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Tuesday, November 25, 2014

5 Long-distance Date Ideas

Getting through the holidays is never easy when your loved one is miles away. You watch as others spend time together while you spend a majority of your time looking single even though you're not. Once upon a time, this was my husband and I. While we were dating and engaged, he was in Grad school at the University of Oregon while I attended West Virginia Wesleyan College. Thankfully, we'd see each other for a few days around the holidays, but then it would go right back to the way things were. It wasn't easy. Besides a few people, many doubted our long-distance relationship would last, and they didn't hold back their opinion. Opinions aside, we made it work. We were loyal to one another and we loved one another, and here we are today married and getting ready to have our first baby!

Anyone who has been in a long-distance relationship knows that creativity must take place in order to keep the relationship strong. With that being said, below is a list of date ideas for the long-distance relationship that stood the test of time for Wes and I. If you've been in this relationship for a while, you've probably done many of these. It's my hope that at least one of these will be a new idea for you or will spark new ideas of your own. I'd also like to be one of the few to say that your long-distance relationship will work as long as it's God's plan. 


1. mail dates
There's nothing like getting home from work or school and finding a letter addressed to you from your date. Instead of going about your single-life ritual, you sit down and take in every word they have to say. By the time you finish reading, it's like you were actually with them for a few minutes. Note: Spray some of her favorite cologne or some of his favorite perfume on your letter before sending it. When it's opened, it'll smell like you, making your date feel even closer to you. 

2. game dates
Thanks to technology, skype and facetime are both options to see your date face to face, and while it's through a screen, it's better than nothing. Aside from just talking, you can plan an evening where you both play a few games together. It can be as simple as I-spy or as complex as Scrabble. If you are still new to the relationship, you could play 20 questions which will allow you both to get to know one another better. Game options are limitless, just be sure to keep it fun! 

3. study dates
Since Wesley and I were both in school during our long-distance relationship, we had to spend time studying. Rather than study alone, we'd sometimes study together. We'd help keep each other accountable and focused for a while, and then we'd take short breaks in between studying to reward our efforts. It may not sound like a fun date, but it was rather enjoyable to be productive and studious while also spending a little time with the other person. 

4. phone dates
Skype is great. Sometimes, however, it has a way of making you feel alienated from your date because you can see them but they aren't actually there with you. When these times arise, it may be best to take a short break from skype and call each other instead. As long as you have a phone plan with unlimited talk time, you can spend a half hour or so talking. The difference between talking over a phone compared to talking via skype is that you both can spend a couple hours on skype but never really have a very close conversation because you're both working on other things. By talking on the phone, it allows you to spend quality time together in which you are both talking for a bit instead of doing other things, which results in a certain closeness that skype just does not give you sometimes. 

5. dinner dates 
For some reason, neither of us thought of this until we'd been in a relationship for a while, and I have to credit my husband since it was his idea. We had gotten on skype to talk one evening and I was feeling a bit emotional because I missed him and and felt alone. We can't skip over the fact that love must have been in the air that day, because everywhere I turned, couples were holding hands or kissing. Wesley, understanding what I was feeling, suddenly had a great idea. He said, "go get dressed up and make some dinner and then we'll get back on here when you're ready." Confused, I went along with his suggestion, and when I got back on skype, he had also gotten dressed up and made himself dinner. He had lit candles and placed rose petals all over his table from a memory box gift I had sent him a few months ago.  To this day, we both agree that this was our most romantic date together, because it came at a time when we needed it most. 

NOTE: I'll be posting gift ideas for long-distance relationships before the end of December, so if the memory box sounds interesting to you, you'll soon find it in the 'For Relationships' tab at the top of my blog! 

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