If you’ve stumbled across this post for last minute Valentine’s ideas because you forgot all about Valentine’s Day and now you think you’ve run out of time to get anything, I’m here to show you what your options are. Although it has been plastered all over TV, the specials have been out in shops since the day after Christmas, and your partner’s probably been dropping hints about what they want left right and centre so I’m not sure how it slipped your mind. But don’t worry, you’ll find enough ideas here to get you through, even if you’re trying to get a gift on Valentine’s day itself!
Even though you could be reading this in a blind panic on the morning of Valentine’s day itself, hoping you don’t wake your partner and alert them to your massive mistake, the majority of these ideas are still unique to them. You can go down the usual chocolate box route, or you can choose something on the list to trick them into thinking you had this planned for months already. Your choice.
Though I do hope you feel a small pang of guilt when you see their face light up as you tell them what you’ve got and they really believe you remembered…
Contents
- 1 13 Last Minute Valentine’s Gift Ideas
- 1.1 1/ Flowers And Chocolates
- 1.2 2/ A Monthly Flower Subscription
- 1.3 3/ Alcoholic Gifts
- 1.4 4/ Sign Up To A New Class Or Hobby
- 1.5 5/ Book A Future Trip Together
- 1.6 6/ Make Your Partner A Meal
- 1.7 7/ A Future Spa Or Experience Day
- 1.8 8/ Subscribe Them To Their Favourite Magazine
- 1.9 9/ Order A Subscription Gift Box
- 1.10 10/ Talk About Moving In Together
- 1.11 11/ Take Them To See A Movie
- 1.12 12/ Talk About Getting A Pet Together
- 1.13 13/ Take Your Partner On A Last Minute Valentine’s Day Shopping Spree
- 2 SEE MORE: 31 Unique Valentine’s Day Ideas They’ll Love >>
13 Last Minute Valentine’s Gift Ideas
I’ll put these last minute Valentine’s day gifts in order of how much time you need to leave to get them, although the vast majority you can arrange on the day itself. If you have the whole week to go out and get something, you can start from the top. But if you do have the whole week, you should check out our 33 romantic Valentine’s day ideas and gifts right here, or even our 31 unique Valentine’s ideas here.
And if this all isn’t enough, or you want even more deals, you can see Amazon’s top last minute Valentine’s gifts right here. Keep your eye out because they’ve got some incredible flash deals on them all happening every day on the lead up to Valentine’s day itself.
1/ Flowers And Chocolates
It’s never a good idea to try and buy either of these on Valentine’s day itself, because you’ll end up getting the leftovers no one else wanted. And do you really want your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband or wife to realise they were an afterthought with some skanky half-dead flowers? Definitely not.
As for a last minute Valentine’s bouquet of flowers, you should check out sites like InterFlora. They offer same day and next day delivery on certain bouquets (although I’d watch out and try this by Thursday at the latest – they’re likely to have a Valentine’s rush on Friday and Saturday so you’ll either spend more or risk delivery being unavailable) and they have a huge selection of flowers. You can see InterFlora’s Valentine’s Day flower selections here.
If you’re after chocolates or sweets with speedy delivery, check out Amazon and Hotel Chocolat. Amazon offers next day delivery on anything sold by them, and I particularly liked the Lily O’Brien’s Ultimate Collection gift wrapped when I got that at Christmas (2 for £14.00) so that’d by my pick for chocolate. If they have a sweet tooth though, the Best Ever Retro Sweets MEGA Treasure Gift Box might be more for them (on sale for just £21.90 now). And both of them come with next day delivery!
If you’re worried about how they’ll feel about getting chocolate, especially if they’re still sticking strong to a health kick from New Year’s, Hotel Chocolat could come to your rescue. They offer Low Carb and Paleo Light gift boxes, both coming in at just £25.00 each, and they even offer next day, nominated day, and same day delivery. You could Click and Collect within 2 hours, but let’s face it, if you’re the kind of person who leave Valentine’s day shopping this last minute you’re not the kind of person who’s going to want to drive out to a store now…
2/ A Monthly Flower Subscription
What better way to show your partner that you love them not only on Valentine’s day, but all year round, than with a monthly flower subscription? You don’t have to tell them about it when they get the first bouquet on Valentine’s day, you could leave the future deliveries as a surprise, but you’ll win brownie points if you slip in a hint or two.
You might be able to get away with ordering this one a little more last minute, and claiming you had no control over the date of the first delivery. But I’m trying to get you organised here, so try to order it at least one or two days in advance to get the first delivery by Valentine’s Day. There are three tiers;Simply Thoughtful (£16.99 a month),Utter Indulgence (£19.99 a month), andTruly Exquisite (£24.99 a month). You can choose to have them delivered for 3 months, 6 months or 12 months.
Delivery for a certain day is guaranteed if you pick a courier service at checkout, so you can make sure they wake up to a surprise on Valentine’s day this Saturday (and every month after!).
3/ Alcoholic Gifts
A disclaimer that I shouldn’t really have to make; you should skip this idea if your boyfriend or girlfriend isn’t the legal drinking age yet. Or if they don’t like alcohol. Pretty obvious stuff.
Amazon’s got a whole list of deals right now for champagne and sparkling wine you can find right here. But if you want some specific picks (read: you’ve found this too last minute to even look through the whole list, so you need some examples STAT) then I’ve got three for you. And all three have one-day delivery available, of course.
First up is the Pommery Springtime Brut Rose Champagne Gift Box which was £48.99, but is now just £39.19. The gift box is what makes this one worth the most money, in my opinion. Second is the beautifully designed Bottega Rose Sparkling Wine which was £27.00 and is now £21.60. And finally there’s the Bruno Giacosa Spumante Extra Brut 2006 Sparkling Wine which was £37.25 and is now just £29.05.
4/ Sign Up To A New Class Or Hobby
If there’s something you’ve both been talking about wanting to learn, like a new language, then now is the perfect time to sign up to a class together. You can do this as last minute or as far in advance as you want, but it might need a bit of research so at least attempt to do it sooner rather than later.
And yes, this is the day where you should think about your loved one’s happiness more than your own. So has your girl or guy been hinting about wanting to start going to a book club with you, or to dance classes? Take the hit, then even if they do realise that this was a last minute Valentine’s gift, they’ll still be over the moon that you’ve agreed to do it with them.
Because you might suck at it, you might be embarrassed, and you might even hate it. But for 30mins – 1 hour a week you’ll be the most romantic partner ever, doing something they love just to make them happy. Awww, you’ll win so many brownie points!
5/ Book A Future Trip Together
Like the hobby or class, this one might take a bit of planning for you to get right. Booking a holiday, even if it’s just a weekend away, might be impossible for Valentine’s day itself because most places will be fully booked by now. But you can use the excuse of wanting to make sure they had enough notice to get some time off work and book something even more special for a future date.
Radisson Blu have a huge Valentine’s day promotion on right now, with up to 30% off rooms and free champagne and chocolate in whichever room you book. The promotion only lasts from now until the 8th March, which means you don’t have to book soon, but if you’re the kind of person who left your Valentine’s day preparations until the last minute then you probably should.
At least think about which places they love though, and go somewhere they’ll really enjoy. If they love exploring, take them on a city break. If they just want to relax and do nothing, then a weekend away in the UK or France would do nicely. And the best bit? They still have rooms available for Valentine’s weekend itself if you get on there quickly enough.
6/ Make Your Partner A Meal
Now this is the kind of present you probably want to prepare the day before. But if you don’t want to try to hide the ingredients in your fridge, then your partner should be completely fine with you surprising them and then going out to buy the ingredients.
Just make sure whatever you make is their favourite thing to eat, pick up a nice dessert for afterwards, as well as a bottle of wine or champagne. They’ll appreciate the little bit of extra effort.
7/ A Future Spa Or Experience Day
If you can’t think of a physical object your partner would want, then you probably don’t know them well enough. That’s ok though, instead of actually taking the time to listen to anything they say, you can whisk them away to a spa day they’ll love!
I’m joking of course, it doesn’t matter how well you know your partner, sometimes you’ve just been together for too long to have anything left to get them! Spa days, and other experience days, are what Virgin Experience Days do best and they have a whole Valentine’s range available right now. The majority aren’t available for Valentine’s day itself, so they’re the perfect last minute Valentine’s gift.
Just print out what you’ll both actually be doing and present it inside their Valentine’s card. That way you can book a day that’s best for the both of you, but they’ll still have something to open on Valentine’s Day. You can pick from spa days, champagne and pamper days, and even comedy nights and tree top adventures. You might not know what physical gift they’d love, but hopefully you know your partner well enough to pick the right thing here.
8/ Subscribe Them To Their Favourite Magazine
If you’re looking for the perfect Valentine’s gift for him, and you’ve got no clue what he’d like, check to see if he buys a weekly or monthly magazine. You can use the same trick to find a Valentine’s gift for her too, of course. If they’re spending their money on the same mag each month, you might as well sign them up to it.
I get that, on the surface, this doesn’t seem like the most exciting of gifts. They’re already buying this regularly, so how is this romantic or a surprise? Because you thought about what they love, and where they spend their money. You know them well enough that you can predict what they’re going to buy, and you’ve got them it ahead of time.
They’ll appreciate it when the magazine turns up in the post and they don’t have to spend their own money on it. Trust me.
9/ Order A Subscription Gift Box
Subscription boxes are one of my favourite last minute Valentine’s gifts because they’re so exciting. You don’t know what’s inside, and neither do they. All either of you know is they’ll like it, whatever it is.
And it’s not just a one off gift. Make sure you sign up to get them at least 3 months worth of the box, so they can see if they really love it. You never know, they might pay to continue the subscription after it runs out – then you’ll really know you’ve picked well!
If you’ve got no clue what Subscription boxes are even out there, you can find 6 subscription box ideas for him or her here (check point 3), and another 9 subscription box gift ideas here in point 5.
10/ Talk About Moving In Together
If you think your relationship is at the stage where you could both be happily living together by now, then Valentine’s day is your best time to ask the question. Don’t get me wrong, your girlfriend or boyfriend won’t be best pleased if you haven’t gotten them a little something to go along with this chat, like some flowers or chocolates, but you should still go for it.
Gently explain to them that you didn’t spend too much money on their Valentine’s gift this year because you wanted to talk to them about a potential move; which will cost quite a bit. So you wanted to save the money and see what they thought. If they’re not into the idea then make sure you have a backup plan from another point on this list to present them with, otherwise it might become a bigger deal than you’d wanted it to be.
11/ Take Them To See A Movie
The cinema is a classic last minute Valentine’s day outing; but it does tend to get booked up quickly. So make sure you check early on Valentine’s day morning at the very latest to see if there are any free seats in your local one.
If you’ve left this one too last minute, you might not be able to get into the most romantic movie on the billing, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If your girl or guy hardly ever seems into lovey dovey movies, make sure to book the type of movie they’d normally choose to see themselves and they’ll probably prefer it.
12/ Talk About Getting A Pet Together
Has your partner been pining after a furry friend for a while now, but you’ve been difficult to convince? Maybe this Valentine’s day it’s time to start seriously thinking about giving an animal a loving home.
Don’t just agree to a new puppy or kitten because you forgot to get another present though; make sure you fully think through your decision, because these are living creatures and they shouldn’t be used as a last minute gift if you’re not prepared to care for them for their entire life.
If you both do decide that now is the right time for a pet, pick the one that’s right for you. Remember that different types of dog need different amounts of attention; whether that’s walks, washes or brushes. Other pets can’t be left alone for extended periods of time, and some might need expensive tanks and accessories. Prepare to think of them like a child, you can’t just leave them home alone for days on end while you go on holiday!
And finally, really consider adopting your pet from an animal shelter like the RSPCA or Cat’s Protection. These animals are cheaper to adopt than kittens or puppies you could buy from a breeder, and they all need homes.
13/ Take Your Partner On A Last Minute Valentine’s Day Shopping Spree
If you’re really all out of ideas, and you’re being interrogated about what you’ve bought, this is a great last minute Valentine’s gift to pull out of the bag. It can be a romantic Valentine’s idea too, in a way. Just tell them you wanted to spend the -insert the amount you’re willing to spend here- on exactly what they want, so you planned a shopping trip for you both.
That way you can both have a nice day out, they get exactly what they want, and you could even stop off for lunch and a movie somewhere. Whether your partner is a man or a woman, they’ll enjoy spending the day with you and getting that thing they really wanted.
So that’s it, 13 last minute Valentine’s day ideas they’re sure to love. If you have any advice of your own for people, leave it in the comments below or over on Facebook or Twitter.
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