Year of Dates Gift: 12 Pre-Planned, Pre-Paid Dates to Enjoy Throughout the Year!
Last week I posted about Christmas and mentioned I gave Jacob a full year of dates gift or 12 months of dates as gift. This consists of one pre-planned, pre-paid gift for each month of the year.
This is actually the 3rd time I’ve done the full gift, but I’ve realized I’ve never posted the full gift to get the holistic picture. I thought this was the year to bite the bullet and give a full preview.
How to Make the Year of Dates Gift
This gift takes some planning. I originally got this idea from one of my blogging friends, Shannon Brown, who had the post of the idea go viral as one of the first viral pins on Pinterest. I reached out and asked her how she felt about me doing my own take on this gift, and she was like, Camille, you run with it!
I spend about two months pulling together ideas and gift cards and then put them all in a Google Doc so that I can keep everything straight and remember which dates will work best in which months. I also come up with a bonus one or two, just in case something falls through.
The first two years I gave Jacob a file folder with hanging files, one for each month. You can see that presentation here. Shannon did envelopes, which is how I gave just a handful of dates last year. I think it’s perfect for a full year, or if you just want to give a few for a birthday or Valentine’s Day.
I had to switch it up this year, and disguise the presentation so I could adequately surprise Jacob.
Date Night Binder
A binder with sheet protectors seemed like it would be just the key! It’s super simple, basic, and I could make it look like a book. Plus, a date night binder is a really affordable and easy way to compile a year of dates gift. I also got over the fact that my handwriting is terrible and decided to make things more personal this year. I’m by no means a cutesy/crafty/scrapbooky type, but I thought a few permanent markers and stickers would hopefully do the trick. Bless stickers, they make anyone look better in the cutesy department!
Here was the result, feel free to click the image to see the details.
How to Present the 12 Months of Dates Gift
Creative Date Ideas for the Year of Dates:
We’re so excited to make a lot of great memories dating each other in 2015!
If you’re looking for date ideas there are several in the navigation above. If you want to see dates I’ve given in the past, here are a few examples of past dates we’ve had in our 12 Months of Dates.
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Hi. Are you the originator of this Pin? I just had this deleted from my Pinterest account and I don’t want to make that mistake again. Thank you. I love this idea.
Hey there! I am! It is stolen often sadly, but I made the pin and the content 🙂
My husband did this for me for Christmas one year. He bought a twelve month calendar with pockets. Then he planned a date night every month with the details/tickets in the pockets and the date nights hearted on the calendar. It is still one of my favorite gifts even years later.
I love it! What a great way to present it. It’s always a great gift that people seem to cherish!
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You sure are nice! Thanks for following along!
I love this idea! So cute! Thank you.
I love your blog and bookmarked it.
Your style is unique compared to other folks I’ve read stuff from. I appreciate you for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I will just bookmark this site.
I am so doing this! Thank you for a great gift idea .
wow, this is incredibly thoughtful. i am so stealing this from you! 😉
love it , as always. Will you be posting how the dates went each month like last time? Thats the best part!
So cute! I want to do this for Brett, but I might need to be creative and come up with a lot of “at home” ideas since we really hardly even have babysitter options near us (I'm not kidding, it's such a bummer!). But, I saw you are visiting Thatcher one month, and depending on your itinerary and time frame, we would love it if you came to see us too! You are always welcome! We are about a 40 minute drive from Thatcher/Safford. We could do a firepit, hang out, enjoy the nice summer weather here in higher elevation 🙂 We also have Ft. Bowie really close to us, it's an easy hike that is 3 miles round trip and has a lot of history and a museum. Maybe this Christmas I will pull this gift off for Brett–I'm planning on doing an entirely “homemade” Christmas for my kids, I might need to for him too!
This is such a great idea! And the scrapbooker in me is also very into this. 😉
xx Kathryn
I did this for my husband too! Yours turned out so cute!
This is genius! If I ever decide to take the trip down the isle, this will be the gift to my Groom.
-Krystal
Thank you so much for showing us how it all comes together! So cute! I think this Christmas might be the year we can finally do a dedicated night out each month. Hurray!
I love this idea! So cute! I might have to steal this for my husband! 🙂
I love this idea! I think I just found my Christmas present for him next year! We would have also just gotten married so I think next year will be the perfect year for me to do something like this!
I just updated the post writing them out a list in case the image isn't big enough. Thanks for the heads up!
Where did you get the stickers from, the almost 3D ones?
At my local Michaels. I’m not a scrapbooker, but the scrapbooking stickers seemed to work super well to make this gift pop so I grabbed a few.
Love it! I couldn't wait to see if you were gifting this to your husband once again. I want to know what the other dates are 🙁 I'm also currently doing this on Google Doc for my boyfriend. I want to give this to him on Valentine's day!
I love how you put this together, it's so perfect!!! 🙂 I agree, the gift of memories and experiences is so much better 🙂