8 THINGS BETTER THAN A VALENTINE’S PROPOSAL

Alright, we’re suckers for romance. Hard not to be when you spend your days celebrating couples’ love stories (when you’re not making jokes out of them, that is). But we’re also all about people doing things their own way, and February 14th is no exception: Spaghetti and Sci-Fi? Set phasers to stun. Dauphinoise and Diamonds? Beam me up!

If you want to be original, a V-Day proposal is definitely not the one. Here’s 8 ways you can feast on love this Valentine’s without resorting to anything cheesy (unless it’s fondue)…

Did you go highbrow and meet up at an art gallery before realising you were both clueless about biomorphic forms and whether the artist was trying to contextualise or undermine female sensuality – and besides, neither of you cared? Go giggle at tiny penises together in the National Gallery and remember why you love hanging out with your favourite philistine.

Get a bottle of wine and write a list of your favourite things about each other.

Sure you love each other but it’s actually surprising hard to pin down those unique qualities that make you fancy them. It will make you both think- but the result is worth it.

Is she fascinated by the changing colours of your daily belly button fluff while you think it’s cute that she snores like a hippo? We promise this will make you laugh if nothing else!

This one’s best played with a glass of wine too (there’s a theme here).

Set the timer and get out your his n hers frying pans and a bunch of random ingredients – you have 10 minutes to make your new-found signiture dish.

It’s kind of like Ready, Steady, Cook but sexier.

Can’t decide whose wins? Get the dog to choose. The loser does the washing up in just their pants.

After a busy week, staying in can be a treat in itself. If your only sentiments about going out to see live music are ‘Kanye get it done by 10pm so I can have an early night?’ why not stay home and make a Spotify playlist of all the songs that have meant something to you since you got together?

Doesn’t have to be soppy – if you knew she was a keeper when you saw her dancing to Shakira at a wedding, get Hips Don’t Lie on the list. If you diffused her meltdown about about the shower head needing fixing by putting Patience at full volume on the Sonos, get Take That on there. Music is amazing at bringing back all the good feels.

Geocaching isn’t just for kids. It’s a great way to spend a date – you’re outdoors, looking all cute in beanies and scarves, getting to be nerdy and burn some calories at the same time. What’s more, you’re likely to stumble on an Insta-perfect view and come away with a cute keepsake – alright it’ll probably be a toy dinosaur but you can leave a personal message in its place and return home knowing someone’s about to find a clue to your love story. How bloody romantic is that?

You’ve been together for years but how well do you really know your partner?

Try asking each other these 36 questions that scientists say promise will bring you closer together. Warning: if your answer to number 9 isn’t ‘you babe’, it could end badly.

A Wine Tasting Night For Two!

Help yourselves to a selection of five bottles of fine wines – one grape but a ranging price tag (£5 to £30 – or the max you’re willing to spend). Then get yourself 5 glasses and put a sticker on the bottom with the name of each wine poured into it.

Then it’s up to you both to guess the most expensive wine. Does your palette match? Get yourselves some research notes. Go all out.

Remember – it’s called wine tasting and it’s classy. (Just try not to drink the whole five bottles!)

Alright, we’ve been avoiding saying it. Valentine’s probably seems the ideal setting for a romantic proposal, but consider this – February 14th isn’t her special, day; it’s everyone’s. Are you really going to make her share her big moment with 12 other women beaming ‘he asked me!’ on her Facebook feed? What’s more, do you want to make all your mates look down at their boxes of Milk Tray and feel like failures?

Instead, how about a gift that shows a proposal is on the cards… eventually? Something unique that shows you’re in it for the long haul, like commissioning a sketch from a local artist of your favourite selfie together. You can bond over how they got your noses all wrong before hanging it in the bathroom – yes, you’re allowed to be that smug couple.

If you are getting married this year, why not surprise your wife-to-be with an incredible groom speech that’s full of your unique anecdotes but put together by Speechy’s award-winning comedy writers?

We’re giving an exclusive 15% off our bespoke speech service until the end of February. Simply enter VALENTINES at checkout and add an extraordinary moment to your wedding day.