Update: Very sad to report that Date Night has decided to cease trading. I think this is such a shame, it was a great idea and a quality product.
There’s no escaping the fact that date nights are different after you have kids. If you want to actually leave the house and go out out, plenty of advance planning is required. If you have to stay in, it’s likely you’ll end up in your usual positions, in front of the TV, checking Facebook/sports results, and eating a bag of chocolate (each), before falling asleep on the sofa (okay, that may just be me).
What if I told you there’s a way to make date nights at home more interesting? (Nothing kinky here, I promise.) A very lovely company called Date Night, has created ingenious Date Night boxes, which can be delivered to your door, once a month, for you and your other half to enjoy.
A romantic date night, in a box, with no effort required on your part? Yes please! I (and hubby) jumped at the chance to review one of these Date Night boxes, and here is what we thought.
The box (and its contents)
The box itself is lovely. Is it just me that likes a good quality box? Think of the potential storage uses for it afterwards! Inside, it gets better. We were greeted with a personalised note, introducing the Date Night concept and making us feel really rather special.
After admiring the box and stationery, I delved into the tissue paper to find out what our date would consist of. Ours (to our immense joy) was chocolate-tasting. Date Night sends you a different theme each month. Past dates have included wine-tasting, tea-tasting, and spa nights. According to the website, each date is meticulously planned by Date Designers, using only carefully-sourced, high quality products.
Included in our Chocolate Tasting box was: a box of 12 luxury chocolates, a small box of dark/milk/white chocolate discs, a packet of white chocolate buttons, two hot chocolate stirrers with marshmallows, a (very) small bottle of Prosecco (200ml), chopsticks, and our date night instructions.
The concept
What Date Night very cleverly does, is create a whole experience for the two of you to enjoy. The chocolate tasting box is not just about gorging your face full of the stuff (much to my hubby’s initial dismay).
To set the mood, Date Night have put together a ‘Chocolate Heaven’ playlist that you can stream on Spotify. My husband, who is really into music, gave his nod of approval to (most of) the song choices. We both thought this was a really nice touch. (Plus it forced my husband to turn off ‘Impractical Jokers’, which he actually thought he was going to have on in the background during our date!)
The box includes some information about chocolate-tasting, and different activities and games for you to try, such as a taste test, and sillier ones, including using the chopsticks to try and pick up the small buttons the fastest.
There is also a list of questions to ask each other. I won’t ruin your own date by disclosing all the details, in case you decide to try this particular box. Although it feels a little odd at first, you soon get into the swing of things. My husband even said he quite enjoyed the questions because it got us talking, and laughing, about something other than the mini human we made, which has to be healthy for any relationship.
We had to split out our own date night across two evenings, due to mini human randomly not wanting to go to bed and causing a fuss, but if you’d like to enjoy the whole experience in one go, I would suggest setting aside at least a couple of hours. You may want to open the box in advance of your planned date, in case it includes things you need to prep, such as popping the Prosecco into the fridge to chill.
The cost
You can also buy one-off Date Night boxes (including the Chocolate Tasting box) at NotOnTheHighStreet.com.
Our conclusion
I really enjoyed our Date Night box. The quality of the product is very good. The chocolate, all handmade in the New Forest, was delicious, and the details included, such as the playlist, the games and the questions to ask each other, were really nice touches.
We both agreed that it was great to do something different together, and to remember and reminisce about our life as a couple before we became parents. It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, that taking some time out to focus on the two of you, even if it’s just once a month, must be a good thing.
Thank you, Date Night, for making us turn off the TV. We’ll catch up on Impractical Jokers tomorrow.
£5 off your first box!
One-off boxes can be purchased here at NotOnTheHighStreet.
If you’ve tried a Date Night box, please let us know in the comments below.
Disclaimer: The Date Night box featured in this article was a PR sample, provided to Mums Off Duty for review purposes. All reviews on Mums Off Duty are honest and unbiased. All images used in this article belong to Mums Off Duty and should not be used without permission.