National Marriage Week is February 7-14 – culminating in Valentine’s Day – and it’s a great time to celebrate your marriage. Here’s a list of gifts and experiences to celebrate your sweetie at this romantic time of the year.
What is National Marriage Week?
National Marriage Week in the US seeks to work with, connect, and unite church leaders, content leaders, community leaders, policy and research leaders and couples.
The purpose of National Marriage Week in the US is to bring people and organizations together, with the focus of celebrating marriage intentionally. The organization originated in the UK, and has spread internationally, through the efforts of Marriage Week International.
This year, the theme of National Marriage Week is “Love Beyond Words.” What a perfect theme to reflect on our February blog, How to Tell your Real-Life Marriage Story.
We recently put our heads together with friends and fellow mentors to come up with a list of ideas for gift giving that may inspire couples to be intentional about recognizing their love this year.
Free Gifts that just cost you a Little Time
You don’t have to be super creative to do any of these ideas. Each person has their own style and that’s ok. After all, you were probably attracted to each other because you were different. So, if your style is power point or excel just do you. If you scribble rather than write calligraphy, just do you. It’s the message that counts, not the presentation.
- Read our recent post about Creating a Marriage Timeline and make one together.
- Create an acrostic for the word “valentine.” After each letter, write a word that describes your sweetie, starting with that letter. You could also create the acrostic using their first name, or a nickname you have for them.
- When is the last time you wrote a love letter to your partner? Get some nice paper, or even use your computer. Write a message to them from your heart. Remember all the things that attracted you to them in the first place.
- For an ongoing gift that just keeps giving, download The Marriage App on your phone. It will provide you with biblically based, daily ideas to text, do, and say for ten whole weeks. Your partner will wonder how you got to be so romantic!
Gifts that aren’t Free but are Fun!
- A unique customized Spotify plaque (affiliate link) with your photo etched into it. Choose your favorite song/album and that meaningful photo along with your names and a date, turn the frame into your exclusive music picture plaque! A personalized gift that brings back memories of your past, sure to surprise her or him. The plaque is acrylic and comes with a wooden holder.
- I love my music cozy sleep mask (affiliate link). Bruce got me one this winter and it wasn’t even Valentines day yet. Its soft and comfortable, connects easily to my bluetooth, and will play all night long. I usually choose sleep sounds like a bonfire and crickets, or a river or waves on a seashore. Sometimes I choose the bible app with my favorite version, read in a very slow speed. If your sweetie has trouble sleeping, this is wonderful.
- Digital Picture Frame (affiliate link). Load up your history as a couple in photos.
Experiences as Gifts
- Recreate your first date as well as you can. Go to a similar restaurant if you can’t get to the original one. Or – here’s a fun twist. Recreate your worst date but this time make it work!
- The Adventure Challenge Couples Edition (affiliate link). We’ve done one of the Adventure Challenge activities, it was creative and fun. Really helped us get out of a rut with dating. There are 50 dates to choose from, with scratch off instructions. Guaranteed to change things up a bit!
- We love the small book, 52 Uncommon Dates: A Couple’s Adventure Guide for Praying, Playing, and Staying Together (affiliate link). Each date is just one page, with a theme, Bible verse, and a few discussion questions, and a guide to pray a quick prayer together to give you something different to talk about. Really creative ideas for dates. Easy on the budget too.
- Our Love Story: A Keepsake Journal to Share with the One You Love (affiliate link) is a journal that you fill in as you build your relationship. It would be a sweet remembrance to share with your children and grandchildren. It’s a beautiful, full-color guided journal to record and preserve the memories of your relationship. Take it with you on Date Night and fill out a page a week.