This October we’ll celebrate 18 years of marriage. Now while I have no idea how the heck that many years have gone by, I can tell you that’s a whole lot of date nights! Of course, we’ve made tons of mistakes over the years, and we’re still a work in progress, but one thing we’ve been able to consistently do well is Date Night!

Some weeks we missed and some weeks turned into 3 date nights… so if we average it out that’s almost 900 dates as a married couple.

With all those dates… Date Night could have gotten boring, but we’ve got a formula that has kept our date nights fun!

But, let’s back up a minute. What makes date night a true success? Just going out to your same routine spot isn’t going to do it.

We’ve found the key to dating your spouse long term is novelty.

The new, the unexpected, and sometimes the downright uncomfortable gives us new conversation prompts, new stories to share, new inside jokes to laugh about, and when we’re leading up to a new type of date (think cooking classes, a Segway tour, or dance lesson) it offers new material to talk about.

Here are 4 ways we’ve mixed things up over the years…

1. One year we each put in 25 date night ideas into a jar and then we picked one a week until they were all gone. Some weeks we were going to a sports game (his idea) and other weeks we were getting pedicures (my idea).

2. There was also a while when we used Living Social and Groupon to give us new ideas… We’d see something that looked interesting buy the experience and then add it to the date night list. There’s glass blowing, escape rooms, new restaurants, classes, tours, the list goes on.

3. We also love to break it up and do some dates just us, but we also love double dates and group dates too! We’ve done a marriage conference with friends, we have a group we love going to the theatre with, we’ve gone zip-lining, and a go-to fave is Din Tai Fung & Foot Massages.

4. And finally, we throw parties! Throwing parties has been super fun for date nights… There was the Ugly Sweater, the Blck-Tie New Years Party, Cinco de Mayo, and a Mystery Dinner Party.

Here are a few of my favorite dates:

1. Cooking Classes
2. Asian Foot Massages
3. Game Night with Friends
4. Ballroom Dance Lessons
5. Overnight Hike
6. Paddle Boarding
7. Going to the Theatre (stage)
8. The Batting Cage or Tennis Court
9. Host a Dinner Party
10. Spa-Day
11. City Segway Tour
12. Shooting Range
13. Festival
14. Taking an online class together (at home)
15. Mud Race
16. Sports Game
17. Arcade Games
18. History Tour
19. Outdoor Movie in the Park
20. Picnik in a Garden
21. Food Festivals

Choose your next date night and let me know how it goes!