There are those who love Valentine’s Day. The hearts and flowers, the pink and red, the cheesiness, the candlelight dinners, and of course, the shopping for romantic gifts for their loved ones. Is that not you? Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered. Valentine’s Day is my favorite holiday and I love finding the perfect gift for my loved ones. I’ve rounded up some unique gift ideas and the best part is, it’ll fit any budget from skimpy to extravagant. You won’t find the typical roses and chocolate here, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t add those to your gift as well. I hope you find the perfect gift for your loved one. Happy Valentine’s Day!
One of my favorite types of Valentine’s Day gifts is homemade. You can buy a present on any holiday, but Valentine’s Day just calls for something made with love. Most of these involve a bit of a time investment, but that’s part of what makes them so meaningful.
Over the years Bassam and I have made each other many gifts. Here are some of my favorites.
Personalized Calendar
Last year for Valentine’s Day, I made Bassam a calendar. Each month had a photo printed on it that matched the month {e.g. our wedding picture on our wedding anniversary month, our Halloween costumes in October}. I also marked special dates like our wedding, first kiss, first date, etc. Then I went through the calendar and pre-planned dates for the year. This took a lot of advance planning and it can get pretty pricy if you’re planning on pre-paying for all the dates. The nice thing is that it can take the guesswork out of your dates for the rest of the year! Here are some ideas I included:
- Gingerbread house making competition in December
- Long weekend getaway
- Game night on a random weeknight
Reasons Why I Love You
Who doesn’t love hearing the reasons someone loves them? This concept is pretty simple, you just come up with all {or some of} the reasons why you love them. Now for the fun part, find a way to creatively present it. Here are some ideas:
- Blow up a bunch of balloons and add hearts to the strings. Write your reasons on the strings
- Paint a box dark blue and glue on shiny stars. Write, “If I had a star for every reason I loved you, I’d have the entire night sky”. Within the box, include a bunch of wooden stars. On each one write a reason
- Make it into a fun scrapbook
Scrapbook
This one’s a classic, but it’s always a hit. To this day, Bassam’s favorite gift I ever made him was a scrapbook. You can go high-tech and make it online, kind of like a photo book. Or go low-tech, but super sweet and personalized, and make it yourself. Get a blank notebook (I used a sketch pad) or an album, a bunch of fun stickers, markers, photos of you two, and get creative with it!
I would suggest doing a fun spin on it and make it like a fairytale story. Start with “Once upon a time” end with “and they lived happily ever after” and add your own unique story in the middle.
Open When Envelopes
This gift takes some time to put together, but it keeps on giving. Each envelope has a specific “situation” in which it should be opened. Inside are all kinds of things related to that “situation”. Make some funny, some sweet, some fitting a special occasion coming up. The options are limitless! Here are some ideas I included:
- Open when you need a laugh: a few jokes. A funny picture of us.
- Open when you are tired: a gift card to his favorite coffee shop. Some chocolate. Motivational quotes.
- Open when you’re bored: a Sudoku book. A crossword puzzle about us that I made. A few jokes. My phone number.
- Open when you miss me: a few pictures of us. A short and sweet card. A few lipstick kisses. A gift card for a date night at our favorite restaurant.
- Open when you’re mad at me: a letter on how much I love him.
- Open when I’m mad at you: a list of ways to cheer me up.
- Open the day you propose: a letter to Bassam encouraging him not to be nervous and describing how I feel about him. A picture of us. Lipstick kisses on little slips of paper cut into hearts.
Sometimes you need a budget friendly gift idea. Maybe you have just started dating or you have a fancy dinner planned. Whatever the reason, lack of funds is not an excuse to skip getting a personalized, creative, and romantic gift. Here are some that will be easy on your budget and still elicit an “awww“.
Framed picture
Buy a fancy frame {you can find really nice and budget friendly ones at Home Goods} and put a special picture of you both inside. Simple, yet effective. Alternatively, you could also write a sweet love letter and frame it.
Books
It takes time and effort to pick out the perfect book for someone, which is why I find books a very romantic gift. Pick something based on their interests, like a travel book for a wanderluster or a cookbook for someone who said they want to start eating in more. You could also go the romantic book route or get a grownup version of a childhood favorite.
Bonus: if you write an inscription on the first page you can save some cash by skipping a card.
For her: Personalized Jewelry
You may be wondering, “WHHHAAAT? Jewelry on a $50 and under list?” Yes, it can happen. It’s not going to be rose gold or Tiffany’s {both very popular options}, but you can get something thoughtful. Here are tips on budget jewelry buying:
- Handmade is usually more unique and better quality than mass produced {Etsy is a good place to search}
- Sterling silver is your best bet at this price point
- Small “created” stones. These are genuine stones, but made in a lab instead of mined. Translation: it’s real but costs less. When choosing a stone, going the birthstone route or the birthstone of your anniversary month is always a sweet idea.
Personalized mugs
Who doesn’t love a hot beverage? Most people have an addiction to tea or coffee, making a mug a very useful gift and one that will be used daily. Now personalize that mug and get a matching set of 2 and you have a practical gift turned romantic! There are SO many options out there, but we love this set created especially for Valentine’s Day.
We just love big mugs and these are the perfect size for a large cup of coffee {for Bassam} or tea {for Lena}. Plus it’s very comfortable to hold unlike many other large mugs. This Valentine’s Day inspired mug is very sweet, but still very chic and minimalistic, which makes it perfect for men. {Read: not too cheesy}. Just love!
Personalized illustration
How adorable is this illustration? We found an artist on Etsy who can turn almost any photo of you two into a beautiful illustration. She can also add cute little borders to it. We got some twinkly lights (which were sparkly!) and flowers on our illustration. So romantic!
This gift is perfect for anyone who likes home décor, art, or just unique gifts. We constantly get asked where we got ours from! This gift definitely had a “wow” and “awww” factor and will definitely surprised your loved one. We love the artsy but sweet feel our illustration has given our home.
Personalized candle
Candles are a common gift idea, but they can very unique when they are handmade and personalized. We fell in love with this carved candle from this super talented husband and wife Etsy seller team. Which couple hasn’t carved or written their initials somewhere? That’s why we thought it was such a genius idea to carve the initials into a candle tree branch, made from real fallen branches.
This gift is even perfect to ship to the recipient directly from the seller. Here are the two adorable ways you can get the candles packaged:
By the way, if you’re wondering about the dates we had carved, we did the year we met and the year we got married.
Custom bottle opener
Here’s an example of a very useful gift that can also be romantic once personalized. Everyone can use a bottle opener and this one is so cute with it’s personalization! You can get special coordinates, a special date, and short phrase. We did the coordinates of the city we met and were married and our wedding date. Isn’t it adorable? You can find it here from this Etsy Seller who also makes a ton of other really sweet personalized items like necklaces and key chains.
Soundwave jewelry
Necklace pictured above can be found here
Ring pictured above can be found here
This jewelry is very unique and can be a good gift for men or women. Here’s how it works: you record a personal message on your smartphone microphone and screenshot the sound wave. The artist will then create the sound waves onto jewelry. Super cool! I made one for Bassam, but what I said is a secret 😉
For her: Tiffanys
What girl doesn’t love receiving that quintessential teal blue box with the white ribbon? If you find one, don’t worry, you can send me her gift.
Sometimes just the sight of the box is exciting enough without needing to know what’s inside. They have plenty of beautiful options under $250 if you aren’t looking for a super splurge.
Watch
A watch can be a very romantic gift. It’s something the recipient can wear everyday and be reminded of the giver everyday. You can also inscribe it with something sweet like, “I’ll love you for all of time”.
For her
For him
For her: Nice purse
Another one of those romantic choices because you can wear it everyday. Extra points if you add some cute little surprises like a few chocolates and love notes.
For a super splurge, you can’t go wrong with Chanel. But let’s be honest, that’s rarely in anyone’s budget.
This one has just the slightest hint of pale pink and so pretty for Valentine’s Day!
For him: nice wallet
Make him feel fancy on the daily with a nice wallet. For an added romantic touch, stuff the wallet with a photo of you two and love coupons before gifting.
Here’s one that’s Bassam approved. Also comes in black.
A weekend (or week long!) trip
This one is our favorite option of all! Why not celebrate Valentine’s Day in a special way and travel! We always find a way to include travel in our celebrations and Valentine’s Day is no different. We are going to Cuba for Valentine’s Day. Here are some other romantic destination ideas:
- Paris (shockingly low rates for airfare and hotels in February)
- Hawaii
- Maldives, Thailand, or Bali
- Switzerland, Austria, or Romania
What’s your favorite Valentine’s Gift you’ve ever received?
We’d love to know!
xoxo, Lena
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Nadin says
Thank you very much!!
happilyeveradventures says
We loved your sound wave bracelet very much! So unique!
Julia says
These are great ideas! I’ve done some of the DIY gifts before and they’re always big hits 🙂
happilyeveradventures says
Yes! DIY is always so sweet to receive!
Luci's Morsels says
How cute! I LOVE that “open when” gift idea – so necessary in life!
happilyeveradventures says
Thanks! If you can believe it, Bassam still have envelopes he hasn’t opened. I would’ve opened all mine the day I received it!
Travelgal Nicole says
I always love any related to photos! Calendars and scrapbooks are my fave. Great list
happilyeveradventures says
Agree! Such a good way to use the many photos we take!
Staci says
I love DIY presents for Valentine’s but some of those Etsy gifts were so cute, I might need to change it up!! My fiance always gives two gifts, one attempted DIY and then a simple piece of jewellery that normally has some elaborate story ha
happilyeveradventures says
Aww love that! That’s what Bassam typically does too. There’s so much cute stuff on Etsy! It was tough picking my faves for the guide.
Kallsy says
We’ve gotta up our V-Day game! Logan is a romantic but I’ve never been a HUGE fan of Valentine’s Day so he has since held off. I’ve just never been the stuff animal holding a box of chocolates gal. But these gifts… now I could go for that! 😉 Love the illustration, the sound wave bracelet, and of course Tiffany’s jewelry! That was the first birthday gift I ever received from Logan 🙂
You’ve changed my perspective on Valentine’s Day – that’s for sure!
happilyeveradventures says
Aw Kallsy, I’m totally going to get you into Valentine’s Day! I’m definitely not a stuffed animal girl either, but I’m a sucker for DIY and personalized gifts! You really can never go wrong with Tiffanys…