The Kiss by the Hotel deVille, taken in 1950 Paris by Robert DoisneauWell, here we are on the eve of Valentine's weekend, and we want to know...
What's the most romantic thing you have ever done for someone?
or
What's the most romantic thing someone has done for you?
Maybe we'll get some good ideas for this Vday...
I surprised my husband with a night at a BnB. He had no idea. I packed his bag, made the reservation, and asked him he wanted to go see my brother's babies in the hospital. This was before we had our own babies.
ReplyDeleteHe splurged and bought me a very nice gift that I totally wasn't expecting and thought I didn't deserve. Aw, I love him.
When I was seven months pregnant with my first baby, I had to present at an academic conference in New Mexico on Valentine's Day. I was super busy with grad classes at BYU, so I decided I would just fly down from Salt Lake in the morning, read my paper, monitor the panel I was chairing, and fly back that night.
ReplyDeleteTotally exhausting day, not to mention being pregnant. When my husband picked me up at the airport in Salt Lake, I collapsed into the car and slept all the way home. I didn't even remember it was Valentine's Day, until I walked into my bedroom and found that my husband had filled it--floor to ceiling--with red, pink, and white balloons. He'd spent several hours blowing them up and writing little messages all over them. I still have a piece of one of them that says, "I love you."
My husband got a box of valentines and every day he would write a little love note. Then on Valentines day he hid them all around our little apartment for me to find.
ReplyDeleteWith funds being tight, and resources in short supply, we decided not to spend any $ on gifts one year. He more than surprised me with a flower he made by cutting out paper petals and attaching them to a stick he found in the backyard. He sprayed the finished product with my favorite perfume. It still ranks as the best gift I've ever been given after 11 years of marriage.
ReplyDeleteCan I do two?
ReplyDeleteHave you seen Life is Beautiful? (If you haven't, you must!)
When Taylor and I were first falling into smit our senior year of high school, he took me to see it.
A couple of months later, we were sad that I was leaving for spring break and he stayed at our house late the night before I left for my grandparents' in AZ. The next morning, we were up at some unheavenly hour to depart, and my dad said, "Anne, you better come out here and look at this." I walked outside to find dozens and dozens of daffodils shoved into the grass that lines the driveway and turned around to see a huge banner on the garage that said, "Buono Giorno, Principessa!" I thought I might die.
THEN.
Fast-forward 5 years. Despite dating other people, living in foreign countries, and being geographically separated most of the time, we had remained very close friends. I came home from my LDS mission in the summertime, and made it pretty clear that I would like to marry him. (I'm no good at mysterious.) He had been a little more vague. Then I headed up to the woods to be a camp leader. One night just after lights out, I heard faint music. It sounded familiar. I was bra-less and the elastic tie on my sweatpants had broken, so I had to walk out of my cabin with one arm holding up my bosoms and the other holding up my pants. I looked out into the forest and couldn't see anything or anyone, but the music swelled until it filled the darkness all around me. It was from 'Orpheus in the Underworld'--the Offenbach piece from Life is Beautiful that Guido plays for Dora over the loudspeaker to tell him he's still alive in the concentration camp. I stood there alone, with my mouth open. I couldn't believe it was really for me. But I knew it was.
That pretty much sealed the deal. ;)
happy vday weekend!
loves-
anne
I have lots! Like the portrait pencil drawing he did of me complete with hidden messages and a love note taped to the back...hung at the MOA waiting for me to discover it. Yeah, pretty much had to date him after that. Then at the same site-a temple drawing hung while he proposed. 7 years and 2 kids later...I still get goose bumps when I look at them
ReplyDeleteAs newlyweds, money was tight, just as it is for everyone. My sweetheart bought cheap valentines and conversation hearts, wrote on everyone one of them a term of endearment, and hid them all over our apartment. Including in my bag and purse...even in the flour cannister. I found those for months afterward. It was so fun.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea and hearing everyone's stories, especially Anne's! Get outta here! So cute.
ReplyDeleteMy husband wrote me the most hideously awful poem for valentine's day when we were dating in high school. I'm not kidding. It was just terribly, pitifully bad. The man just wasn't cut out for poetry. (I believe the words "twirl" and "whirl" were used at some point in the rhyming scheme). I almost broke up with him.
But oh my heavens, it is now the cutest and most hilarious memory we have to this day.
That crinkled piece of red construction paper lined with heart stickers is still my most prized keepsake.
rae
The most romantic thing my husband has ever done for me (and he's done a lot, so this is big) is to make me a mixed tape...BUT this was no ordinary mixed tape. No, no, no, no. It was a tape that chronicled our entire life together not only with songs but with snippets of letters between us, journal entries, poems, even bits of dialogue from movies that meant something to us and painted a picture of the road we have traveled together. He sent it to me while I was away, and it brought me home to him more in love than ever!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school I used to listen to the "Top 6 at 6:00" countdown on KRWQ every night to hear my then favorite song (Cowboy Take Me Away - Dixie Chicks). It was pretty cute when Nate showed up at my house with the CD and a note that said "Now you don't have to listen to the "Top 6 at 6:00" every night.
ReplyDeleteHe's a pretty sweet one - lots of charming things over the years, but lately, the most romantic things are the simpler ones:
little evidences that he really listens to what i say
the way he loves the kids
how hard he works for our family
And the most romantic thing I've done for him? Hmmmm...
Abbie and I must think alike 'cause I saved up my nannying money when we were in college and made a surprise reservation at a B&B
one year. That was so fun.
All this talk is making me woozy for a getaway...
Whoa, Anne, what great stories!
ReplyDeleteThe most romantic thing I'VE ever done was with my first real boyfriend. We were both shy about kissing for the first time so we'd been dating for a few months with no smoochin'. I was getting tired of it, one night, I invited him over to watch a meteor shower on my front lawn at 3 am. We snuggled up under a blanket and watched the stars fall until the sprinklers went off (on a timer). We ran to the driveway and there bundled up in our wet blankets, we finally kissed. Unfortunately, no spark. Wah wah.
I learned a lot from that relationship- it had a ton of romance but no chemistry! My next boyfriend is my now husband, who is less about the grand gestures and more about everyday sweetness and thoughtfulness. And there's never been a problem with sparks!! ;)
My husband is the love note king. My favorite is a "love by numbers" letter he wrote me when we were engageed. He made a list numbers that had anything to do with us and our love: our birthdays, the street address of our first kiss, the number of miles he had to drive on weekends to see me, etc. He arranged them chronologically starting with infinity and working all the way down to 1 (what our hearts have become-- sigh...).
ReplyDeleteThese days, I find it highly romantic that he gets up with our early riser kids every morning so I can get a little extra sleep.
Oh. And my husband writes songs for me. They are wonderful... the last one was called "More than Jim loves Pam"
ReplyDeleteHmmm...its gotta be a tie between the time my husband (although friend/boyfriend at the time) bought me a whole case of Count Chocula in college (cause I love it!)
ReplyDeleteor
when we were poor students living in Omaha Nebraska where it literally did not get above zero for the entire month of February one year. Probably every year. AND we didn't have a garage. So for my birthday while I was out of town, he took my car down and sat at the service place the whole day (while trying to study for finals) while they installed a (kind of expensive) automatic car starter so I could start my car from inside and let it warm up before having to get in it. Most romantic present ever...it took so much thought and work and it was totally about making my life more comfortable and good.
The best Valentine's day present my husband has ever given me was a "top 10 reasons why I'm still head over heels in love with you" list. He even typed it up on the computer and printed it on pink paper. It was so sweet.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I had been married less than a year and I had to have back surgery 3 days before Valentine's Day. I was home, in bed, and feeling very sorry for myself. My husband brought me coffee in bed and then pulled a big box out of the closet. Inside was a pair of bright red cowboy boots and a gift certificate for swing dance lessons. I still smile when I look at those boots in the closet. He gave me more than boots that year. He gave me the joy of looking forward to things to come and celebrating the moments we were in, even the hard ones!
ReplyDeleteWhen Matt and I first started dating I had a song...that i was pretty much obsessed with... I was also obsessed with guitars. Well anytime I met anyone who could play guitar I would ask if they knew how to play Hear you me...by Jimmy Eat World. NO ONE could play it. Well on our first date matt started playing my guitar and I asked if he knew the song, he said no...and that was that...or so I thought. The next day when I got off work, I checked my messages to hear a message left by Matt...no words were spoken, just THE song. I knew it was from him I burst into tears. He learned to song just for me. It was beautiful
ReplyDeleteI love reading everyone's comments, who doesn't love LOVE?
ReplyDeleteI would say the most romantic thing my husband has done for me was plan an entire week for our family of 4 at Disneyland. He planned everything, I didn't lift a finger. While we were gone, unbeknown to me, he had our ENTIRE house re-tiled with beautiful tile floors. When we got back from our trip, he said, "Before we unpack, lets just go into the house for a min with the kids." So he opens the front door and there is my house/floors, completely re-tiled. Tile that he chose all by himself too! And what's awesome is the tile he chose is exactly what I would have chosen. I couldn't believe he pulled off something so AMAZING!
I would say the most romantic thing I have done was plan 31 one days for his 31st birthday. For his 30th birthday I couldn't do anything becuase I had had our son 4 weeks before, I felt very guilty. So I went all out for his 31st. And I mean not just 31 one gifts from the dollar store, I mean 31 days full of surprise. It almost killed me pulling it off. If your interested in any of the ideas (cause there are some good ones) check my blog in archives OCT-2008. Any way, I love celebrating love, who says its just for V-day?
My husband and I were just friends for a long time and during one of my 'breaks' with a guy I was dating (who was no good for me, by the way) Tyler and I started hanging out more, in my mind just to pass the time until things were resolved with the other guy. He would just come along to do the little things with me like grocery shopping and running errands, but he also started coming to our church choir with me as well.
ReplyDeleteWith all that time spent together I couldn't help falling in love with him. It wasn't until we were married a year and a half later and I told him when the new church choir was meeting that he confessed that he didn't even like to sing. A little confused, I said, 'But you went to choir with me before we were dating.' His response, 'Exactly. But it was only because I was doing anything I could spend more time with you. And for the record, I lip synced the whole time.' I was stunned. Of course he had already come clean that he had carefully positioned himself to be around more during that time, but this new revelation was a shocker. And it made me fall in love with him even more.