*This is a collaborative post
After 10 year's of marriage, Steve and I sort of feel like we've 'been there, done that' when it comes to Valentine's Day. It's no secret that we love eating out but we have often been disappointed when dining out on Valentine's night as it's usually an over-priced menu, super busy and an atmosphere of forced happiness. We are still quite romantic though and will usually mark the occasion in our own way in the form of a nice meal and a glass of fizz at home. Much to Steve's annoyance (he has a deep hatred of the card manufacturing business), we buy each other a card but have never been ones for buying gifts. However this year, things will be different.
As I have mentioned countless times on this blog, we are heading on a child-free holiday to Cuba later this year in celebration of our 10th wedding anniversary. We needed to pay our final balance around Christmas time so decided we wouldn't buy each other any Christmas gifts and focus on our holiday instead. To make up for our lack of Christmas gifts, we made a pact to make an extra effort for Valentine's this year and actually buy each other a few gifts and go out for once. We don't want to fall into the trap of buying each other cringy soft toys of chocolates and want to buy quality gifts that are actually nice and useful.
I am still not keen on the whole dining out on Valentine's night idea so we have decided to head out a week early and have booked a table at Saltwater Fish Company for Oysters and Champagne before heading to Northern Stage to watch their new production 'Dr Frankenstein' - I can't wait!
I've picked out a few gift ideas for Steve from Mainline Menswear who make it easy with a dedicated Valentine's Gift section on their website. Let me know which is your favourite.
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| Hugo Boss Orange Leather Belt | £65 |
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| Fred Perry Pique Texture Overnight Bag - £80 |
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| Rayban Sunglasses - £98 |
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| Jimi Hendrix T Shirt - £19.80 |
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| Hugo Boss Swim Shorts - £25.74 |
I hope that you'll agree that my gift choices are practical but also pretty stylish too. I am not going to reveal exactly which of these gifts I will be purchasing for Steve (it's got to be a surprise after all) but keep your eyes peeled for our Cuba photos later in the year and you might spot a couple making an appearance.
The older I've grown, the more cynical I've become and Valentine's has never really been for me, but do you know what, shopping for a special gift for Steve this year has actually been lovely and even if it is a made up holiday by card manufacturing companies, it's still nice to treat the one you love.
We may be living frugally this year but have set aside a budget to spoil each other a bit this February and I think it has been worth it. Perhaps we'll do the same next year and it will be a new tradition of ours to forego Christmas gifts and celebrate in February instead.
The older I've grown, the more cynical I've become and Valentine's has never really been for me, but do you know what, shopping for a special gift for Steve this year has actually been lovely and even if it is a made up holiday by card manufacturing companies, it's still nice to treat the one you love.
We may be living frugally this year but have set aside a budget to spoil each other a bit this February and I think it has been worth it. Perhaps we'll do the same next year and it will be a new tradition of ours to forego Christmas gifts and celebrate in February instead.
How will you be celebrating Valentine's Day this year?
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We don't do anything for valentines day, but mostly as our anniversary is March 10th so we save our romance for then, when everyone else won't be out celebrating and driving the prices up. lol
ReplyDeleteI have slightly mixed feelings about Valentine's Day as well - we celebrate our wedding anniversary (13 years and counting) and usually make a bit of an effort to mark the anniversary of when we got together, so as you say, overpriced flowers and marked up menus or a teddy holding a heart seems not the best use of our money!
ReplyDeleteI'd rather get a nice M&S dine in meal and some fizz (and save on the babysitter) or wait a week and have a night out. Although maybe that proves that romance is dead :D
We do celebrate Valentines. Our anniversary is just a few days after both of our birthdays so we never celebrate that, choosing to spoil ourselves for valentines - we either do a posh meal out or a mini break usually. We've not decided yet for this year though.
ReplyDeleteWe'll be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary in March, I'm not sure how yet but your trip sounds amazing!
ReplyDelete