10 tips to turn up your Valentine’s Day charm

This year, Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday. Hopefully, this gives you ample time to prepare for it. It is all about romance and expressing your love to the one you cherish the most.

It comes with high expectations and preparing for it can create a lot of anxiety and stress. To make your Valentine’s Day easy, here are ten tips that will ensure you create a day that is charming and memorable.

• Set reminders; create calendar events

To start preparing, remind yourself that the little things matter when expressing your love. Using your Google Assistant, set reminders and create calendar events to ensure that little details do not fall through the cracks.

Schedule time to clean, get a babysitter (if you have a baby), buy ingredients for recipes, and make reservations.

You can simply create new calendar events by telling Assistant, “add to my calendar” or “make an appointment” followed by the event’s name, and optionally even location.

For instance, you could say: “Add to my calendar, buy red roses on February 12th at 10a.m,” Google Assistant is available on most current Android devices. You can access it by setting up “Hey, Google” voice activation.

• Create a playlist of love songs

Love songs are perfect for stirring up a romantic mood. Songs you pick are a major part of showing how you feel.

On YouTube, there are a variety of love songs fit for Valentine’s Day. You can create a playlist of romantic love songs, from timeless classics to brand-new tracks to share with your loved one before Val’s day.

On Valentine’s Day, you can stream the songs from your created playlist while you sing along with your loved one. The right love songs plus a candlelight dinner; candles and flowers, not forgetting slow dancing will go a long way.

• Purchase a special gift

Google Maps’ nearby function can help you find gift stores close to you to purchase that special gift for Valentine’s Day. Simply open Google Maps, search for a place, press enter, then click “Nearby.”

Enter the kind of place you want to search like, “Gift shops”, then press enter again to see the top results in red mini-pins and red dots. The results show you an array of gift shops you can purchase gifts from.

Share gifts that show your appreciation and not necessarily those that break the bank. For instance, you can choose between a favourite perfume or cologne, a bottle of wine, jewelry, or a trip to the spa.

• Find inspiration for the lounge

You can choose to break away from the norm of spending time in a fancy restaurant and hotel. Bring the love back home and spend quality time with your sweetheart.

This will require some deliberate effort to create comfortable surroundings with a romantic ambiance. The lounge is the perfect spot to get you and your partner in the mood for love.

You can watch YouTube videos to get Valentine’s Day decor ideas to create a romantic mood in your lounge.

Whether you decide to set up Valentine’s Day tree or adorn the lounge with blush pink decor instead of red, you will definitely be inspired by the videos you watch on YouTube.

• Opt for top-rated restaurants

Making plans for that Valentine’s Day romantic evening. Use the “Explore” feature on Google Maps to find the top-rated restaurants around you.

See listings of the names and addresses of the restaurants, opening hours, directions, a price scale and even user reviews so you can see if it’s worth making a reservation.

It is important to make sure that the menu can accommodate your dietary preferences and to check if it is within your budget.

It is imperative that you adhere to Covid-19 preventive measures if you must spend that day outdoors at a restaurant. So ensure that the restaurant is operating with Covid-19 guidelines for businesses in Nigeria.

• Connect with your sweetheart over a distance

If you are in a long-distance relationship or you have been separated due to the Covid-19 travel ban, never mind, lover’s day can still be memorable. Make use of Google Meet to connect with your sweetheart.

Set up a video call to share the day together. You can have a meal via the call, stream a movie together, listen to your favourite playlist online or just sincerely confess your love to each other among other planned activities.

• Relieve your love by creating and sharing photo memories 

With Google Photos, you can relieve your love memories and share them with your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day. You probably have photos with your partner saved up over the years.

If you have Google Photos, those photos will have been saved up automatically. Simply select the photos that share intimate memories via a created folder with your loved one – this will definitely be nostalgic.

Also, you can make plans to have a romantic Valentine’s Day photoshoot using your device and save up the photos in a folder in Google photos and share later with your sweetheart.

• Binge-watch your favourite romantic movies

Valentine’s Day is a nice time to make plans to cuddle up and watch romantic movies. YouTube provides a list of romantic movies that can be streamed for free.

Grab wine and chocolate, with scented candles, while laying on the rug and binge-watch love movies into the night.

• Serenade your honey with a love song

A great way to show how much love you feel for that special person on Valentine’s Day is to sing to him/her. Music connects with love emotions. If you’re not sure of the lyrics of that favourite love song, you can simply search for it.

By typing, ‘song name’ plus “lyrics” in the search bar on Google Search, you get the lyrics displayed at the top of the search results page.

• Get inspiration for love words

There is no doubt that Valentine’s Day can make us anxious and not sure of the right ways to say, “I love you.” Take a peek into Google Arts and Culture portal to get inspiration from Beethoven.

In his numerous letters, compositions and notes there are some declarations of love; beautiful passages, that have been compiled that you can draw inspiration from to get the right words to profess your undying love.

With a little effort and some planning, you will not only create a very special day, but you will create a Valentine’s Day that will be memorable. Remember, little romantic touches make a big difference.

You really do not have to overdo it. Pay attention to little romantic details to ensure your Valentine’s Day is an enjoyable, special day to remember.