Finding the time and money to go on dates while planning a wedding can be tough. I can't even begin to tell you how many times one of us has said, "We probably shouldn't spend money on that," or, "We need to save for the wedding." Like I said in my last post, it'd be easy to spend all of our time discussing only wedding things and forgetting to really invest in one another. We've been together for almost three years and been good friends for ten, but we still have a lot to learn and fun to have! So we know dating is and always will be an important part of our relationship as a couple. We both need to feel important and special and romanced every once in a while, and we love finding creative ways to spend time together.
Many of our favorite things to do together are free aside from maybe the cost of fuel. When it's nice out, we love taking Penny to the dog park, talking and laughing in my hammock, and hiking. On rainy days we frequent thrift shops and try on funky clothes and glasses--most of the time we don't even purchase anything, but we love to hold things up and say, "This looks like you," to one another. We're blessed to live near an incredible free art museum, Crystal Bridges, so we enjoy visiting and gawking at the new exhibits when they come through. We cook at least once a week and watch a lot of The Office, How I Met Your Mother, Shark Tank, and Redbox movies. I sit with Daniel and mooch internet at Mama Carmen's (a local coffee shop) while he does homework. We just enjoy being together, and I think that's what constitutes a "date," not an amount of money spent.
I'm not saying we don't spend money, but we try to be frugal and conscious of where our money goes. I appreciate this about our relationship, because it makes the dates we splurge on even more special. I have a scrapbook full of concert tickets from shows we've been to--bringing in 2011 with The Flaming Lips, Radiohead for Daniel's birthday, and Young the Giant at Cain's last fall are some of our favorite memories. We love going to a musical every once in a while at the Walton Arts Center here in town. And Daniel has taken me to three of his BYX formals in St. Louis, Chicago, and Memphis. We also love sushi and thai food, but we don't have them on a weekly basis.
However, we went on an unusual amount of dates this week. We're both busybodies who feel fortunate to spend more than a few minutes together twice a week lately--Daniel is finishing up school and all of his extracurriculars, while I'm working full time and coaching soccer three nights a week. But the past seven or eight days--goodness! We've made a lot of fun memories, beginning with a fantastic weekend in Memphis for his last formal, which I wrote about a few days ago:
Sunday night we collected all those pinecones and went grocery shopping.
Monday we watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother and talked about our days--I think we were both pretty exhausted from the weekend.
Tuesday night is a different story altogether. I received a call a couple of weeks ago--a woman from a bridal network I'd never heard of claimed Daniel and I had won a honeymoon. We were supposed to come to a free dinner in our honor at a local hotel Tuesday night to claim our prize. She said my name had been drawn from all those at the NWA Bridal Show, which I did register for, but I was still skeptical. I told Daniel, and we decided we'd go check it out and just have something to laugh about if it was a joke. When Tuesday evening rolled around, someone else called me to confirm our seats and said the name of the network more clearly. I headed to pick Daniel up and decided to do some research before we left his house. After reading about 100 reviews of how it was not only a scam, but two hours of serious harassment, we decided not to even bother. But, we were already dressed up, so he asked if he could take me out for sushi. And it was so so good!
SO MUCH FOOD! We made the meal special to commemorate the weird evening :)
After dinner we went to my house to digest. Penny thought it was play time.
Wednesday night was so great! We went to see Anything Goes at the Walton, and we agreed it was by far the best show we've seen. Daniel bought me tickets for Christmas, on top of the very beautiful ring I received the day after. :)
The female lead was phenomenal.
Friday night Daniel came over and cooked delicious lettuce wraps and dumplings for us while I caught up on laundry. I'm a lucky woman. We ended the evening with ice cream and I was in bed by 11 (being an adult is hard, haha)--we had big plans to hit up the Farmer's Market this morning! And it did not disappoint. I picked Daniel up around 9 and we had just enough time at the square before it started raining.
I LOVE WILDFLOWERS.
A couple of our favorite local vintage shops aren't far from downtown, so we did a little exploring. These glasses remind me of a certain English teacher I had in seventh grade.
After thrifting, we stopped by Eventures to put a deposit down on some chairs for our big day. Checked an item off our list--yay! Then Daniel's dad came to town to visit and take us to lunch.
After that, we attempted to drive out to our venue to draw up some decorating floor plans, but the park postponed their season open date due to the long winter. So we decided to not make the trip a complete waste and stopped on the side of the road for some more wildflowers :)
WHAT A MAN.
We ended our ten-hour date by driving around and looking at a couple of rent houses before I dropped him off at home so I could go for a run and he could get some homework done. Somehow, though, we both ended up at Mama Carmen's four hours later :)
My sweet tea-drinker :)
I'm so thankful for this week--it was a rare gem in the middle of a crazy busy season in our lives. I think we both feel a little more grounded and connected to one another.
Dates are fun! And they don't have to be expensive. I hope those of you with a special someone are feeling inspired to treat them to something new and special or maybe an old favorite date night activity sometime soon. If not, here are a couple of lists we hope to work our way through at some point in our engagement/marriage:
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