What do you do for date night?

What’s the purpose of date night?  Time together, right? Of course. However, how many of your date nights are dinner in town?  Same few restaurants with your favorite meals?

I am rethinking the purpose of date night lately.  Recently, my husband, Nick and I were lucky enough to spend a week in Punta Cana at an all-inclusive resort, the Now Onyx.   Consequently, this trip allowed us to spend lots of time together with many date nights.

We did a few dinners together, just the two of us.  We had excellent food we typically would not have eaten on one of our “regular” dates. It was exciting to try something new for dinner.

Having lots of quality time together was much needed. However, we wanted to do some excursions too, to try something new. These excursions gave us new memories. For example, we will always remember my extreme fear as I was certain that we were headed for a re-enactment out of the movie Open Water instead of a fun snorkeling trip.

Another day we went on a dune buggy experience where we will forever have the memories of flooring it through the terrain in an attempt to get as much air as we could while getting as dirty as possible.  We were pretty successful on this one.

Time with New Friends

On top of new experiences, we made many new friends. It’s funny how quickly you can bond with others. We would try new restaurants for dinner together while getting to know each other. We laughed, A LOT. We shared stories about each other and walked away with lists of movies to see, shows to watch, and music to listen to. As a result we stay in touch with our friends and share so many inside jokes.

It reminded me that time together as a couple is as important as spending time with new and old friends.  It is the experience of having time together, making memories, and having fun that counts.

Usually, I am just trying to prioritize the time for a dinner out when it comes to a date night.  I would still like to do this. To make sure we have one date a month together at minimum.  However, my definition of date is not just dinner out together. It is an experience together. Spending time together and making new memories. Trying new adventures. Connecting with others and getting to share our memories and create new ones. Learning about new movies and songs we didn’t know. Building new inside jokes that carry through future conversations and time together.  It was SO MUCH FUN to create new memories together along with trying new experiences.

We are home, now what?

So now we are back home.  How do we carry on with these experiences? How do we continue to try new things together? Sure, it’s easy when you are on vacation and somewhere new, but what about at home?

We have good intentions. For Christmas presents we even gave each other 6 cards with an idea for a date inside. Then we would have one for each month. We have yet to use one.

We will start now. And we will add more!

A few ideas I have are:

Trying out new breweries

Going to plays

Movies (I am just a diehard for a movie so it needs to stay a staple)

Trying an Escape Room

Attending Concerts

Going on Mini-Vacations

Watching Live Comedy Shows

Trying new Wineries

Ax throwing (one of my favorites!)

Bottom line…dinner and drinks are great.  I love it. Add a movie – even better. Try a new experience together and new memories are made. Momentum builds to keep trying new things.

Do you have a favorite date night experience or an idea that I should add to our list?

Let me know about it in the comments or email me at marnie@marniepauly.com.