How did you do that?!? Probably the top question we’ve been asked in the comments of our TikTok videos about our Disney Date Nights. We compiled this walkthrough so if you want to do your date nights, you can.
Where did the idea come from?
Two of our friends (hi Casey & Dani) sent us a TikTok video of user SamRose0308 pulling envelopes with Disney themed date nights to do with her partner. We loved this idea, and we wanted to put our own twist on it. We also realized that there were 20 weeks between when we would be starting this project and when we would be having our wedding reception (we missed the big party last year because of Covid). We are also going to Disney for our honeymoon, so we figured this was the perfect countdown.
How did you pick your movies?
We each made a list of our 20 (or a few more in my case), favorite Disney movies. Nothing was off limits – Disney (animated and live action), Disney Channel Originals, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars – it was all fair game. The only caveat was nothing from the Fox merger, and nothing from when Disney owned Miramax/Dimension. Nothing off-brand. This way Brodie didn’t load his picks with Die Hard, Independence Day, Scream, Alien, Pulp Fiction, etc. We had to stick with the Disney spirit. From there I looked at Brodie’s list and we identified all the duplicates and dueled over who would take each one.
Once we completed that process and each had a list that had about 20 unique movies on it, we each picked 10 from our list, without telling the other one which movies we had picked. We both work professionally in marketing, so we designed fun pages for each date night, complete with what would be on the menu each night.
How did you plan your meals?
The meals we picked for each date night correspond with the theme, geographic location, or specific foods from the movie. Our first week, we drew The Princess Diaries 2. Since Genovia is famous for its pears, I knew we had to incorporate that. I also remembered a scene of Mia sitting in the kitchen eating ice cream out of the container, so that was dessert! On some of my movies, I did google what food appeared in the film to see if there were any good fits.
Since Brodie is the cook in our family, and I am the baker, he will take the lead on most of the main courses, and I will be making dessert. We love to cook together in the kitchen and try out new recipes, so this was a win-win for us.
We do have a few dates planned where we will be going out for dinner as well. Since we are doing our dates weekly, we have been drawing and opening our date night plans mid-week so we can plan the best night to do them. Sometimes it’s Friday, sometimes it’s Sunday, but it’s nice to have a few days to plan so we can make a grocery list, etc.
Why the gift-boxes, numbers, wrapping paper, etc?
We liked the idea of having a gift to open each week with the date night plans inside, so we shopped around and finally found the perfect boxes at Staples. We went to our local Hallmark store to look for wrapping supplies, and found the most perfect Mickey & Minnie themed paper! We got two rolls, which ended up being exactly the right amount. We had none leftover. We each packed our own boxes, so it would be a surprise for the other person. I happened to have a ton of tissue paper, because I hate throwing it away, so it was perfect for making it feel like a real present. I wrapped all 20 boxes, which took longer than I imagined, but Brodie put on some DFB videoes and prepped pieces of tape for me, so it wasn’t all bad. I honestly really enjoyed the process of preparing all the dates and getting everything set up! It was so fun to work on this project together.
Once everything was wrapped, we shuffled the boxes, so we could number them without having mine be the first 10 and Brodies be the second 10. Brodie printed off numbers 1-20, cut them up, and put them in a jar so we could pick one each week.
We are really enjoying sharing our journey and our love of Disney. We will do our best to keep things updated on our website with info about recipes we try, why we picked certain movies and foods, etc. Check the video walkthrough below:
Around the Determann's Firepit 
Such a cute idea.
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