How To Plan a Romantic Dinner at Home for Your Lady

From Sheri & Bob Stritof, http://marriage.about.com

Forget about the lame excuse that you can't cook, you wimp! If you are culinary-challenged, you can still plan a romantic dinner at home for the two of you by either choosing simple recipes to follow or by purchasing some of the meal courses from a restaurant or store.

Here's How:

Set the stage of your romantic dinner by making sure the two of you will be alone.

If you have children, arrange for babysitting at someone else's home.

Plan your romantic dinner on an evening of a week that you are sure your spouse won't have other time commitments already scheduled.

Do you want the romantic dinner to be a surprise or not? If it is a surprise, light candles in the entrance of your home to surprise your spouse.

If the dinner won't be a surprise, consider giving your spouse an invitation that you write yourself.

Send the invitation by mail, leave it on your mate's pillow, send it with a bouquet of flowers, leave it on the dash of your spouse's car, etc.

Your invitation needs to be specific as to when the romantic dinner is planned.

Be creative!  

Set the table with a tablecloth, cloth napkins, nice dinnerware, crystal, unscented candles, and flowers. The napkins can be rolled or folded in a pretty way.

Sprinkle the table with rose petals or sparkly heart shaped sprinkles. You can set floating candles in small glasses filled partly with cranberry juice.

Decide on your romantic dinner menu.

Keep it simple, but don't forget the appetizers. Plan on serving foods that your spouse likes. This isn't a time to experiment with a new recipe.

If you are going to order your part of your romantic dinner from a restaurant or other source, make sure you have time to transfer the menu items to attractive bowls and platters.

Choose the music you want to listen to ahead of time, and have soft romantic music playing in the background.

Create dimmed lighting for the room where you will be dining. Small, white Christmas light strings can have the desired look. So can a fire in a fireplace.

Turn off the television, computers, and other distractions.

Tips:

Get dressed up.

Have a plan on what you will do after dinner. You could take a moonlit walk together, watch a romantic movie, or dance to romantic music.

What You Need:

A Plan

A Menu

Determination

Candles

Mood Music

Romantic Movie

Flowers

Nice linen for the table, good tableware, crystal glasses

Creative Thinking

Sample Menus:

Look under the "Food" section on my list of helpful links for plenty of helpful sites!

Romantic Dinner Menu -- Chinese

Romantic Dinner Menu -- French

Romantic Dinner Menu -- Greek

Romantic Dinner Menu -- Italian

Romantic Dinner Menu -- Mexican

Romantic Dinner Menu -- Simple

Enjoy!