30 Creative Ways To Say 'I Love You'

ProConnect Subscribe to Experts Blog By Gina Senarighi

Be as sweet as you want to be. Get creative. Spend a month gettign creative with the one you love!

All too often we forget to show the ones we love how important they are to us. So here are 31 creative ways to say "I love you" to get you through the last days of 2013. Hopefully these starters will get ideas rolling to last you the next 365 in 2014!

Sungaze. Watch a sunset or sunrise together and bring a picnic or background music to set the mood. Check for sunrise or sunset times in advance!Make a love note scavenger hunt hiding sweet reminders and rewards in your home, office, or neighborhood.Read bedtime stories. Pick a favorite book and read aloud together. Quality time together and the expansion of your individual/collective knowledge bases.Send an e-greeting. Someecards is my personal favorite for snarkiness, and you can personalize them!Write it in the sand. Or the fall leaves, or seashells, or shoes boxes, or rose petals….Unplug. Set up a media free night and focus 100% of your attention on your honey.Write it in lipstick on the mirror. Even if you aren’t the one who wears lipstick (or neither of you do).Take a deeper look. Share five minutes of uninterrupted eye contact. Try it and see what happens.Appreciate big. Throw a surprise appreciation party with close friends where everyone gives a short speech about why someone is loved.Plan your sweetheart’s dream date. Do exactly what they love to do, with no strings attached.Write it in the snow (no, not like that). If you live somewhere cold, use food coloring and a spray bottle to write sweet words in your love’s yard. These folks did it with spray paint.Make a calendar. Use your google or iCal or Outlook or whatever, and make a note every day of one thing you appreciate about your special someone.  Make sure you share it so they can see!Re-live your first date, or meeting. Remember the details and try to line things up with meaning. If it was awkward, stage a re-do.Movie marathon. Rent a bunch of your love's favorite films from childhood. Don't forget the popcorn!Love all over. Trace your sweetie's body and fill in the outline with all the awesome things you appreciate about their body.Make a homemade thank you card. Get out your markers, glitter, and crayons! What a sweet (and sparkly) way to say something kind to someone you love!Write out an alphabet of appreciation. Make a list of something you appreciate about your sweetheart for every letter of the alphabet.Be the Grocery Fairy. For those of you who prefer "acts of service" as your love language—surprise a lover with a week’s worth of fresh groceries. Don't forget the note from Grocery Fairy!Bake it. Say it in cookies, frosting, cakes, or pie tops. Make your sweeties favorite sugary treat and top it with your love.Make a modern mixtape. Curate hand-picked tracks for your honey, to let them know you're thinking of them!Write it out. Hand write a letter explaining why you love someone—and be specific.Serenade. Dedicate and perform a karaoke song to your beloved. Dance moves always help.Goodnight love note. Hide a love note under their pillow. Better yet, make them a love note pillow.Go international. Surprise them with an "I love you" in another language. Use google translate to get your pronunciation right!Home movies. Use iMovie to piece together a collection of reasons why you appreciate your sweetheart and upload to vimeo.Breakfast in bed. You can even make pancakes or toast that say it for you.Written on the body. Write a love note on your body and have a scavenger hunt for your lover to find it!Make a love map. Not the Gottman Love Map you hear me talking about all the time, instead this time get a map and stick a pin in it for each of your travels. If you have yet to go far, stick another color in for your future travels!Play it out. Make a crossword or word search puzzle of your favorite inside jokes.Send a panty-gram. Yes. That's what it said.

Start loving more creatively today! Pick something above, or submit your own creative way to say I love you in the comments.

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Credentials: ACC, BCC, MA, MFTI, MS, PhDOther Articles/News by Gina Senarighi:By Gina Senarighi

For some couples, the decision to have children is something that was decided well before marriage. But for many couples, choosing whether or not to have children can be one of their most daunting issues. Because this decisions is irreversible, it's one that can't be taken lightly. Sometimes the argument for parenthood is obvious: parenthood can be ... Read moreBy Gina Senarighi

I work with couples weekly to help them find deeper connection and understanding with each other. They are well-intentioned, caring, kind, and sweet people who just don't understand each other the way they once did, or who just don’t feel heard when they finish conversations. They come to me to learn how to better connect and really see each other ... Read moreBy Gina Senarighi

A beautiful poem to start your new year by John O’Donohue. Wishing all of you a joyful, peaceful year of abundance! In out-of-the-way places of the heart Where your thoughts never think to wander This beginning has been quietly forming Waiting until you were ready to emerge. For a long time it has watched your desire Feeling the ... Read moreSee More

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Creative First Dates: Think Outside the Cafe [EXPERT]

Abandon the Coffee Date - Transform your first dates from an interview to an adventure.

How many more getting-to-know-you first and second dates will you go on before you meet The One?  Would you even really want to know that answer?  Maybe not, huh? 

The secret to having GREAT dating experiences is to make each and every date an adventure.  A memorable, enriching event that gives you the chance not only to explore possibilities with a new prospective partner but also to engage in an activity that will be inpiring and worthwhile, whether the person you're with is a Keeper...or not.

Here's what some of our Cupid's Coach Clients have been doing on their first dates.

Jonathan and Susie are both surfers and she'd been wanting to try Stand-Up Paddle Boarding, so their first date was at the beach.  He brought the boards, she brought the picnic lunch and they had an absolute blast. 

Maggie and Stan met at the Getty Centerhttp://www.getty.edu/ to see the Gustav Klimt exhibit, which inspired lively conversation over Chardonnay and Pinot Noir afterward.

Bruce learned on his first date with Amanda that she loves gardening, cooking and entertaining and the Olympics.  He asked her to join him at the Farmer's Market http://www.farmersmarketla.com/on a gorgeous Saturday morning, after which they bonded over burgers at a sports bar and cheered on the US gymnasts. 

Laura and Rob are both dog lovers, and their first date was at the park, with dogs in tow.  They both brought snacks and drinks and they spent a delicious afternoon together people watching, dog play and enjoying each other's company.

Mark and Samantha met at a wine tasting and got to know each other over the study of Cabernets and Pinots.  They didn't click romantically, but now he knows the difference between a Merlot and a Zinfandel, and he's happy for that.

What's the purpose of the date?  To fall madly in love?  Well, ideally so.  And yet the reality is that the vast majority of people you meet up with for a first or second date don't end up being Keepers, at least in a romantic sense.  If you can broaden the interpretation of the purpose of the date, you'll find that it's never a waste of time, energy or money.  Our Clientshttp://www.cupidscoach.com are discovering all kinds of creative first and second date adventures. 

Make a list of activities you've been wanting to experience and offer up some fun suggestions when you next hear the words...."Shall we meet for coffee?"

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Getting Creative

Ben left for Chicago early this morning, and I had an entire weekend day ahead of me with no plans. The first thing I decided to do with my day was catch up on phone calls. First call: the parents.

“Your mother is on a hike,” Dad said. “With her hippie lady group.”

“A hike?!” I exclaimed. My mother doesn’t hike, as a general rule.

“They’re doing some communing with nature thing,” Dad grumbled. “I just hope no one falls and breaks a hip.”

I laughed and played catch up with my father. He’s so much more talkative when my mother isn’t around, but not so talkative that he didn’t have to go after 10 minutes and finish watering the garden before it got too hot outside. It was too early to dial Sarah, who was also on my list, so I called LB instead.

“9:00 on a Sunday, K.? Really?” he asked when he got on the phone.

“You have a kid. I knew you’d be up.”

“I’m barely caffeinated,” he said. “Are you engaged yet?”

I told him I wasn’t, and also to please stop asking. I also told him about Mom’s hiking trip, and try as we might, we couldn’t really picture Mom traipsing through a forest with a bluebird on her shoulder. LB told me about my niece’s latest adventure involving a turtle and a shoebox, and I decided I needed to go visit soon.

“Why don’t we come there?” LB suggested instead. “We can take her to the zoo.”

We decided on the weekend after I get back from Chicago. After we got off the phone, I cleaned, threw in some laundry, and then got out the laptop. I’ve been wanting to embark on a new project lately – a class, a new workout, something – but I hadn’t found anything that was really speaking to me. And there it was in my inbox. An email deal for “10 art, writing or acting classes.” But which one to take? Luckily, I didn’t have to figure it out until after I bought it, which I did. I knew I didn’t want the acting classes – if there’s anything hosting On the Issues taught me, it’s that I am not a natural born performer, and I’m okay with that. I was torn between art and writing. I took art classes throughout high school, and a sculpture class in college as an elective, and enjoyed them both. And as far as writing goes, aside from this blog, I’ve never really done any for pleasure. The idea of writing poetry or fiction was an intriguing one.

When Ben called to tell me he landed okay, I told him about my purchase.

“That’s awesome,” he said. “You’re such a creative person. It would be great if you found an outlet for that.”

“I am?”

“Absolutely.”

Isn’t that weird, how other people see things in you that you don’t see in yourself? Maybe I am a creative person. Technically, my job is a creative one. But outside of work, I don’t really think of myself that way. Or maybe Ben doesn’t know what he’s talking about. At the end of the day (literally), I perused the class schedules and decided on writing. I had three choices – poetry, fiction and non-fiction. I’m going for the fiction. I’m so excited!

Posted at 10:02 PM

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