July 2021 Date Jar: “Go on a spontaneous weekend getaway”
July 22, 2021
What’s the ‘Date Jar’?
Have you ever heard someone say that the fun ends when you get married? What about ‘ball and chain jokes’ or advice to ‘sow your wild oats’ before you get married and have to ‘settle down’? Our culture has a tendency to portray marriage in such a negative light. We know marriage comes with it’s many challenges, but we believe you can keep the butterflies alive long after you say “I do”!
When we got engaged, our friends gave us a jar filled with date ideas so that we could continue ‘dating’ even after we got married. Now, after being married over 4 years, we think about that jar and understand how truly important it is to set aside intentional time to have fun and try new things together. We believe that continuing to date after your wedding day is essential to building a strong, lasting marriage. Because of that, we gift all of our couples with a date jar filled with 52 different date ideas, some that we have personally already enjoyed, and some new ideas that we have always wanted to try together!
As we encourage couples just beginning their forever together, we thought it would be fun to share our dates to inspire all our friends, families, and couples to continue pursuing each other in marriage.
Life has felt like it’s been moving at top speed since we moved to Nashville a few months ago! Between our California weddings this summer and trying to get settled in our new home, Beau’s birthday really snuck up on me. I remember doing a double-take at the end of June when I saw the date and realized I still didn’t have any idea what to do to celebrate Beau this year. I wanted to make this birthday extra special because it’s actually the first time he’s ever had a birthday away from family. With a July birthday, he was always home from college on summer break, and for the last 5 years we lived right next to both of our families. So every year there have aways been birthday dinners and celebrations galore!
After brainstorming and researching some ideas, I figured out the perfect plan. But before I share what I decided to do to celebrate him this year, you should know something about Beau. When we first decided we were moving to Tennessee, Beau was so excited because he discovered a plethora of new major league baseball stadiums we could drive to from our new home. It has been a life dream of his to visit every major league stadium in the country. So of course that meant that it became one of my life dreams when we got married 😉 Good thing it wasn’t hard to convince me to go to baseball games and eat lots of stadium food! (here’s a pic from our first baseball date night 9 years ago!)
So with only 2 weeks to pull a weekend getaway together, I decided to start researching stadiums that were within a few hours of us. When I realized Beau had never been to the Atlanta Braves stadium, I called my Aunt and Uncle who live just outside the city. They offered to host us for the weekend and told me that Bailey was welcome to come along on the adventure, too!
I bought the tickets for the game and surprised Beau 2 days before his birthday with the plans for the weekend. On Friday the 16th (his birthday), we packed up the car and hit the road! When we arrived in Georgia, my sweet aunt had a birthday dinner prepared and even baked Beau a birthday cake, too! 🙂
Beau was so excited for the game, but then my uncle surprised him (and me!) with the treat of a lifetime. My uncle is a pilot and owns a little 2 seater airplane. On Saturday morning, he casually offered to take us flying. Beau was floored! We enthusiastically accepted the offer and spent the morning doing barrel rolls and loops in the sky.
That afternoon we made our way to Truist Park for the game. Bailey hung back with my aunt and uncle and had a blast in the pool. I bet she didn’t even notice we were gone!
We got all the stadium snacks we could eat, Beau picked out some Braves gear, and we enjoyed watching the game together. The cherry on top of the best weekend getaway was a Braves win that night!
Beau loved the game and was thrilled to check another stadium off his list. But to be honest, I don’t think anything could top flying in my uncle’s plane! He is STILL talking about it 😀 Thank you to my aunt and uncle for helping me pull off this surprise birthday weekend!
For another fun date idea, check out this date jar post from earlier this year! And don’t miss this Instagram Reel from our trip 🙂
