together, but that was more torture than enjoyment and didn’t last long!
I don’t think doing a pub quiz as a couple is sad at all. I love this idea!
Lynsey, have you tried Shri Bheema on Belmont Street?? It’s my favourite! Would love to know what pub quizzes you’ve found, my Mr & I are still on the look out for a good one up here – love a quiz 🙂
I haven’t yet Sarah, but I will give it a try! Thanks for your recommendation 🙂
We like the quiz at the Queen Vic on Rosemount Place – we won last week, a I’m not sure if that says much about the standard! It’s only £1 per person x
Hi Lynsey, just moved to Aberdeen also and am trying to find good places to munch! The jewel in the crown on crown street is really tasty, defo worth a try!x
@ Lynsey – have you been to Balmedie Beach?? Its just on the other side of Aberdeen, past the AECC – its a beautiful beach, seriously…you wouldn’t think you were in Aberdeen! Check it out, its a beaut! Also, Auntie Betty’s in Stonehaven…the best ice-cream EVER! Plus the shop is just lovely, filled to the brim with old school sweets 🙂
Aberdeen is great, it just takes time to find all the little nooks and crankies! I lived there for 4 years during uni but this was a while ago so I’m not good with bars or restaurants, sorry!
We don’t have a specific date night as such, but one of our favourite things to do together is try out new restaurants – not just in our local area but with trips to London and other places too. Sometimes these are the best ones because we can do a bit of exploring as well as trying delicious food! I can’t wait to read other people’s ideas though so that I can try and make the effort to make this more of a regular thing xx
You’ll have to let me know your fave restaurants around our area Emma. Always love a good feed 🙂 x
I’m a huge fan of Frank’s Steakhouse and The Old House on the Welly Road (though have only had a roast and afternoon tea – on separate occasions – at the latter but have heard all of their food is delicious). Sol Y Luna on Kingsley Park Terrace is small but perfectly formed and does incredible tapas. I also love the Fox and Hound in Harlestone, and the Red Lion in East Harlestone. Off to try the Ark Restaurant next week! I got carried away with my recommendations, clearly, but my friends and I have a monthly grub club to try new restaurants so I hope to keep discovering more and more gems! xx
Oooh you must let me know how you get on at the Ark. Still haven’t been there yet. Also haven’t been to Sol Y Luna either! Must write that one down. Have you tried Nuovo yet? Had a fab meal there a few weeks ago.x
Date night isn’t really something that we do…we got married last August and the only real nights out we have had since then have been to weddings or birthday parties. With two small children (who, lets face it have much better social lives than either of us!) it’s tricky to find the time not to mention the babysitters!
Tonight however, we are going to our local pub for the pub quiz and I’m really looking forward to it! I will be a useless but enthusiastic participant!
I can never believe how many birthday parties my niece goes to Amy. I’m sure I didn’t go to that many! Good luck in the quiz x
Eating is defo a great date night thing to do (and a much better date night when married.. ie, you don’t have to worry about ordering something that will likely get all over chops such as spaghetti!).
One of the best things Jack and I love doing together is going for a run together! How totally boring!!! I run with music, he doesn’t, I am 5 foot 6 and he is 6 foot 6 – so we don’t even run at the same pace and chat all the time.
We started a “thing” when we first started dating and were living in London (i do apologise, this is just too twee and sickening ) – when we ran over battersea bridge (or any bridge!) we would always have a kiss in the middle of a bridge, i honestly love it when i get to the bridge and he has waited for our little date night kiss before he runs off again! ok, sick buckets at the read! but go running, play badminton, play tennnis – do sports together!
Apparently I run so slowly I give James shin splints so no running and kissing on bridges for us! This is super cute though 🙂 x
Oooh, shin splints!! Lads are so dramatic!!!! x
That is so cute!
This is too cute! Exact same height difference between me and my hubby, and we tried running together (me running in a straight line, him zig-zagging – must have looked pretty funny to any onlookers!) but where I liked to get into a rhythm and pace myself, he liked to run off into the woods or side-jump off walls… far too distracting!
Oh no Maddy, I couldn’t deal with street jumping at the same time as trying not to pass out from running!
When we first moved in together, I had this massive freak out that we were about to get old and boring so instigated alphabet dating. I had to chose a date beginning with A, he had to choses a date beginning with B etc etc. A was an assault course, B was bowling, C was cocktails, D was Dino Golf (mini golf)……3 years later and we still haven’t got round to E! It was a good idea in principle, but we failed a bit. Recently, Sunday evenings have become our thing. We have made a habit of going to the cinema followed by dinner. Nothing big or fancy, but it makes the weekend a little longer and it’s reserved as our time. No planning needed, we just know. I’m very guilty of over planning my diary and having to schedule everything, so my favourite days are when one of us emails each other and says ‘dinner out tonight?’ and it’s completely unplanned and we go. Date nights are the best x
This Sunday should be easy to make your ‘e’ Sian – Easter Eggs! Not sure how you make a date out of that though.
I love the idea of doing something on a Sunday evening though. If we’ve spent the weekend at home this would be a great plan x
Yay for date night! We try and have a date night every week – although our idea of date night is quite relaxed and can include sitting in front of the TV to watch Gogglebox. But if we’ve both had really stressy/long days then Googlebox + cuddles on the sofa can be the best thing ever! Date nights also include going to the cinema (we both love doing that – I even managed to drag my fiance to watch Cinderella!) and going to new restaurants. One of my faves is doing that on a Monday or Tuesday when you can get great deals – it just seems fun to go somewhere special and not pay through the nose.
We moved out to Surrey from London a few months ago and we’ve embraced that by doing ‘date days’ where we go to a National Trust place (Clandon Park was the most recent) or going to play golf or crazy golf. That’s a lot of fun too. 🙂
We’ve made a conscious effort to have a few date dates this year. Living in the centre of England means there’s lots of places around us. Love the national trust idea x
i like national trust places or just going to a town/city We haven’t visited together before. Would love to go and do the adult slumber party at London natural history museum one day! Failing that, trying new restaurants or yummy cocktail bars is always a winner!
An adult slumber party?! Is this a real thing?! Ace! x
Yep, it’s called Dino Snores! They do them a couple of times a year but it’s a bit spendy!
My husband and I both have reasonably demanding jobs (he a freelancer, me in finance). We both also enjoy a busy social, sport and family life. Some of this spent together, but often separately. Every now and again we have a night in. Just us, a bottle (ish!) of wine, nice food and no TV. I love having that chance to reconnect without all the “admin” chat that usually dominates daily lives.
Also, a little tradition we have, in the madness of Christmas when our time is demanded by so many other people, parties and family get togethers…we take an afternoon off mid week and go for a mulled wine filled lunch.
A night in is perhaps easier to arrange Sarah. The idea of an unplugged evening really appeals x
OK, so the Christmas before last we agreed to spend pretty much zilch on pressies for each other and come up with something more creative. I, of course, nicked an idea from t’interweb and created ‘A Year of Dates’ in a box.
This was basically a box containing 13 envelopes, one labelled ‘Instructions’ and then 12 with the name of each month on. I thought up dates which were weather and time of year appropriate, some would cost money and some wouldn’t. We live near Manchester, so included things such as a night at the dogs, a trip to the Imperial War Museum North, breakfast at our fave deli, a walking underground tour of Manchester, a picnic in our favourite spot, tickets to Nantwich Cheese festival, a cinema night with popcorn at a little local cinema, etc, etc. It’s been great so far, we still haven’t ‘done’ them all but it’s so nice to have these things planned. I think I might even get one planned for this weekend!
x
Absolutely brilliant idea Faye. I might have to steal! x
When we were dating my husband and I realized that we were not very good at socializing on a Friday night, being too tired form a long week at work. So we made the decision to restrict plans with friends to Saturdays and Sundays and set aside Friday night as ‘our’ night. Every week we cook a special meal together, open a great bottle of wine and unwind into the weekend. It’s such a lovely thing to have to look forward too!
I recently bought the book ‘Date Night In’ by Ashley Rodriguez and would recommend it to anyone looking to bond with their partner over good food and cocktails!
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Date-Night-Recipes-Nourish-Relationship-ebook/dp/B00L4FSU02/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427910808&sr=8-1&keywords=date+night+in)
Definitely going to check out the book Jen x
Faye I love this idea!!! So cute 🙂 X
Me too Stacy! x
Not so much an evening activity, but my boyfriend and I love going to National Trust parks and houses and wandering round and then going for coffee afterwards. With the risk of sounding really, really old past my years – it’s the highlight of my week! xx
Another vote for National Trust Katie, such a lovely idea x
I love date days, but I have to admit we haven’t been too good at fitting them in recently. Some of my favourties are a pub lunch and a country walk on a Saturday (feels so indulgent on a Saturday when normally you’re doing your errands!), a trip to the zoo and dinner and the theatre. If you do the last one in the middle of the week and book the tickets the day before you can get some great deals 🙂
Yay for indulgent Saturdays Sarah 🙂 x
We were finding that our date nights were just sitting on the sofa as we were both so exhausted to plan anything. So for Christmas 2013 I made my now-husband a book of date nights.
I had found a plain, but cute, scrapbook and glued 12 sealed envelopes inside, named by month, each with a very different date inside. At the start of each month my husband chose the day we would hold the date and 1-2 days before each date he would open the envelope to find out what we would do.
It went down so well that we have done it again this year, taking 6 months each this time, so he gets to think some up too.
The dates are really varied and I try to match to the time of year if we have a special memory of a month. It’s not expensive, but each one is so memorable as you just put that little bit extra effort in. Our house has been turned into a pub, a bistro, Jamaica (!) and a spa, among other things. There’s been fancy dress, tuxedos and pyjamas.
Our first baby is due next month and knowing that we won’t be able to get out of the house as much for a while we’re definitely keeping this up!
Jamaica?! What an awesome idea. Love you’re recreating memorable moments. This is so sweet x
We are currently doing up our cottage which is taking up a lot of time and money, and so our usual Thursday date nights out for dinner have had to be curbed somewhat – so instead of cancelling altogether, we have swapped it to going out for ice cream instead! There is a gorgeous Italian café in the next village along and so come rain or shine (last week we went out in the snow!) we jump in the car after dinner and go for ice cream, parking up in a spot over-looking the castle and catch up on our day. We then always take the scenic route home and it always feels like we’ve spent some QT together. He can go back to his wall pointing, and I can go back to “Say yes to the dress” (the joys of being preggers when there’s DIY to be done!) happy in the knowledge we’ve spent some decent time together 🙂
Ice cream AND a castle. Totally idyllic Maddy. I need an ice cream parlour in my village. It’s not quite the same going to the co-op is it?! x
We’ve been married for almost 12 years (yikes!) and our version of date night is to go to a gig or festival just the 2 of us (bar the other few hundred peoples obvs!). It makes us be ourselves rather than Mummy & Daddy or other roles life gives us – very liberating…