valentine's day 2023

Feb 15, 20233 min read

life: simple and sweet is the way to go for Valentine's Day.

I get it. I really do. Valentine's Day is not for everyone. When looking at Valentine's Day on the surface, it's easy to get butt hurt. It can seem like everyone has that "special someone" that they are just SO in love with, and when you don't have a romantic partner, even seeing someone else have a happiness that you don't can sting. Even when you're in a loving, healthy relationship with someone who adores you, you can get so caught up in what other couples are gifting one another, or posting on instagram, or everyone else is getting engaged or WHATEVER that you don't even appreciate the wonderful, homemade love that you've created with your partner.

I might be a little biased about my feelings surrounding Valentine's Day. I've always been wonderfully neutral (maybe a bit bitter when I was single), but for the most party, relatively unfazed. Matthew and I have been together for a little over two and a half years now, and I think that we've always had toned down Valentine's Days, which I appreciate SO MUCH. Especially in today's content driven culture, someone is always doing something cuter, and as I said before, it's easy to be disappointed.

I have been plagued my entire life with unrealistic expectations. When you're child, its cute to dream big, but when you're an adult who knows that every valentine's present, birthday, and Christmas gift can't always be better than the last; agreeing to small, thoughtful gifts, sets you and your partner's evening up for success.

This year Matthew made reservations to a trendy southern restaurant in Downtown Des Moines; Tupelo Honey, located only 7 minutes from our apartment on the west side. We had buttermilk biscuits with homemade jam and whipped butter for an app, some variation of fried chicken for our entrees, and then shared a slice of thick chocolate cake for desert (it was impossible to finish all our food and we took so much home, will update you on the "leftovers"quality). It was yummy, but neither one of us were raving about our food. 2.5/5 tbh. not bad, not AMAZING.

When we came home we got into comfy clothes (I chose my pink/red jammie set), played with Finn and had a photoshoot with him, and then cuddled in bed as a fam. Matt and I exchanged gifts; Matthew got me a beautiful pink bouquet (he also bought me a GORGEOUS blue bouquet two weeks ago when he was asking me to be his Valentine, I'll include it in the photo gallery) and steps for Finn in our living room, and I got him new wallet with other little things I thought he would like. He absolutely hated the socks I bought him but I couldn't help but buy them when I saw them at Tandem Brick.

All in all, a pretty successful Valentine's if I do say so myself. It was simple, sweet, and a wonderful time to set aside for just Matthew and I, although he might disagree because of how many photos I took for this blog post, but he was absolutely accommodating the entire night- I'm sure it was in the name of Valentine's Day that he let all my sh*t slide). Life is busy when you're young, and I love any excuse for sentimentality. Life is short, I love celebrating love.

I hope your Valentine's Day was easy and beautiful,

-tiff xx