As you all know we’ve been making concerts our go-to for date nights this summer. Music is such a big part of our lives and one of our first dates was actually at a Kings of Leon concerts!! Our kids are at that perfect age now where we are comfortable leaving them with the grandparents for late nights while we go and enjoy some quality time together and recharge.

Our last concert was The Lumineers. I actually cried during the concert. I was having such a great time – we were all smiles, ear to ear the entire show! We had dinner with friends in the Amex Lounge to start off the night then broke off to our own seats when the concert started, PS the Amex Lounge has the BEST fish tacos!! The show was unreal, and, of course, all of our favourite songs were played. The entire way home we reminisced about all of the memorable moments we had over the years from each song – including how we used to sing to my belly when I was pregnant with Ella and we knew we were having a girl…”you belong to me, you’re my sweetheart”. Ella now sings this song in the car with us, swoon! We’ve gone to more concerts this summer with American Express Canada than we had in the last four years; it’s brought so much more fun to our hectic and busy lives. Finding time for dates after having kids can be difficult, but it’s so important! This summer was the summer of music for us and we really took advantage of concerts from City and Colour; Dixie Chicks and Luke Bryan. There were so many fun events from Taste of Toronto to country concerts we’ve had access to with Amex Canada. This summer we made it our tradition to stop by Amex Lounge before and during concerts with our friends and family. We’ve been star struck sitting front row watching some of our favourite artists…memories that will last a lifetime!

Date nights are so important, and, luckily with our American Express Cardmember perks our concert date nights have been that much better! Thanks to my Amex Card and its exclusive perks, we’ve breezed through the line upswith Priority Access and the Front Of The Line entrance at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre.

Here are my top five tips I can share with you guys for planning the perfect date night:

• Arrange who’s watching the kids well in advance if possible
• Pick a date that is enjoyable while not being exhausting (you still have to mom & dad in the am lol)
• Be creative, what’s something you guys have wanted to do but thought after having kids you’d never have the time?
• Make sure your phones are charged; there’s nothing worse than being a stressed out parent during date night because you are paranoid no one will be able to get through to you in case of an emergency
• Talking about the kids during date night is fine, but try to enjoy talking about each other too, catch up on getting to know each other since it’s hard to make time for that in the day to day.

Now that I’ve shared my tips for how to prep for date night, I’d love to share some of my favourite date night ideas that are great for couples pre & post having kids!

• Cooking classes or food festivals! Because what person doesn’t like to eat? Cooking classes are also a great way to reconnect and work as a team, Craig and I LOVED participating in our cooking class with American Express during the Taste of Toronto Festival.
• Concerts (obviously), a nice way to reconnect and be close without all of the chatter. You can talk on the way to the show and after about how great it was, but during the event you get to just be there together, dance the night away and enjoy the moment.
• Dessert & a movie – Always a great date night, for us anyways! You can enjoy dinner with the kids and then dessert & a movie as a couple afterwards. We both love to eat and love to watch movies and the simplicity of going to a movie with kids isn’t always easy for us. We both love action and comedies that are far from PG, so a date night to watch our favourite flick combined with dinner or dessert beforehand is amazing. Live shows are also great; theatre or ballet depending on your taste can also be booked ahead of time with Amex Invites..
• Travel, even if it’s just for one night away and it doesn’t even need to be far from home! We have so many gorgeous bed & breakfasts nearby for short getaways. Vineyards are also great! Spas are great dates too if you can; we had a couples massage this year around my birthday and afterwards enjoyed champagne…heaven! We are planning to hit up an outdoor spa this winter with the hot baths; we’ve wanted to for years and never had the chance…Collingwood, Ontario has a great location! Or plan a weekend getaway. We are also fond of booking trips and asking my mom to tag along; she spends time with the kids and us but a couple of the nights we are lucky that she watches the kids while we go off and enjoy some couple time!

What have been some of your date nights out of the house? Any concerts or food festivals? You can get in on the fun too and access similar upcoming events we’ve attended this summer. The best part is you can create your own memorable moments all year round with Amex Invites. My advice? Stay in the know with eUpdates sent directly to your inbox. What concerts have you attended this summer, do you have any on your wish list for the coming months? Brad Paisley recently played and I noticed Blink 182 and Florida Georgia Line are coming to the Molson Amp – will you be going? Visit AmexInvites.ca to be in the know! Xo

This post was sponsored by Amex Canada. The views and opinions expressed in this blog, however, are purely my own…Visit AmexInvites.ca to join in on the fun!