Date Night In Box Review

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​Have you heard of Date Night In Boxes?

I asked my followers on Instagram if you'd be interested in a review, and the majority of you said yes! So I reached out to Night In Boxes and asked if I could be an affiliate, which would allow me to test out their products for you all. 

What is NIB? Sometimes it's hard to find a babysitter when you want to go out for date night, or you don't want to spend a ton of money on activities and dinner. That's where Night In Boxes comes in. Their idea is that you sign up for a monthly subscription box, and they'll send you a box filled with activities, small treats, a menu for the evening, and other fun things. They create "date night" for you - all in the comfort of your home. 

Now, I thought this was a great idea. Sometimes it can be hard to come up with something to do on a free evening, and maybe you're on a budget that month. So having a built-in subscription that sends you all of the accoutrements for a fun night together sounded like a lovely idea. 

Here was our experience!

Getting Ready

Monthly Theme - Find some extra stuff on the website!

The box we received in the mail.

Bon appetit!

When we first got the box in the mail, I was really excited - I mean, look at the packaging! How pretty is that? 

I didn't want to open the box itself until Jacob and I could do it together, on our actual date night, so instead I went onto the website. When you sign up for the box, you'll get login information so that you can access the monthly theme page. There, you'll find an invitation, a Spotify playlist, menus, grocery lists, and more of the printables that come in the box itself, but are online just in case you need them. 

I started off by printing out the invitation and giving it to Jacob. He was very surprised, but thought it was really cute. I thought it was a sweet idea, too. 
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Then, I decided to look at the grocery list and the menu ahead of time so that I could go shopping and cook for our "date night" in advance! The menu was created to match the theme, and even though everything looked delicious, I think it would have been nice for them to include alternate menus for those who are vegan, vegetarian, or kosher, like us. We were still able to alter a few of the recipes to make them appropriate for our dinner, but something like the shrimp-based recipe we couldn't do much with. But the idea of having recipes laid out to match the theme of the evening was truly lovely.  

And look how nicely my veggie burgers turned out! (That's ricotta cheese and tomato pesto, for those who are curious.) 

Opening the Box​

Our date night finally arrived! I took seriously the idea that we were having "date night," even if it was at home. I put on some makeup, took a little bit of time to prepare dinner, and mixed our drinks before Jacob came downstairs so that I could present it to him.

Then, Jacob and I opened the box together. It was kind of exciting! What would be in there? What would we be doing tonight? As you can see from the above picture, the box is chock-full of really adorable items. 

The Date

I just loved this little candle cover! It made it feel like were out to dinner with a candle between us.

The delicious mint juleps that I made.

We played Mexican Train, which was pretty cool. I only wish that the dominoes were of a slightly better quality.

This chocolate fudge was included in the box and it was super sweet - but that didn't stop us from finishing it!

After sitting down and eating our dinner, we cracked into some of the activities. The Date Night In Box comes with a booklet that walks you through your date, which is a nice touch. It also offers you some topics to discuss over dinner, which I think would be fun for some couples, but we didn't enjoy it as much. We tend to have a lot to talk about, so adding table topics wasn't as necessary for us.

Then we moved onto the chocolate fudge that they included in the box, which was delicious! I do hope that they will offer a couple of different options to those who purchase their boxes in case they have any food restrictions. I think that would be a great addition to their box selections. 

After finishing up the food, we followed the booklet's guide. We learned how to play Mexican Train, which was a great game, and we played a Murder Mystery card game, which we also enjoyed. After that, we made a time capsule together that we are supposed to open in ten years - hopefully we remember! 

Final Thoughts

So what did we think? I think it's a great idea, but you have to know your relationship. For us, this was fun, but there were definitely moments that were a little too geared toward a woman's perfect date night, which wasn't always my husband's cup of tea. There were other parts of the evening, like the menu, the added decor (with the candle cover), and the games, that we really enjoyed. All in all, I would recommend it! If you're interested in trying it, follow this link and get 2 months free with a 6-month subscription with code NIB2FREE! 

Here are the pros and cons: 

PROS: 
1. Forces you to make time for each other. If you have a hard time making plans for just the two of you, I think this is the perfect solution. After the kids go to bed or after a long day at work, you have everything you need right at home to have a fun evening to remember.
2. Plans everything for you. Do you hate figuring out what you're going to do together? This takes all the guesswork out of it - and puts all the responsibility on the box itself. 
3. You can stay home and have a great time. Don't want to get a babysitter? Don't want to go out after having been at work all day? Don't want to get dressed up? Here's a great solution. 

And here's a pro from Jacob!
4. They coordinate and bring across the monthly theme well. The box we received was 1920s themed. You can see from the pictures, everything has an art-deco look. There is a striking, Gatsby-esque black and gold design on the box, the candle shade, and all the other materials. The game was a speak-easy, prohibition themed mix up between Go Fish and Clue. NIB is strong with theme across all the materials, the menu, and the activities, and that is something to appreciate. If you're busy and harried by all else there is in life, "date night" may just be dinner at home with some wine you don't normally have. The Night In Box is really something different - because of the theme. 
 

CONS: 
1. Can be geared more toward a woman's idea of a perfect date night. We've only tried one box, so this may not be true for all of NIB. But with NIB's Great Love theme, we did notice that some of the prompts were distinctly more fun for me than for Jacob. He was a good sport, but he doesn't always want to talk about our feelings and "favorite moments," which is totally fair! So if your guy isn't interested in that kind of thing at all, he might not like certain aspects of the box. 
2. Room for improvement with some of the pieces included. This is basically only in reference to the dominoes. We noticed that some of the white dots that were supposed to be colored in simply weren't. Which made playing the game a bit more confusing!
3. More food options to appeal to different allergies or restrictions. As I mentioned above, I think it would be a really great addition to the boxes if they could offer different meal options for people with religious observances or allergies. That would take the box from good to great! 

Have you tried NIB? Would you be interested in trying it? Are you going to purchase a subscription? Let me know in the comments down below :)