In the thirteen-plus years I’ve been with my husband, we’ve gone out to dinner on the actual Valentine’s Day only twice that I can remember. Since our parents are our go-to sitters, I usually don’t ask them to watch our kids on an occasion when they might want to go out themselves. Especially since they spent most Valentine’s Days at home with their kids while we were growing up!
Though Eric and I usually make it out for a romantic night sometime during the month of February, that doesn’t mean we don’t still have a nice dinner on the 14th. I like to celebrate love all year long, but I’m always looking for an excuse to cook a big meal and decorate with pink hearts. My girls love to get in on the planning, too, and look forward to our lovely night. I certainly hope they grow up and prepare a love-filled table for their families one day!
When setting our table, I usually go around the house and gather things in the color scheme I’m using. For Valentine’s Day, pink, red, and white are in order.
Here’s what I gathered:
I purchased the candy, the little love vase ($1 at a craft store), some ribbon, and the wrapping paper (for $1 at Target). The blogger in me couldn’t resist this cute bag (also $1 at Target):
Everything else I already owned and was using elsewhere in my home. I did a few different place settings. You could easily do even one of these ideas in the center of a clean table and add a little lovely flair for your dinner. Or, you could go crazy and do it all.
I obviously prefer the latter.
You can see I didn’t use all the materials I gathered. Here are some simple objects I incorporated from around the house.
An apothecary jar filled with conversation hearts.
A birdcage filled with conversation hearts.
A pretty tea cup filled with m&m’s.
Baking cups filled with m&m’s.
A tin mailbox with a Valentine’s surprise.
A piece of ribbon adorns an otherwise plain plate.
I spiced up our cloth napkins using scrapbooking embellishments.
Wrapping paper made a nice backdrop for our place setting.
I promise I usually use things other than candy to decorate. I almost always have fresh flowers on the table, but I was all out of flowers when I wrote this post. Some white daisies or roses would have been lovely, though.
It’s the simple things.
How do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?
Angela can be found setting her table and sneaking m&m’s at Homegrown Mom.
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I actually did a vlog (my first one!) sharing some of our Valentine’s Day traditions. You can see it here: http://girlstogrow.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-first-vlog-its-all-about-valentines.html
This is so pretty and I LOVE the wrapping paper idea!!! This just reminded me that I have some Valentine Scrapbook paper that I never use – I could use it as placemats for MOnday night’s dinner! Thanks for this idea! I’m doing an all red theme dinner – red drink – red food (spaghetti, chocolate covered cherries) red dessert (either cherry cobbler or red velvet cupcakes!)
Thanks for the beautiful table setting ideas!
Courtney
How pretty! We don’t really do valentine’s day here because it is so close to our anniversary. Despite, I made some pretty heart shaped cakes.
I adore these decorations!! We’ll have to try some of your ideas.
The table setting is beautiful! I have never celebrated Valentine’s Day. I never think of it til the last minute.
It would be neat to have my children wake up to a beautifully set table – even for breakfast.
I do have a red table cloth. Hmm…..
We are celebrating it tonight since it falls on a Monday… this year I ask the hubs if we could stay home and celebrate with the kids
Soooo I bought mini pizza crusts, and all the pizza fixings so the kids can each make their own… and for dessert we are having Angel Food Cherry Triful that I am whipping together now. Love your table setting ideas!
We celebrate Valentine’s Day from Feb 1-Feb 14. The kids decorate a little mailbox, and each morning I put a valentine note, Bible verse, and a little treat (stickers, pencils, little toys or puzzles, decorative shoelaces, etc.) in their box and leave it on their placemat at the table. They wake up and run to their boxes every morning.
On Valentine’s Day morning, they wake up to heart balloons on their chairs and a bigger treat with a small candy treat. As a family, we always have a candlelight dinner which ends with chocolate lava cake.
We also look up Bible verses with LOVE in them and write them on hearts all month long and hang them around the kitchen.
I love all your ideas…..borrowing some!!
Very cute…love the mailboxes!
I have never set the table, but I do make heart shaped dinners, like heart shaped pizza or casserole and cookies.
Absoloutley L-O-V-E these pictures – what a gorgeous idea! I thought these were pictures out of a magazine at first….lol…..:)
The table is so cute! I love the idea. This is an area where I should improve in! I love that your girls get in on it, too. To me, that is SO important to learn these skillz while they are still young…and it will be second nature to do this with their own families one day. Thanks for the inspiration!
We never go out on Valentine’s Day and the last thing I would even want to do is go to a restaurant! It is so much more intimate and relaxing at home. At a restaurant I sit there thinking of how much less this meal would have cost me if I had made it AND it would have been much better as I generally use better ingredients. My dear husband is also not one to bring me flowers. And Valentine’s Day is when the price of flowers are sky high! Even without this year’s freezes.
I usually make a nice meal for Valentine’s Day, but this year was an unusual one for us due to my husband’s job. So we made flexibility the rule for this year and our special meal will be tonight.
You can read about my very unusual Valentine’s gift to my husband this year on my blog!
Blessings,
~Mrs. R
Thank you for inspiring me to set a beautiful Valentine’s table for my family. They loved it! My two kiddos were so excited and it just made the day so special. I think this is the first time I’ve ever set a “fancy” table. Even my husband suggested that I should do it more often. Thanks again!!!!
* Gasp* Sweet candy for my eyes! Thank you for the ideas.
Shelley
I *love* the wrapping paper idea! Brilliant! And I second that I thought the photos were from a magazine. Lovely ideas – what a blessing you must be to your family. =) I grew up with a momma who always made our home & special occasions so lovely and I cherish that about my childhood years.
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