How To Set The Scene For Date Night Slideshow
"Ordering take-out is not a date, it's an excuse for not wanting to cook dinner," says Utter. Put effort into your date night at home and start planning it a week in advance, giving you time to plan the menu, the music, the table, and grocery shop without rushing or stressing out too much.
2. Be Prepared
Something as simple as setting the table elevates date night from any old dinner together at home.
If you're working with a plastic card table or something equally unsightly, invest in a simple white tablecloth to hide the legs. Set the table using nice cloth napkins, proper silverware, and glasses for both water and wine or cocktails. Fill water glasses and leave a pitcher on the table for refills. Then complete the look with a centerpiece of sorts, from a jar filled with grasses and wildflowers from the yard, tulips from the bodega, or a bowl of colorful fruits and vegetables. Click here for our arranging tips.
3. Keep the Menu Simple
You don't need to plan a four-course dinner, starting with caviar and blinis, serving something topped in foam, and finishing with a finicky pan-roasted cod with a carrot reduction, to impress your date. Stick with a course or two you can partly make in advance and are confident about.
If you're looking to get a little messy, start with mussels. They're easy to make, fun to share, and using your hands is guaranteed to relax any nerves. Looking for something a bit more exotic? Transport your date to Thailand with a spicy Thai beef salad. Or go for something simple yet impressive, like seared halibut and a fruit tart for dessert.
Click here for more ideas on what to make to impress your date.
4 .Have Drinks Ready
Plan on what you're going to serve well in advance of date night. Opting for cocktails? Be sure to have all the mixers and ingredients at the ready. Serving wine? Chill the bottle(s) if necessary and avoid any cork-removing embarrassment by opening them in advance.
5. Location, Location, Location
When planning date night at home, Utter recommends breaking routine and choosing a new space to have dinner. "Don't have date night where you normally have dinner with the kids, whether that be the dining room table or kitchen counter," says Utter.
Mix things up with a small table set for two somewhere unusual, like on the back deck or fire escape. Or if you're looking for a more relaxed environment, set the coffee table for dinner and sit around it on the floor. Have a fireplace? Nothing quite tops dinner together, snuggled in blankets, just in front.
6. Ambiance Matters
Think back to Lady and the Tramp. With the right ambiance, something as simple and easy as spaghetti and meatballs really can be made oh-so-sexy. Even if you live in a studio apartment, clearing away the clutter, dimming the lights, and lighting some candles can transform any space into a cozy and romantic escape (just don't use scented candles).
7. Add Music
Lighting and a simply set table aside, complete the romantic feel of your night with a playlist of mellow favorites to help you both relax (and get in the mood). And to really sweep your date off their feet, put one of your favorite songs on the list. When it comes on, grab your date, putting the fork or cooking spoon aside, and have a little dance-and-twirl interlude.
8. Disconnect
When you're on a date, nothing is more of a buzz kill than the hum of your beeper or ding of the phone. "To create an atmosphere with no distractions and where conversation can flow, it's important that Blackberries, iPhones, Androids, etc. are not only silenced, but turned off," says Utter. Do you really want to destroy all your effort and hard work by a text message from your buddy or call from your sibling? We didn't think so.
9. Add a Special Touch
If you've been dating a while, or are married, Utter recommends putting together some open-ended questions together that you'd want the other to answer. Write them all down on slips of paper and put them in a bowl. Take turns sharing and you'll be surprised what you learn about your date/significant other!
Some of Utter's favorites:
• If you didn't have to worry about money, you would...
• Most embarrassing moment you had with me that I don't know about.
• What was the moment when you first fell in love with me?