Apps for the perfect date night:
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Apps for Date Night
No matter how long (or not so long) you’ve been together, it can be difficult to plan a date night. Should you send flowers? Where will you eat? How much money will you spend on dinner? Will the movie selection make both of you happy?
Whether you’re going out with someone new or just keeping things alive with your S.O., here are a few dating apps to ensure that everything goes smoothly during your special evening.
1800Flowers Mobile Gift Center
Who says romance is dead? You can order daisies, orchids or roses (do you know her favorite flower?) or even chocolate-covered pretzels on the go and arrange to have them delivered to your house (so you can show up with flowers or candy in hand) or to your date’s desk at work (so that pre-date excitement can set in earlier in the day).
Though the dating app has a shopping category for couples who have been together for some time, we wanted more options for different occasions, like budding romance, for instance. Even so, there are plenty to choose from. When you’ve found the right bouquet, you can check out as a guest to get it done quickly (you waited until the last minute, didn’t you?) or create an account (worth doing if you have a lot of dates lined up). Fill out where the flowers are headed and include a message for the card. Type in your credit card number and you’re all set, Romeo. (Free for Android and BlackBerry)
Don’t you just hate it when the pressure is on to find a great date-night restaurant? Urbanspoon is like your own dining concierge. The app helps you find the perfect place to eat based on cuisine, location and price tag.
If you know the specifics of what you’re looking for — maybe you know that your date really loves sushi or that you’d like to head downtown — you can lock in those categories to search. If you’re merely looking for someplace the two of you can walk to, the app also has a “nearby” option, which taps into your phone’s GPS to find all of the eateries in your vicinity. Before you make a reservation, hit the “read reviews” button to find out what other customers have to say about your choice.
Attention first-daters: Now might not be the time to try out the app’s slot-machine-like random restaurant selector, which you get by just shaking your phone. You may want to save that kind of mystery and adventure for a later date. (Free for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry)
We like to think of Pair It! Food and Wine Guide as the Cyrano de Bergerac of the dinner table. The app brings ease to an otherwise complex art form (do you know what kind of wine will taste best with that stuffed mushroom appetizer you just ordered?) by simplifying the process of matching your vino to your dinner. Just select your meal from a dropdown list, and you get matching wines.
Pair It! offers you the opportunity to show off and impress a date, even if the info doesn’t come straight from your own head. The app not only provides you with ideas, but also tells you why these flavors taste great together. You’ll actually look like you know what you’re talking about!
If you want to be a bit more honest with your date, the two of you can turn your meal into a flavorful, culinary adventure. The app has a slot machine feature, similar to what you find on Urbanspoon, which chooses a wine for you at random. This is a great way to try something new — together. That's what makes this a great dating app aside from it's food matching capabilities.
Pair It! Food and Wine Guide is a handy app to have on hand whether you’re going out on the town or preparing a homemade meal in your apartment. ($4.99 for Android)
Fandango Movies: Times & Tickets
Your diligently planned candlelit dinner and carriage ride in the park got rained out. Now what?
Well, there’s no shame in the old standby dinner-and-a-movie date. And for that, you need a great movie ticket app (a must have dating app).
Fandango allows you to quickly look up movie times and theater listings, but it also has detailed movie descriptions, reviews and even full movie trailers. This way, the two of you can see what’s available and be armed with all of the information you need to find (or maybe compromise on) something you’ll both enjoy.
When you’re ready to buy tickets, you won’t have any difficulty figuring out how it all works — just know that you need to create an account before you buy. If you store your credit card information in advance, checkout time is even speedier. (Free for iPhone and Android)
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