have fun together! (a datevitation giveaway)

Okay, I am super excited to be doing this giveaway! You know how I am all about experience over stuff right? Well when Datevitation contacted me about this giveaway, I flipped. I am so excited to see a product that focused on giving couples inspiration and motivation to have fun together.

So, What is Datevitation?

Datevitation.com allows you to create a custom love coupon book. You can pick the dates and customize the text to your liking and then Datevitation prints it out and ships it to you in a ready-to-gift box. Datevitation is a family business run by the husband-wife team of Alex and Olga Karpman. You can get to know them on the Datevitation blog, where they offer video guides to date ideas and romantic gestures. You can even watch Alex propose to Olga in a video they posted on Youtube as a Save The Date, and now has over 800,000 views (you can view the video here)!

This year Marc and I agreed that FUN was a new priority for us. Why?

In a New York Times article: “Reinventing Date Night for Long-Married Couples” studies found that just spending time together is not enough for relationship satisfaction. Brain and behavior scientists report that ideally couples need to spend time together around novel and different experiences. “New experiences activate the brain’s reward system, flooding it with dopamine and norepinephrine-which are the same brain circuits that are ignited in early romantic love”. In an experiment comparing 1) Couples spending 90 minutes per week doing pleasant and familiar activities 2) Couples spending 90 minutes on “exciting” activities that they did not typically do like plays, concerts, hiking and dancing 3) No particular activity, the findings were interesting. Couples that participated in “exciting” date nights showed a significantly greater increase in marital satisfaction. - Dr.Michelle Gannon

It can be hard to remember to have fun, especially when you have children, bills and all the responsibilities that come along with family life. A book like this would be a great reminder and go-to for the free night when you are tired and not very inspired. Marc made one for me and I am so excited to see what he dates he picked (I'll be sharing with you all!).

How great of a gift is this though? It isn't another "thing" it is a gift of your time, truly living and having fun together! It would be a perfect Valentines gift. Books are normally $20; but if you follow my blog, you can use the code ‘LITTLELOVES’ for $10 off your purchase in January. That means it would cost you $10 for a super fun Valentines Gift (heck, you could throw in some chocolate and flowers and jazz it up even more)!

A few more things about Dateviation:

• LGBT friendly, so you can choose female/female illustrations or male/male. (So happy to see this!)
• It is a gift focused on creating new and fun experiences together. As I already mentioned, this is extremely important for couples and, according to Dr. John Gottman, it creates shared meaning and a sense of "we" in your life.
• Their library has over 200 date ideas that range from more traditional dates (coffee shop, bookstore) to unconventional (palm reading, fortune teller) to hot (yes, there is an adult-only section) to some that are "thinking-outside-the-box" (win an argument, tech-free day, re-create your first date). They also have some artistic dates that I, personally, would love to go on.
• It is very simple to use, there is even a video you can watch if you get confused.
• Once you use the coupons there is a little space to date when/where. It would be fun to keep them in a scrapbook or a jar so you could pull them out and reminisce together.
• The books ship within 2 days of your order, so it would be a great last minute gift.

Now, about the giveaway...

What can you win? A promo code for a free Datevitation gift book with 5 custom pages.
FINE PRINT:Additional pages are $1 each.  Winner to pay $3.50 for shipping and handling.  Tax will be applied to books shipped to California.  Books ship to U.S. only.

I am using rafflecopter for this giveaway. It is simple to use and you can come back everyday until the giveaway ends (next Friday, January 25th) to up your chances of winning. Each item is worth one entry. You must be following My Little Loves to enter. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway