The first (and possibly only) Valentine’s Day you get to spend with your partner while the two of you are engaged is an extremely exciting one! It’s one of the most romantic days of the year, and you get to spend it with the love of your life after officially committing to spending the rest of your lives together. Needless to say, your first Valentine’s Day as an engaged couple is a super special occasion, but in order to make the special occasion even more memorable, you’ll want to make sure you’re spending the day doing something that really means something to you. You don’t want to spend the day going through the motions of your usual routine or have some boring date that neither of you truly cares about. This day should be perfect for the two of you, but perfect looks different for every couple, so you may wonder what kind of date you should be planning. Don’t worry; we’ve got lots of date ideas for you to choose from. Keep reading to find 20 ways to spend your first Valentine’s Day after getting engaged!
Build a Pillow Fort and Fire Up the Projector
Wedding planning isn’t cheap, but don’t be discouraged if your pockets won’t allow you to make any lavish plans for your first Valentine’s Day after getting engaged! You don’t need to spend a ton of money to make the day special. Instead, you could focus more on ensuring the two of you are enjoying quality time together!
Forget all about planning for your wedding and de-stress by taking things back to a simpler time, back when you used to make pillow forts for fun! Grab every pillow and blanket you guys can find and take some time to build the best fort there ever was–then grab a string of fairy lights to hang over it to add a romantic touch to the atmosphere.
Once you’ve built your fort, enjoy knowing that nobody but the two of you matters at the moment and relax with a nice movie and some snacks! If you’ve got a projector, that’s even better. It’ll really make you feel like you’re enjoying a movie from the comfort of a home theater.
Order All the Takeout Food Your Hearts Desire
If you’ve been trying to live frugally to save on money lately, you could always opt to treat yourselves on this special holiday–and if you’d still prefer to spend the day inside the comfort of your home, ordering takeout is the perfect way!
Order everything you’ve been craving lately and go all out ordering your favorite items from different restaurants. Enjoy a buffet at home, catch up on your favorite shows, or talk and catch up while you feast!
Have a Cook-off
If the two of you enjoy cooking and happen to have a competitive streak, a cooking competition is a fun way to spend your Valentine’s Day! Pick out a few new recipes and prepare a five-course meal while attempting to best each other in the competition!
Act as the judges once you’ve finished making the food–even if you may be a little biased–and eat until you’re both full enough to pop! What better way to spend the day than laughing at each other’s kitchen mishaps and eating your weight in delicious food?
Bake Sweet Treats Together
Similarly, you could focus your efforts on baking instead of cooking. If the two of you have a sweet tooth and have been craving your favorite desserts lately or are just itching to try making some new pastries, you could enjoy the day baking together while following along with your favorite baking shows or YouTube tutorials.
You can enjoy a flour-filled food fight, snap some aesthetic pictures of your baked goods at the end of the day, and satisfy your sweet tooth after your hard work!
Create a Scrapbook
You’ve probably amassed a large amount of pictures together over the years, and they likely mean a lot to you both. Why not spend the day looking through them and reminiscing on past memories? And you can take it a step further by printing them and adding them to your very own scrapbook!
You can invest in a photo printer or pay a visit to your nearest Walgreens, CVS, or Target to have them printed. Then, purchase a large scrapbook and pick up some items to decorate it with–such as washi tape, ribbons, stickers, and fabric scraps–and turn on a romantic playlist while the two of you organize your memories and put them all in one place.
Make Valentine’s Day Your ‘One Day’ Day
Every couple has a long list of things they’ve wanted to do or try for the longest but never found the time for. A list of places you’ve been saying you’ll have to visit at some point–or maybe it’s a list full of things you said you’d have to save for a special occasion. Valentine’s Day is a great day to finally check some things off that list!
Now is a great time to finally open that expensive bottle of wine, use that coupon to eat at that fancy restaurant you like, or take that long drive to the next town over just to pay a visit to your favorite bakery. If the two of you have been wanting to enjoy a hot air balloon ride together, go bungee jumping, or visit your city’s biggest tourist attractions, there’s nothing stopping you from doing it on your special day! Even just taking the time to watch the movie or binge the show you both have been trying to find the time to see could be a great way to spend the day!
Make Each Other Custom Perfumes
Nothing screams romance like creating a custom scent that was made just for the two of you! You can create a perfume and cologne that you can swap whenever you have to be away from each other, or you can combine your favorite scents–or scents that hold a greater meaning to you both–into one perfume that is completely unique to the two of you.
Visit your nearest essential oil shop, fragrance studio, or beauty store, and have fun creating your special scent on your special day!
Have a Karaoke Night
You can’t go wrong with karaoke! If it’s been a while since you last hit up your favorite karaoke bar, consider going out to enjoy a nice karaoke night together. You can enjoy some nice food and drinks while enjoying the fun atmosphere. However, if you’re too shy to sing with other people around, the two of you can have your own karaoke night in! Spend some time curating a playlist full of romantic songs along with your favorite instrumentals, then enjoy singing your hearts out!
Enjoy a Weekend Getaway
Wedding planning can be intense, and you might be feeling as if you just wish you could get away from it all for a while. So, why not do that on Valentine’s Day? Book a hotel in the next city over, or splurge on an impromptu vacation in your favorite vacation spot. If you don’t want to spend too much money and happen to love the outdoors, you could even go on a camping trip! Even better, you could set up a tent in the backyard and spend the night gazing up at the stars.
Pull yourselves away from your usual scenery and out of your usual routine. Push the wedding planning into the back of your mind for a day or two as you guys focus purely on enjoying each other’s company! Whether you travel a thousand miles away or stay within 20 miles of your home, you’ll return from this getaway feeling refreshed!
Have an at-home Spa Day
It wouldn’t be right to leave this popular suggestion off the list! Having an at-home spa day will always make for a great date, and odds are, the two of you could use one after dealing with the added stress of wedding planning on top of working and still trying to have some sort of social life. Consider using Valentine’s Day as a day to take some weight off your shoulders and decompress while catching up on quality time!
You can keep it simple with a warm bubble bath, some face masks, and a couple of massages, or you can go all out and break out all the skincare products, home sauna kits, and your best essential oils for aromatherapy. Grab some cucumbers to go over your eyes, put on some relaxing music, enjoy a warm cup of tea, and enjoy the feel of your comfiest robes or pajamas as you sink into the couch and focus on achieving the utmost relaxation.
Go on a Group Date
Some couples may only want Valentine’s Day to be about just the two of them, and that’s totally fine, but if you’d like to spend the day with your friends as well as your fiance, there are plenty of fun yet romantic ways to do it!
It can be difficult to find time to spend with your close friends when life is so busy for you all, and if you’ve been caught up in wedding planning, odds are, you haven’t been able to schedule any quality time with them for a long while. If you have a close friend group and would like to spend the romantic holiday catching up with them, you could always enjoy a group date!
This would be a great time to visit the lavish restaurant you wouldn’t usually be able to afford, as you guys will be able to split the bill, or you could enjoy a romantic picnic on the beach. If you’d prefer to stay home, you could host a potluck and enjoy a group movie night or even encourage everyone to bring a game for game night.
Have a Shopping Spree
I think we can all agree that you can’t go wrong with a shopping spree! If you guys have the money to spare, you can create a set budget and then go to Target or any of your favorite stores and let loose! Go your separate ways and buy each other some special gifts to fill a Valentine’s Day basket, then come together again and exchange gifts.
This is a simple but great way to spend the day and a nice way to treat each other to some items you’ve both been wanting for a while but never got around to getting for yourselves.
Visit a Rage Room
Let’s face it: Life is hard, and wedding planning, as fun as it is, often only adds more stress. If you and your fiance have been dealing with some pent-up frustration lately, paying a visit to a rage room is a great way to let it all out!
Slap on some protective gear and start smashing and breaking every item in sight! By the time you finish, you’ll both be frustration-free, and you’ll have a great story to tell your friends later. While this kind of date may not be the epitome of romance, it is a great way to have fun together, let go of your worries, and bond. Plus, you’ll likely get along a whole lot better after you’ve improved your moods!
Become a Tourist in Your Own City
Similarly, you could enjoy a day of fun by visiting places around your city that you don’t usually go to. Whether you choose to hit up the escape rooms, trampoline parks, and other gaming centers or take a trip to a museum, an art gallery, or a paint-and-sip, the two of you are bound to have fun if you’re doing something out of the ordinary.
Make the day even more romantic by paying a visit to a beautiful garden, eating at a restaurant that offers rooftop dining, or visiting a festival where you can enjoy the view from the top of the Ferris wheel. If you’d like to make things more adventurous, you could engage in a city-wide scavenger hunt, set out on a mission to discover some of your city’s most well-hidden gems, or explore the city via bike ride, too.
Visit an Animal Shelter
If you and your partner are a bunch of animal lovers, taking a trip to the animal shelter can really brighten your day. But it’s a particularly romantic way to spend Valentine’s Day if the two of you have been wanting a pet for the longest and have been waiting for the perfect time to finally get one! Getting to pick out your first pet together and spend the day pampering it and shopping for your new addition is as good as it gets! And if this is something that one of you has wanted for a long time while the other was previously reluctant, that’s even better. Your partner will never forget the day you finally agreed to get them their much-wanted fur baby!
Have a Bookstore Date
For book lovers who enjoy simple and quiet dates, taking a trip to the bookstore together can make for a romantic Valentine’s Day date! Especially if it’s been a while since the two of you last got to pick up a new book. Throw on your coziest clothes and head to the nearest bookstore, then enjoy reading there for the rest of the day–or treat yourselves to a few new books and hightail it back home to light some candles, cuddle up under some blankets, and start reading. If you’re in need of a peaceful and lowkey date, this is it!
Revisit Your Favorite Places From Childhood
Getting to enjoy each other’s favorite places from the past together is an incredibly special way to spend Valentine’s Day as an engaged couple! You guys can visit what was once your favorite playground, the old arcade you used to love hanging out at, or each other’s childhood homes. You could even spend the day reminiscing on the good old days over Chuck E Cheese pizza or while trying not to bust your butts at your favorite old skating rink!
Bonding over the memories you cherish so much while spending time in your favorite childhood spots is a classic way to strengthen your relationship and can make for quite a romantic day together.
Treat Yourselves to a Train Ride
Couples who enjoy exploring or taking in new scenery together will certainly enjoy a Valentine’s Day train ride! The two of you can pick a train route that’ll give you an excellent view of the mountains or waterfalls, or you can find one that’ll allow you to get a good glimpse of the gorgeous forests and other eye-catching landscapes.
If you don’t care so much about the view but would still enjoy the experience of a train ride, you could also always find a luxurious train that offers wine-tasting and lavish dinners or even partake in a murder mystery train experience!
Have a Boat Ride
If you’re looking for an outdoor adventure to enjoy and love being out on the water, a romantic boat ride would make the perfect date for you! You and your fiance can enjoy a sunset cruise, enjoy a night of stargazing while drifting through the water, or have a nice picnic on the boat deck!
If you want to make things even more special, you could book a glass-bottom boat ride; that way, you can enjoy looking at the marine life while you wade through the water. If you’re not necessarily a fan of boating but still enjoy water activities, consider canoeing or kayaking instead!
Come Up With Ideas for Future Valentine’s Days
The prospect of getting to spend the rest of your lives together is so thrilling that you may be overcome with excitement when thinking about how your future holidays will be spent! If you and your partner both love to plan and organize or happen to be overflowing with ideas for how you’d like to spend your future Valentine’s Days, you could spend a little time during this one planning them! After all, there’s nothing more romantic than planning your future together, and the two of you will likely be filled with emotions and giddy with love for each other as you picture all the romantic scenarios the future holds for you after you’ve officially tied the knot!
Whether you choose to save money and enjoy some quality time by spending the day inside the comfort of your own home or treat yourselves to a romantic outing where you can make some long-lasting memories together, your first Valentine’s Day as a newly engaged couple is destined to be unforgettable regardless.
Plus, as long as the two of you are together, it’ll be special no matter what, so try not to put too much pressure on yourselves, and remember, this is only the first Valentine’s Day of many that the two of you will get to enjoy together, so look forward to all those to come!
