A typical date night for my boyfriend and I (although that feels like every night) usually revolves around going out to dinner, a comedy show, and usually ends with late night drinks. While it’s so much fun to dress up, go out, and try new things, that’s not our reality right now. COVID, please go away. Staying home and creating our own date night has become our new norm – and it’s become my favorite thing ever. Here’s a step by step guide on creating the perfect date night right within the comfort of your own home.
P.S. I’m well aware I’m posting this on Valentine’s Day and I’m here to tell you something. It absolutely DOES NOT need to be Valentine’s Day for you to create a perfect date night at home. Idk who needs to hear this, but hopefully someone does.
FOOD.
We always start by asking ourselves “What do we want to eat?”, to which I almost always respond with “I don’t know but let’s get wine and cheese”. But really, figure out what you want to eat first and foremost this way you can plan accordingly ahead of time. Are you cooking? Make a list of ingredients and head to the grocery store. Are you getting takeout? Order ahead so that it’s ready right when you want it. We always like to go all out for date night, but this is at your discretion. If you need some recipe inspo and want to keep it simple and easy, check out my post on Delicious 5-Ingredient Recipes.
We decided to make Barramundi with Broccolini and Roasted Potatoes (recipe coming soon, just need to tweak a few things) and also treated ourselves to a little cheese board with all the fixings. If you need help pairing wine and cheese, check out this Easy and Illustrated Guide on the Best Wine and Cheese Pairings.
What are we drinking?
This is the second thing you’ll want to decide on, this way you can make sure you’re all set up beforehand. We tend to go for a nice bottle of red wine (for red meat dinners) or white wine (for fish dinners), but again to each their own. We broke the rules tonight having fish and red wine but date night is WHATEVER you make it. If we don’t have a bottle from treating ourselves in Napa Valley, we’ll almost always have a bottle from our WINC monthly subscription. I recommend their wine to anyone that will listen.
Table setup.
You’ll need the right table setup to make it feel different than any other ordinary dinner. Clear the table, put down placemats, take out the nice glassware and plates, set up candles, don’t use paper towels for napkins (am I exposing myself here?) and boom – table setup complete.
SET THAT MOOD.
Call it cheesy, call it cute, but once we are done in the kitchen, we always turn the lights off, keep the candles burning, and turn some music on while we eat and talk and drink and talk and dance…and drink some more. We currently have candles from Project 62 (in Passion Fruit+Amber and Ylang Ylang+Eucalyptus) that we picked up from Target and the smell is INCREDIBLE.
Pick a game.
We looooove games, and recently we discovered the Royal Game of Ur, which is a two player strategy game that was discovered and played in ancient Mesopotamia. How do I know this? Because my boyfriend is a huge history buff and he found out about this game during one of the history videos he was watching. It’s addicting. You can read all about it here. FYI the Etsy shop we got ours from is completely sold out! But there are other styles and colors all over Etsy.
Are games not your thing? Watch a movie, old music videos, or listen to a podcast together instead!
No phones allowed.
We usually never have our phones during dinner (except when taking photos for this post lol), but this is ESPECIALLY true on designated “date nights”. Isn’t it odd that we call some nights “date nights” even though every night for us is a dinner together. Do you know what I mean? Regardless, I love it.
Below is a sign of a successful date night…empty glasses, empty plates, music blasting that you can’t hear but I can. Life is good. What do you and your SO or friend like to do on date nights?! I always love hearing new ideas! Let me know in the comments!
