Wedding Feature!

Jessica over at the Budget Savvy Bride featured our wedding at Millersylvania State Park today! We couldn't be more excited to share our special day with even more of the the wedding community. Hopefully some of our budgeting advice will help inspire couples to plan their weddings as environmentally friendly and true to themselves as possible.  

12 Months of Dates

Kevin and I really enjoy dinner and a movie at home, and we do it often. Sometimes, though, we want to go out, but half the time we have no idea what to go do. We spend quite a bit of energy brainstorming what we could go do, searching the internet for events in town (and in our price range) and sometimes end up just watching a movie at home anyway. 

So, for Valentine's Day, I sat down and came up with a list of activities we could do on dates in the next several months. I came up with 24 - two for each month of the year. I made sure to include things we could do for free or cheap, ideas for both going out and staying in, for rainy days and sunny ones.  I then planned the details of each date and put them into an envelope, labeling them by theme (for a night out, for a sunny afternoon, and so on).

In some envelopes there were gift cards and gift certificates, in others there were brochures for places I wanted to go (winery tours, wildlife sanctuaries, etc). I even added a map with an address to a mysterious location, simply saying to bring a picnic basket. 

Now, whenever we want to go on a date, we have multiple prompts to get us started.  Simply pick an envelope and go with it! 

My year of date ideas:

Dates for a Sunny Day

1. Picnic in a local park

2. Geocaching

3. Have a Nerf gun war

4. Go fruit picking

5. Go garage sale-ing

6. Fly a kite

7. Rent a pedal boat, a Segway, or a tandem bicycle

8. Go for a hike

Dates for a Day Out (Rain or Shine)

9. Go wine, beer, or coffee tasting

10. Check out the local Antique shopping in your area

11. Laser tag

12. Mini golf

Dates for a Night Out

13. See a movie (Kevin and I rarely go to the theater, so this is a big deal for us!)

14. See a play. Check out your local high schools and see if there are any shows running. Cheaper tickets and you're supporting local schools!

15. Go to a Drive-In movie theater

16.  Go camping, build a fire, and stargaze

Dates for a Night In

17. Give each other a full body massage

18. Tie Dye something silly, like your underwear

19. Make a blanket fort and have a slumber party

20. Puzzle night or game night

21. Make art together - finger painting, paint-a-plate, whatever gets your creativity flowing

22. Get a pizza and beer and stay in to create your Bucket List (bonus: this will add even more date ideas!)

23: Have a themed movie night: Worst Movies Ever, French films with French food, eat chocolate and watch Chocolat…so many combinations here.

24. Teach each other a new skill