Photo Credit: LiveScience.com

Most times when we think of a romantic evening, it’s just for the two of us. But there are times when it is fun to invite your closest married friends over for a nice evening  together. And if you don’t really have close friends yet, we believe this post will help you see how vital they can be for a healthy marriage.

Following are a few ideas of what you could do to plan a night everyone will remember long after you’ve all said, “Good night!”

Never underestimate the influence a well-planned evening can have on the couples who attend.

Evening #1

• Host A Wine Tasting Party – this is fun way to sample different wines you may never try on your own. The link provides a variety of different tastings from which to choose.

Evening #2

• Start A Dinner Club – Pick friends who enjoy cooking and start you’re own club. The rules can be made to suit your likes, but we enjoyed our Passport Dinner Club. Every two months we met choosing a country to celebrate. Each couple was assigned a course to bring and it had to be an authentic recipe from that country. It was a fun way to expand our culinary skills as couples as well as our tastes.

Evening #3

• Host A Downton Abby Dinner Party – Have your guests come dressed up to the 9’s. Serve food that is authentic from the Edwardian Era. You can even charge a small fee in order to have a more elegant meal. For those who can afford it, you could even have the evening catered. How fun to have a formal dinner party for no reason other than to celebrate your marriages.

Evening #4

• Host a 1940’s Big Band Party – Have your guest come dressed for a night of Swing Dancing and custom mixed cocktails. You could even have a signature drink competition. The drinks don’t have to be alcoholic. The emphasis isn’t on the drinking, but on the romantic atmosphere created, and the fun enjoyed.

Evening #5

• Host a Movie Night – Create a meal around a favorite movie and then enjoy watching it together as a group. Provide lots of fluffy pillows and throws for each couple to snuggle up together. You could even arrange to borrow a projection DVD player. Use a large white sheet hung on a back fence or screened porch. Set chairs up in twos and call it your very own drive-in theatre. 🙂

Evening #6

• Host a Make Your Own Pizza Competition – Invite couples to bring their own toppings for the pizza they think will win. Then, provide the dough and sauces and let each couple create their masterpiece. Judge the pizzas on their shape, appearance and of course, taste. The winners don’t have to help clean up the mess. 🙂

The idea of these parties is to encourage romance between husband and wife, and to share the joy it is to have married friends in the same season as you are. You never know when one of those couples will become life-long friends with whom you travel together in your later years. We have three couples we’ve known for most of our married life that we travel with. In fact we just finished a fantastic weekend together–we called it our Land Cruise, since we were unable to pull off a cruise this year for various reasons. But we discovered that it’s not so much about where we go or what we do as it is about who we’re with.

Friendships can enrich your marriage in so many ways. How have your found this to be true? Have you ever planned similar parties for the sole purpose of being with your friends?

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This is post #16 in the challenge to post everyday in April.