By Emma Wilson, ENO Brand Ambasador
A time full of flowers, overpriced chocolates, and cards is here. That’s right! Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. There are lots of other gifts than the typical flowers and chocolate you can give to your sweetheart this year! If you and your significant other love the outdoors, here are some ideas for a unique Valentine’s Day experience!
If you need to get flowers, pick them yourself. It will mean so much more to your significant other. Handpicking flowers, especially wildflowers, is much more romantic than just going to the store like every other person. If you want your flowers to last longer than a week, you could press flowers from a special place and frame them, like so. This way they can be cherished for years to come!
Instead of chocolates you could make a homemade trail mix or homemade granola bars for your next hike! Add some red food coloring to the granola for a festive pink color. If you’re going to add M&M’s to the trail mix, Valentine’s M&M’s would be the perfect color.
Want to get a card too? Use nature. One year we cut some limbs from a tree in my backyard. I took a limb with a decent diameter and cut it into inch thick pieces. Then I painted cute sayings onto the piece of wood and gave them as gifts to friends. The punnier the saying, the better! “Wood you be my Valentine” is a classic. You can also drill a hole in the top and tie a bow thru it for some extra flare. Another idea is to take a beautiful leaf from a meaningful place to you two as a couple, and use it as a painting stencil for a handmade card.
Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday this year, so take a day trip and pack a picnic! Nothing is more romantic than a camp fire and s’mores. Even if it is a backyard camping trip, just getting away from the stress of the world and enjoying each other’s company is blissful. Decorate the tent with handmade decorations for an extra touch. ENO offers Twilights that could set a romantic mood. I live in the South, so it is not incredibly cold, but if you can sleep under the stars, I always suggest it. Besides, the cold is just another excuse to cuddle; as if you need as excuse.
If you can’t get outdoors, you can always gift them something they can use when they can! A man would love a personalized pocket knife or stainless steel water bottle. Instead of carving your initials in a tree (seriously, while cute and all it is so not nice to the tree,) you can carve your initials into a handmade wooden walking staff for your next romantic hike.
Looking for jewelry? Yesah makes unique wooden watches for both men and women, and they donate 10% of profits to end child hunger. Check out their handmade resign bangles with flowers, leaves, bark, and shells inside.
Both genders would love receiving a GoPro to record those indescribable outdoor moments together. If you already have pictures or mementoes from a great camping trip, make a collage or frame one of their favorite pictures of the two of you to remind them of that great trip you two enjoyed! For Christmas I gave my best friend a Photo Book from Shutterfly that captured our road trip to Arkansas! She loved it!
If your sweetheart is truly a treehugger, you could buy a piece of the rainforest thru World Land Trust in their name. There are similar programs which you can symbolically adopt wildlife like whales, dolphins, or turtles thru Pacific Whale Foundation.
If you don’t want to gift an outdoor gift but still feel like incorporating the outdoors in your Valentine’s Day, you could always give your significant other a scavenger hunt to find their gift or to find out where you two will go on your date. Bonus points if the location is a place where you two have great memories. Even if not, it is never too late to make new memories!
Happy Valentine’s Day, ENOpians!
