Black Cupid Brigade, aka myself - McDreamy and McSteamy (Vanessa Newman) are here with 20 ways to celebrate romance with the loves in your life even in social distance. Y’all deserve to celebrate love with your crushes, your boos, your homies, your loved ones, even when we can’t be together. You deserve to hold pleasure and care with the people you care for.
With that, here are 20 different digital dates. You can adapt them to any of your relationships, whether partner(s), friends, fam, or self!
Even in these strange and uncertain times, there are moments to discover new love languages, new ways to hold space, new ways to be there for one another. Your love is sacred. Your heart is sacred. Honor it and hold it gentle and powerfully.
MUCH LOVE! SEND ON TO SOMEONE THAT YOU LOVE!
Make a collaborative playlist together. Press play on your playlist at the same time on your devices and enjoy the journey. As you listen, dance, draw, read, or explore other methods of holding space together.
Find a virtual performance or concert by an artist you both enjoy. Tune into the livestream together and text commentary the whole time. Make a playlist of songs you love similar to that artist and send it to them as a post-date gift.
Send one another, or go find, a box of your favorite cereals, or make breakfast together over a video call. Pair the meal with a Netflix Party of both of your favorite childhood cartoons.
Agree to a country that you would both visit together. Each make a dish from that country. Go on a Zoom date and change both of your backgrounds to a romantic destination in that country.
Set up a 15 minute timer. Make a powerpoint presentation on any subject, clouds, Drake, the best way to prepare toast. Present to each other over Zoom, let hilarity ensue.
Build forts together on a video call. Snuggle up with your favorite snacks and treats. Ask each other the questions from the NYTimes piece “The 36 Questions That Lead to Love.”
Prepare cozy drinks. Take turns reading things you love out loud to one another in a phone or video call, poems, song lyrics, book passages, etc.
Handwrite each other a letter. Accompany the letter with something that makes you think of them. A poem. A recipe. A handwritten playlist. A nature scavenger hunt. A trinket from your home that you want them to have.
Investigate Tik-Tok dances, and agree on one to learn together. Perform the dance together on a video call. Share your favorite dancing songs afterwards.
Together, make a list of your favorite fruits. Both buy all of the fruits on the list. Take an online dance or fitness class together, then share post-class smoothies over a video call.
Sip tea, collect art supplies (paints, crayons, markets, etc.) and create art together over a video call. Share your pieces with one another.
Make pinterest boards mapping out the perfect date that you would take the other person on. Share boards and walk the other person through the experience.
Find a recipe you’d both love to try. Set up a video call as you both co-cook the recipe, Great British Bakeoff style. Compare results, trade tips, enjoy the treats together.
Ship each other a favorite bottle of wine. Do a virtual wine tasting. Take turns pretending you are a sommelier and describe the wine to your date as they try it.
Find a book you’d both love to read. Check the e-book out from your local library, or find online from your local bookstore. Make your own personal bookclub and journey through the book together.
Each go for a (solo) walk around the block. Take photos of flowers or blooming trees. Send them to each other. Hop on a video chat and have an art session where you paint/draw each other's plant. Send a photo of your art to one another.
Spend a day texting each other songs that remind you each other, and add them all to a playlist. Listen to the playlist whenever you want a reminder of your love.
Set up candlelit bubble baths in your respective tubs. Soak each other's company while you soak up the suds & bubbles.
Create a story together through voice memos (available on IG or WhatsApp). One person begins the story, and the next person builds on it in their next voice memo. Turn the story in whatever direction you choose, silly, sexy, dramatic, etc.
Share your screens and virtually visit The Mixtape Shop’s online record store together for a digital crate digging session. Share your favorite finds and vinyl cover art with each other.
