Progressive Dinner Date {with Free Printables}

I wanted to do something new and special for my hubby's recent birthday (other than making his dream dessert, German Chocolate Tres Leches, a reality). I wanted to take him someplace new, because we love exploring new restaurants; it's one of our favorite things to do together. As I started thinking about places to go, it dawned on me that I could take him to several new places by doing a progressive dinner date.

I ended up taking him to four different places: one for appetizers and drinks, one for dinner, one for entertainment, and one for dessert. I had the most fun planning it all out!

I decided it would be the most fun if hubby had no idea whatsoever what we were doing, other than going out on a baby-free date. Then I came up with the idea of making printables with the destinations on them, and letting my husband open them along the way.

I designed the printables using PicMonkey (scroll to the end of the post to download the *free* printables!) and added in the names and locations of where we were going. Then I numbered four envelopes...

...and slid the printables into them in the order I decided to proceed on our date.

Then, just because I thought it would be cute, I stacked the envelopes together and tied them together with twine.

I was so excited about our date that I had a really hard time not spilling the beans to hubby beforehand, but I'm glad I didn't. A progressive dinner would be fun regardless, but since the entire thing was a surprise, I think it added an extra element of fun to it.

Here we are, ready to go out: (sorry the picture's a little blurry)

When we got into the car, I handed my husband the bundle of envelopes and told him to only open the first one.

 
This was when we were still living in Houston, so for my Texas readers, I thought I'd list the places we went in case you wanted to try them yourselves. If you're reading from anywhere else, just make the date your own with places in your area!

Here's my handsome man opening one of his clues:

Our Stops

Appetizers and Drinks: The Cellar Door wine bar in Katy. I highly recommend it; the staff was knowledgeable and courteous, and we loved the comfortable lounge area to relax in. 

Dinner: Hubcap Grill and Beer Yard in Houston. This place has a fun vibe and delicious burgers with all kinds of interesting toppings. 

Entertainment: Lone Star Tobacco in Houston. Sounds like a strange choice for entertainment, but my husband has started collecting tobacco pipes, so I took him here to pick one out and to buy some specialty tobacco. If you're into this kind of thing, Lone Star is the place to go!

Dessert: The Chocolate Bar dessert restaurant in Houston. This place is fun and funky, with every kind of chocolate dessert or confection you could possibly imagine. It's busy, loud, and crowded, but they do have amazing desserts.

We had a great time on our date, and my husband said it was one of the best birthdays he's ever had! If you're looking for something new to do for date night, you should really give this a try!

I think what made our progressive dinner such a success was the fact that I did a lot of research to find new places I was confident we would enjoy. If your loved one is less adventurous when it comes to trying new places, just take them to some of their favorite places instead of trying something new, so you know they'll have a good time.

The printables below can be downloaded and then opened in PicMonkey for you to add text to write your destination and address, or you can print them as-is and write the destinations in by hand.

Right-click the images and then click "download" or "save image as".

I hope you enjoy your progressive dinner date; leave me a comment about it, I would love to hear from you!

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