Moonlit picnic - Oh what a night!
Pate and sherry trifle by the light of the moon
What could be a more romantic date idea than just the two of you, a blanket on the ground and a spread of your partner's favourite delicacies? Well, just the same deal but this time by moonlight. Tuck in to all those forbidden luxuries, wash them down with a glass of your favourite plonk, lie back and watch the stars and, well, let the rest of the story tell itself. The key to this date being a success is going to be in the planning. First of all you need to decide if the whole date is going to be a surprise. The reason for it being a surprise is obvious but here are briefly the arguments for against:- Leaves all the arrangement to you
- It may be difficult to keep the evening free
- You will have to come up with a good story for the excursion
- It may be awkward keeping the food fresh
- Your partner may already have prepared or bought in food for the evening
- He or she may already have eaten
- They may not feel up to it at the last moment
- Your partner may come up with a better idea for the location or the timing of the date
Location
If your preferred one is not a site which you know well, then you definitely need to reconnoitre it in advance. It is also a good idea to check it out in an early evening. Sadly what is often a delightful and charming picnic spot during the day can be a regular den of iniquity in the darkness hours. If it is on public land, then it may well be that the evening that you want to go there, it turns out to be crowded. It always pays to have a back-up location in mind - especially one which is less weather dependent.Timing
If your romantic moonlit dinner is not being timed to coincide with an anniversary or birthday then you should consult lunar tables to see what phase the moon will be in. Whatever the timing, if it is going to be a full moon or one in the early stages of waxing or latter stages of waning then you need to rearrange the date for the picnic.Food
This should consist of your partner's favourite dishes. By putting together a careful menu of their preferred foods, it demonstrates your knowledge of them as well as the fact that you have taken care to make it a pleasurable experience for them. Don't forget, though, that these things will need to be kept fresh so that means either picking them up from a supermarket along the way (this is definitely not a romantic thing to do plus 'will they be in stock') or store them in a refrigerator and cold box.Utensils
Although plastic means you don't have to worry about losing your knives and forks, this is not romantic. Stainless steel is much nicer and crystal glasses finish the occasion. Have a strong polythene bag handy to pile in all the dirty utensils so that you don't need to keep looking at them after the meal is finished. See if you can lay your hands on a wicker picnic basket to carry the crockery in.Wine
Champagne is the obvious choice but it is not responsible to drive after drinking any quantity of it. Unromantic as it may appear to be, a bottle of sparkling de-alcoholised wine may be a better bet.Support equipment
A nice tartan car rug, a few cushions and some carefully-chosen music on your IPOD will help the mood. If the ground is not fire-susceptible, why not have a couple of candles for illumination. Don't forget, evenings are when the biting insects feed so make sure you have some repellent on-hand. It would be a shame to have a romantic moonlit dinner spoilt by a few dozen mosquitoes.Weather
Obviously the weather will do what the weather will do but that doesn't mean you should not consult the long-range weather forecasts beforehand in order to at least try to find an evening which is at the end of a dry and sunny day. Any picnic on a site that has had rain in the last 48 hours is going to make you uncomfortably damp.We hope you enjoyed our romantic date idea for a moonlit picnic.