Unforgettable Date Night- At Home!

How to Plan an Unforgettable Date Night- At Home!

Has date night gone out the window since you welcomed those precious children into your world?  What you need is a date night executed right in the comfort of your own home.  Today’s post is a guest post from one of my very best friends, Cheryl Bynum.  She and her husband know how to plan and execute some super cool dates, and she’s sharing her tips and tricks with us. Enjoy!

Dating.  A word typically associated with the period of time before marriage that couples get to know each other and do their best to impress each other: the “courting” stage of life.  Sometimes it’s just for fun, and sometimes the relationship has a serious, deeper meaning. However, in my 14+ years of marriage, I’ve learned something important—dating shouldn’t stop at marriage. Matter of fact, I’m a firm believer that dating is even more important after your wedding day.  You can make every excuse in the book for why you don’t have time to date anymore, but the truth is, if you make excuses for not dating, you might soon find yourself making excuses for why your marriage is struggling.  Dating your spouse is crucial to a happy, healthy marriage!

My husband and I have had some beautiful highs and some devastating lows in our marriage, but I have found that dating each other has been the thing that has saved us time and time again.  Behind every perfect picture we post on social media and gag-worthy status we make about our love for each other (yes, it can be gag-worthy at times!), there is a real marriage that has needed work, dedication, patience, and definitely forgiveness.  But it is the attention we give to our marriage that has earned us several #relationshipgoals comments over the years.

I consider myself to be highly creative—I thrive on creativity and artistry.  My husband isn’t necessarily this way by nature, but we bring out the best in each other, and over time, the creativity we have brought into our marriage and dating life has inspired him to be creative as well.  One thing we incorporate into our marriage and lives in a variety of ways is themes—we can theme literally anything.  From the various themed game nights we’ve hosted to the themed decorating in different rooms of our home, we live for a good theme. One of my favorite things is how we’ve incorporated themes into our dating, especially our themed staycation weekends we take turns planning.  Maybe that will be another post for another day, but for today, I’d love to share 5 ways to incorporate a good theme into a date night at home!

5 Ideas for Date Night at Home:

Movie-Lovers:

Create a night that centers around a specific movie you both already love or are even going to watch for the first time.Plan a menu that fits the theme of the movie, create a short activity to do together at home that also fits the theme, and then of course, watch the movie together.  If you’re super cheesy like us, you could even dress to fit the theme! We love to do this with Disney movies, as we both love Disney, but you could do it with literally any movie. And you could even do something like this with your kids when it’s not date night.  See the photo for an example of a “Cinderella” themed movie night we had. Pinterest has tons of pre-made movie-themed menus to get you started.

Game/Competition-Lovers:

Spend the night playing all board games or even video games related to a specific theme. Depending on what you own, you could create a theme that works for you:

  • Disney: We have lots of Disney board games since we love Disney. These include Disney Scene-It, Disney Headbandz, Disney Sorry, Disney Monopoly, etc.
  • Pop trivia: This could include games like regular Scene-It, Trivial Pursuit, Cranium, Balderdash, or specific topic trivia.  For example, we have a Friends trivia game, a US History trivia game, etc.
  • Hands-on interactive: This can be any hands-on interactive games like Pictionary, Charades (Guesstures is a fun one!), Cranium again, Headbandz, etc.  Lots of great video game options too like Guitar Hero or any of the Wii games!
  • Strategy: Always a fun theme- Clue, Scattergories, Battleship, Apples to Apples, Checkers/ Chinese Checkers, Scrabble, and card games like Uno, Phase 10, etc.
  • Childhood Reminiscent: Relive your childhood with fun throwback games like Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Operation, Trouble, Jacks, Twister (extra fun way to get close to your spouse!), Life, etc.

Fun-Lovers:

If you love to act like kids and be silly, why not create a whole night at home that relives the memories of your childhood.  Incorporate the Childhood Reminiscent game night idea above, but enhance with a variety of things like playing with Legos or Lincoln Logs, coloring or hula hoop contests, fort building, and your childhood junk food favorites.  Why not include Happy Meals from McDonalds in your night?  You could even end the night flipping through photo albums from your childhood, sharing your favorite memories with your spouse.

Romance-Lovers:

My husband surprised me and did this for me once, and it goes down in history as one of my all-time favorite things.  Set up a tent or build a fort in the living room with sleeping bags, use a projector to project a movie on the wall (or use your TV if the projector isn’t possible), grab some popcorn, and snuggle up with this romantic twist on the monotonous movie night.  Or if movies aren’t your thing, enjoy a fun meal together by candlelight (or flashlight) inside your tent, savoring good conversation or a game of cards that might lead who knows where…make sure that tent has a zipper on it 🙂

Cooking-Lovers:

You could always cook a meal together, but why not kick it up a notch? Instead, go all “Iron Chef America” or “Cupcake Wars” style, and make it a competition.  Cupcakes are a great way to test this out.  Set a time limit, and work side by side each making a different type of cupcake, but keep your flavor a secret.  Then when the time is up, reveal your cupcake creations and try to fairly decide who made (and decorated) the best ones.  If you can’t decide which ones are best, give some to your kids and let them be the judge!

This is just a handful of fun, creative, themed date nights that you can create at home, giving a makeover to stay-at-home date nights.  You can customize these to fit your personalities and create a night to truly remember!  And don’t forget to take some pictures to capture the experience—one day, you can use them to include in a date night that reminisces on all of your special memories!  Not to mention, then you too can post them on social media and get a few #relationshipgoals and #gagworthy comments too. :)-Cheryl


What’s the best date night you’ve ever had at home?  Comment below!


Cheryl Bynum is the proud wife of fourteen years to her husband Brandon and the dog mom to her fur babies Chloe and Daisy.  Living in Orlando, FL, Cheryl is the Founder of Bloom!, a peer-advisory network for creative female entrepreneurs, and she is in the process of launching her own site- Faith. Love. Marriage. In addition to her entrepreneurial endeavors, she is a middle school social studies teacher by day and a performer/director by night, having performed in and helped to direct or produce numerous shows around the Central Florida area.  Other credits include work as an on-air radio personality, a private voice instructor, and an occasional church worship leader. Cheryl’s goal is to empower women in all areas of life—as entrepreneurs, as wives, and as women of faith.