Valentine's Day Ideas for Engaged Couples

Celebrating Valentine’s Day is exciting for nearly all couples. But for those who are engaged the occasion works both as a reminder of the lifelong commitment they are about to promise each other as well as the thousand details of the wedding which need to be taken care of. So here are a few Valentine’s Day ideas for engaged couples which are both romantic and practical at the same time.

Eat, drink and make merry

Now that you have got through the nerve-wracking process of the proposal and acceptance, it is time to celebrate your love for one another. And what better way to do it than by making merry on Valentine’s Day with good food and drink. Better still; use the occasion to sample appetizers, main courses and wines to choose the ones which you will be serving for your wedding reception dinner. Most caterers would be happy to allow you a free or heavily discounted sample menu for tasting but even if they plead busy schedules on February 14, you can have your own Valentine’s Day feast to shortlist the wedding dinner specials.

Write it down

Valentine’s Day celebrations need not be only about spending money on cards and gifts. Composing a Valentine’s Day message for your fiancé(e) or writing a simple love letter will not only be an exquisitely romantic gesture but a thoughtful way to celebrate this day for lovers. Be sure to write about why you chose your fiancé(e) as a prospective life-partner and how he/she has enriched your life with love and happiness. Apart from making a beautiful Valentine’s Day message, it will also help you write your own wedding vows in near future.

Get close to nature

Most engaged couples need to save money for the wedding and honeymoon. So instead of visiting expensive movie halls or eating out at overpriced restaurants on Valentine’s Day, get out in the midst of nature. If you are lucky to live in a town by the sea, have a day out at the beach. Fly kites or if the weather permits go for a leisurely swim with each other. For those living near hills, plan a day of hiking or set out with your bikes. If all this seems too much work, simply take a few CDs and a boom box to the top of a small hill and dance with each other under the open sky. On the other hand if your town has nothing more than a public park, put together a picnic hamper and spend the day there, walking hand-in-hand along the shrubberies and trails or admiring the beauty of arbors and flowering trees. There is something about nature that has always evoked the most romantic emotions among humans; so use the beautiful setting around you as a backdrop for expressing your love for your fiancé(e) and you will have the most perfect of all Valentine’s Days.

Thoughtful gestures

After the romantic euphoria of proposal, acceptance and announcement fades, the engagement can turn out to be a rather stressful time for a couple. There are guest lists to be made, gowns to be fitted, invitations to send and the wedding reception to be organized. All this planning can take a toll on the couple with the result that the wedding seems to assume a bigger significance than the relationship. During this time it is more important than ever to keep telling your fiancé(e) that you mean more to each other than all the planning and scheduling in the world. And what better occasion to do this than Valentine’s Day. Look for crazy ways to tell your fiancée that you love her for instance by standing outside her window and serenading her with a love ballad. Or else make a series of love coupons for your fiancé – like a box of his favorite cookies or a relaxing massage on a weekday – and tell him that he can redeem them any time within the, say, next three months. Impromptu but thoughtful ways of telling your partner that you love them despite the frenzy of wedding planning will be a great way of celebrating Valentine’s Day besides building the foundations of patience and understanding which will stand you in good stead in future.

Stay put at home

Stay-at-home ideas are a great way of celebrating Valentine’s Day for engaged couples without breaking the bank. Moreover spending time with each other in an intimate and domestic space is likely to give them a delicious feel of how it would feel to be married to each other. There are a whole lot of romantic things you can do with your affianced one at home. Snuggle up to your partner on the couch to watch your favorite rom-com preferably with a wedding theme like My Best Friend’s Wedding or Four Weddings and a Funeral. Or if you would like a more active evening , why not rustle up something up in the kitchen together which would take care of dinner too. For dessert you can feed your fiancé strawberries off your lips while you lick off the cream from his/her fingertips. For a totally sensual experience, give each other a massage with aromatic oils or luxuriate in the bath together with soft music playing in the background and perfumed candles flickering around.  Make this Valentine’s Day the ideal time to relax and indulge each other before the whirlwind of wedding plans and honeymoon bookings takes over.

Announce your engagement

If nobody as yet knows about your engagement, let Valentine’s Day be the perfect occasion to announce it to your near and dear ones. Call up your parents with the wonderful news or if they live within driving distance, visit them to announce your engagement personally. Your partner might want to do the same for his/her parents, so try and arrange things without hurting anybody’s feelings. Take this as the start of the many balancing acts which are bound to come up for the wedding and continue long after marriage. On the other hand if time and resources permit, throw a party for family and friends which could be ostensibly to celebrate Valentine’s Day but where you can surprise everyone present with news of your engagement.