Samantha Martin Photographer » Virginia, DC, Wedding Photographer

      Guest Post New Series – Dating Your Spouse by MY HUBBY!

      Hey y’all!

      I got some exciting news to share, my hubby will be taking over my blog once a week to start a new blog series called “dating your spouse!” I will let him explain it below! These posts will happen every week, to chat about our date and share ideas and photos!!  So stayed tuned, and enjoy the walk down memory lane :p

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      us in 2015 

      (Dan)   There comes a point in everyone’s marriage were the newlywed stage fades away and things start to get routine and dare I say dull at times. Especially when kids are in the mix, you end up feeling more like room mates trying to keep a hectic life together. If you haven’t been there you either are still in the newlywed stage or your better at this thing called marriage then most of the world. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way, nor does it ever have to get there. When things start getting dull that means you’ve stopped trying.

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      our wedding day 2010

      I’m Dan, Sam’s husband. I’m starting a weekly blog called Dating Your Spouse. This idea came about when I was trying to find something meaningful to get my wife for Christmas. With two kids, work, and me being enrolled full time in school, I wanted to make sure my wife knew I still loved her. Our marriage was great and all, but there is always improvements needed in all marriages. The minute you stop trying in your marriage and letting things just ride out is the minute marriages start to fail, or just become dull.

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      circa 2007

      I started thinking back to the time we were dating and into the newlywed phase and how great everything was. When we were apart we counted down the minutes until we would see each other again, we laughed a lot and learnt things about each other. It got me thinking, what were we doing then that we are not doing now? Dating!! We went on dates, not just dinner and a movie, we had fun together, talked to each other and took the time to get to know each other.

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      2010

      I started scourging the internet for ideas that I could give my wife that pertain to dating. I started googling things like “improving your marriage” and “date nights”. I came across some very interesting things. Then I saw these date cards . They are free printables of a deck of cards with 52 date ideas, one for every week of the year. They are categorized by Outdoor & Active, Artsy & Cultural, and At Home & Inexpensive. They come with a cool box to hold the deck that you just cut out and fold together. I ended up creating my own cards using the same style because I wanted to customize the dates to be more geared towards Sam and I, but I did keep some dates the same. I still used the cut out box and the card backings. I bought an unfinished box at Hobby Lobby to hold the deck of cards and painted it.

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      real life right there…the kids were hanging all over me, in my baggy jammies and bed head hair! how adorable is this box he painted me? he is so dang sweet! LOVE HIM!

      I gave her this gift with a letter stating that I was committing myself to date her again. We’ve challenged ourselves to date each other one day a week for the entire year. I’m excited to go on our first date. I already felt change in our marriage before we even began. While making and planning her present, I felt a new spark in our marriage. Just the idea of doing this for my wife changed the way I thought about marriage. It made me excited to do things for her to make her happy and in turn it brings me joy. It has brought a new meaning to me of what intentionally loving your spouse means and I look forward to sharing our journey and insights through this challenge.

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      2007

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      2009

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      our crazy beautiful life – today! 

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