Learn a little more about Emma and Denis, the creators of $30DN. How $30DN first started and why they're so cheap! Included are photos and the first designs Denis created of the $30 Date Night Generator.
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If Your Days Really Were Numbered…
Forget the apocalypse, if we keep modelling our relationships on celebrity marriages and chasing sky-high Hollywood rom-com expectations, we're all doomed.
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How to: Support your partner when they’re stressed
It’s moving week. I told you all about it a few weeks ago – how I was expecting to be tired, at my wit’s end and neck deep in boxes by now. Well, I’m all that. And to add to the fun, all the expected relationship stress has peaked this week as well. So now [...]
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Weddings & Princesses
Weddings and princesses. Diehard fans of both these things know they have something in common. Both give us hope. Hope that there’s something magical going on out there. That fairytales really do exist. And that true love is real. Let’s start with princesses. So rare, kids can be forgiven for thinking they’re make-believe. When I [...]
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He Loves Me? He Loves Me Not? Why Women are Suckers for Mixed Messages
It’s official: Women have a thing for Mr. Mysterious. To be exact, women like a man more if they’re unsure about whether he’s interested in them or not. They thrive on it, in fact. A recent study, titled “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not…” and using only women as the test subjects, [...]
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50% off Couples Massage Courses
Over the weekend Emma and I presented another of our increasingly popular Couples Massage Courses. 80 people walked through the door – our biggest number to attend a day thus far. I always love watching couples enter the room shy and completely unsure what to expect. My ice breaker usually involves some form of uncomfortable remark [...]
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The Sad Truth About Online PDAs
We got hot ‘n’ heavy last week talking about the etiquette involved in Public Displays of Affection (PDA). Like everything else, the PDA has adapted with our tech-savvy world and what we now also have is the original PDA’s pixellated cousin – the ODA (Online Display of Affection). Listing status updates like “I love my pumpkin pie” [...]
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A Million Years Ago
If you’re anything like me, you love to look in the past – at the good times and the bad. I love going back to what feels like a million years ago to remember who has been involved in my life and who is no longer a part of it. I know they say never [...]
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Giveaway: Friends with Benefits In-season Passes
Friends with benefits. We’ve made no secret of it – that’s how the Den and Emma story started. Great friends, then, for the better part of a whole year, friends who knocked socks occasionally (okay, it was a bit more than occasionally. More like a couple of times a week. You can see how we [...]
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The Dos and Don’ts of PDAs
We’ve all been there. Smack-bang in the middle of a sensational make out session that we’re not actually a part of. Out at a bar recently, my table was treated to some free entertainment courtesy of a young couple pressed against the wall next to us. They weren’t just kissing. They were engaged in a no-holds-barred [...]
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Supporting Your Partner Through Times of Stress
It’s moving week. I told you all about it a few weeks ago – how I was expecting to be tired, at my wit’s end and neck deep in boxes by now. Well, I’m all that. And to add to the fun, all the expected relationship stress has peaked this week as well. So now [...]
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Intimate Moments in the… Kitchen?
New research shows Australians’ passion for food is reigniting relationships across the country with 44% admitting to ‘intimate moments’ in the kitchen and almost one in 10 confessing it happens at least once a week. Kind of makes you want to rethink your next invitation to a dinner party, doesn’t it? In all seriousness, I’ve [...]
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How to Impress the Parents
“How soon is too soon to meet the parents?” someone asked the other day. My friend E would probably argue that you should at least be dating the guy before you have to make that decision. She turned up at a – ahem – friend’s house late one night for what was, by all accounts, [...]
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An Open Letter to Ms. Julia Gillard
Dear Ms Gillard, I need you to do something for me, please. Well, it’s really not just for me, it’s for all of Australia, and indeed the world. We need you to legalise gay marriage in Australia. I’m not a gay woman. But that doesn’t matter. You’re still cheating me out of something that’s very [...]
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Why You Should Try a Wingwoman
It’s happened more than once: Cocktails in hand, girly catch-up session in progress. Enter stage left? An attractive girl on her own. She breaks into the group with some sort of compliment – “Great shoes,” or “Love your hair.” – you welcome her into the fold and continue chatting. Of course, she’s only there for [...]
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The Walk of Shame
I don’t need to list the benefits here of all the fun involved in a one-night stand. Anyone that’s had the pleasure, so to speak, will know the lure of a no-strings-attached, one-show-only romp. But, fun as the night can be, the problem comes with how to delicately extract yourself from the situation the next [...]
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The Movie Trailer Marriage Proposal
You guys know I’m a sucker for a great marriage proposal… this one is awesome! It’s all explained in the video…
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Now This is a Wedding Video!
Joya and Emre didn’t want your average wedding video – instead they turned themselves into rockstars with this MTV Video-style piece that just put a huge smile on my face! Love it!
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The Truth About Nice Guys
Baby fell for Johnny. Sandy pulled out all stops to get Danny. Lisa Simpson even had a thing for Nelson for awhile. And we all remember when Carrie left Aidan for Big. What is it about the casual air of the devil-may-care bad boy that sends women to jelly? They’re arrogant, obnoxious, single-minded, manipulative and [...]
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Win a Date Night with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston
A funny thing happened to Den after we got married. He noticed that when out with friends in bars or clubs, women were more flirty with him. They would be more open, talk for hours rather than fobbing him off and spout cliches like “All the good ones are taken” (cue flirty eyelash-batting) and “Well, if [...]
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Are You a Relationship Chameleon?
Rewind my life seven years or so and you’d find an almost-unrecognisable girl. I didn’t drink, as a rule (though rules are, and were in this case, made to be broken), and I practiced Reiki while I wore Birkenstocks and read non-mainstream, naval-gazing spiritual books about the afterlife. I was probably a step or two away from [...]
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Surviving Valentine’s Day for Singles
Just three short sleeps to the biggest date on any singleton's calendar. Yep, Monday is Singles Awareness Day. As it looms closer, I hear noises of discomfort from friends. Most will assure you they hate Valentine's Day - who wants the overpriced flowers, the forced niceties, et cetera? As a couple, it's not all that much fun all the time either.
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Who Lies About Money?
The very clever team at Deals.com has come up with this cute-as-ten-buttons visual representation of Love & Money based on some recent findings… just in time for Valentine’s Day! Money is one of those Big Things that couples argue most about. You only have to look below to see that no matter if you’re doing it [...]
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5 Perfect Date Ideas Beginning with P
10 more dates to go and we’ve finished the alphabet! Here is my pick of the P Date Ideas for you. How’s your alphabet dating going? Have I missed any good P ones we should know about? Pack a Picnic A classic! Take a fully-stocked picnic basket to a patch of green near you and while [...]
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Where Did All the Men Go?
This is an open letter to the eligible bachelors of Australia: Where did you all go? There is a plethora of fantastic, smart, attractive single ladies here for you – some are great friends of mine – but you all seem to have collectively disappeared under a huge rock somewhere. At least, that’s the message I’m getting [...]
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Date Ideas and The Circle
It’s been quite the day! I joined the lovely crew of The Circle on Network Ten here in Australia to chat all things date night, cheap dates and more… unfortunately we were cut off just at the end by a press conference covering the Tropical Cyclone Yasi events overnight – what a news day! Thankfully everyone [...]
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What They Don’t Tell You About Summer Romances
Welcome back to reality, people. It’s been a sad, soggy summer for many, but even so, romance has been in the (rather humid) air for others. Summer romances are beautiful things. When you’re on holiday, you’re a million metaphoric miles from your desk, from hounding emails and buzzing BlackBerries. I’ve always dreamed of spending [...]
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Can You Define Romance?
Everyone’s got a different idea of romance… lets take Valentine’s Day for example. It’s around the corner (only a few weeks away) and it’s pimped out as the MOST romantic day of the year. Whether you accept it or not, that is how most of us feel. In a perfect world what would your partner do for you [...]
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5 Outstanding Date Ideas Beginning with O
Orienteering To be honest, a week ago I didn’t even really get what Orienteering was. Well, I knew it involved co-ordinates and maps and things like that… and I have vague memories of a compass and a girl guide uniform in my childhood… But we did do some orienteering of our own this week for our O [...]
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Welcome to $30 date night | Date Ideas, Marriage & Romance Blog
This blog comes to you from Australian-based newlyweds Denis & Emma Merkas, reviewing date ideas taken from their $30 Date Night site, giving you new date ideas and offering a tiny insight into day-to-day dramas of life as a couple.
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