How To Celebrate Love Together: His & Hers

When it comes to special occasions to celebrate your love with your SO, Dave and I are huge proponents of a His and Hers style of celebration. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to be surprised by things, but we find that occasions like Valentines Day, anniversaries, etc. can often create a lot of expectation from one party and (often) disappointment in the other.

Having an agreement of celebrating your love together, from both sides, is one that we’ve found, in our 9 years of being together, a lot more successful in actually celebrating the love you BOTH share.

Chivalry isn’t dead. It’s just been transformed. Admittedly, as females, I think we should be the ones pioneering the concept of reciprocation. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve heard “I can’t believe he didn’t get me anything” to “I should be spoiled by him today”. Dave and I are strong believers of the fact that we should be spoiling each other on days of celebration and that it really shouldn’t be one sided.

With Valentines Day creeping up and the season of wedding anniversaries upon us, we wanted to share some of the ideas we’ve found helpful in celebrating love as a couple. Here are some things you can plan together to celebrate your love and ones that will have you feeling like a badass Queen to her King, rather than a Princess waiting for her Prince.

His & Hers Shopping Trip

We’ve started thinking of this as a “new way of gift giving”. It turns “gifts” and “gift expectation” into an experience and a memory you share with your SO. Dave and I are both huge time piece fanatics. We both collect watches and have an expanding collection. This year, we picked out His and Hers watches to celebrate our near-decade of being together. Funny story – for our very first anniversary, I got Dave a watch and engraved the back of it with the inscription “Love to stand the test of time”. Cheesy, I know. I got a set of lingerie (and clearly wasn’t the most thrilled). Needless to say, we’ve grown from that point.

Some of our favourite timepieces are from Citizen and Bulova. The legacy brands hold a really strong history for both Dave and I. I grew up seeing my Grandfather put on his Citizen watch every morning before heading to work and it’s always been a brand I associate class, function, and elegance with.

It was so fun to pick out our Citizen and Bulova watches together. Whether you’re doing it in-store or online, the fact that you’re doing it together makes it that much more meaningful and special. You’ll look back on that moment and remember doing something together.

Dave chose the Citizen Promaster Sailhawk. His favourite colour is blue, so I knew he’d be drawn to this gorgeous and strong time piece. We travel quite a bit so the polyurethane band is a perfect fit for his every day wear. Inspired by true sailors (Dave’s ancestors were sailors and fisherman in Portugal), we felt like this watch spoke so much to the person Dave is today and his history.

I chose the Bulova Regatta in gold. I’ve been looking for a piece to layer with my fine gold jewelry that was dainty, still a statement, but one that just fit with everything else I wear on a daily basis. The thin build and minimalist face reminds me of how elegance and class doesn’t need to be complicated. And LBH, life get’s pretty complicated.

Both of our timepieces are available at Hudson’s Bay. We really wanted to find pieces that spoke to who we are in this moment in time and how we’re feeling about life. Every time we look back down at our time pieces, I feel like we’ll remember this exact moment and that we share it together.

Getaway/Road Trip

Sometimes an adventure is what you need. Dave and I have loved taking road trips ever since we started dating. Sometimes, we would just drive with no destination point. We’d put on some music and just enjoy each other’s company discovering new places. Now we jump on a flight to do that, but whether it’s a road trip only a couple hours away, to a chalet weekend getaway, or an exotic trip to an island, going somewhere together and exploring new places is a great way to celebrate the love (and the partnership) you have together.

Sharing A New Experience

And sometimes you don’t even need to leave the city to do something new together. There’s always so many incredibly and new spots to check out together. Whether you want to get active together or want to try a new culinary delight together, find something you both haven’t done (or haven’t done in a long time) and book that!

We have our eyes on sky-diving, rock climbing, and a few museum exhibits.

Quality Down Time

Then there’s good old fashioned down-time together. It’s overlooked but this is just as special as an elaborate date night planned. Often times, it’s also much more enjoyable. However “down-time” looks to you and your SO, take it and spice it up a bit. If you love watching Netflix together, try doing that with a splurge take out dinner for a good twist. Or if you’re trying to spice it up, watch Netflix in bed together naked. I guarantee you won’t forget that quality down time together.

Whatever it is that you’re doing with your SO this year and however you’re celebrating it, I think the most important thing to remember is that you’re doing it together. You’re celebrating each other. It’s a day and moment you want the other person to remember as special. Put expectations aside and just enjoy each other.

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