Valentine's Lockdown Gift Buying Guide

With Valentine's Day just around the corner I’ve been in a very positive state of mind and feeling rather excited by the unique opportunities available on Valentine’s day during a pandemic! It is phenomenal how small businesses around the country have managed to come up with new and innovative ways to keep on doing great British business and have been getting their products and services delivered to our doorsteps contact free! I’ve seen so many great ideas and I’d love to celebrate these brilliant small businesses within this blog post.

Personalised word pictures - ideal lockdown Valentine’s gifts

These word pictures make brilliant one-of-a-kind gifts as they are so unique to you and your relationship! Choose around 20 words which sums up your love, include special dates, locations, names, destinations and words associated to in-jokes. Choose a colour scheme, perhaps colours which reflect your love’s favourites or perhaps the colours from you wedding day. Personalise the picture further with photographs if you wish!

Liz from Wedition is able to create these stunning gifts for you, the one pictured cost £38 which included the print, frame and UK P&P. Options for digital only so you can print and frame yourself as well as print only.

Liz is renowned in the wedding industry for creating personalised wedding magazines for couples to give to their guests on their wedding day but more recently, Liz has been creating magazines for Zoomitzvahs (Bar and Bat mitzvah’s celebrated over Zoom) and personalised framed word pictures.

Zoom workshops - Valentine’s gift experiences during lockdown

Lockdown has seen the rise of the Zoom workshop, there is so much choice out there! From cheese and wine tasting, chocolate tasting, cocktail making and baking, the choices really are quite phenomenal.

• The Vegetarian Chef over on Instagram is running live cook-a-long-sessions which will be a fun thing to try this Valentine's.
• Home Cooking by Fabienne is going to do a Valentine's Zoom cooking workshop making choux pastry, savoury and sweet, “Mon choux” in French means “my sweetie”.
• Reut The Home Made Cook is offering special cooking classes just for Valentine's.
• Valentine's themed art and art history classes for adults are available from Barbara Kay at Kids Art UK.
• Art and art history, personal projects and personal feedback is available from classes by Gail Altschuler Art.
• Ben Levy offers 5 star rated and unique Mind Magic experiences for couples. Perfect for Valentine's! If you are looking for something completely out of the box (and fancy an experience that really gets you and your partner really involved in the action), how about trying a virtual Mind Magic experience? This isn't your traditional magic show. Ben will try to influence your choices and predict your decisions throughout a fully interactive, mind blowing virtual show. Oh, and did I mention that each show is personalised for you?
• How about a couples yoga class? Joanne Maroun of Mindful Movers offers yoga and mindfulness workshops for adults and young people. This would be a lovely way to connect with your loved ones. Couples and families welcome.
• Israeli Dance Workshop for Valentine's couples on Zoom! A newly interactive activity for home including music, dance and quality time together! Led by international award-winning teacher and producer Ilai Szpiezak. Think Eurovision meets Tel Aviv beach atmosphere, with modern tunes and some classics.
• Double Twist Dance specialise in ballet, contemporary and lyrical. They have a special Valentine's workshop.
• Try a couples singing and songwriting workshop with Kelly Erez.

Photo credit: Ilai Szpiezak - international award-winning dance teacher

Gift a DIY kit for an enjoyable lockdown Valentine's night in

An alternative to the Zoom workshop is a DIY kit. I've seen a number of fun things for you to try from DIY sushi kit with everything including the sushi rice made for you by Bamboo Sushi UK in Borehamwood to cookie kits from Lady Giada's Cookies based in Fleet, Hampshire. I spotted a great S'mores DIY kit on Facebook marketplace from A Bit of a Do Caterers, a classic example of how a business used to providing for large events have managed to come up with a fun way of continuing to provide their service lockdown style! I spotted some fabulous DIY brigadeiro kit (brigadeiro is a Brazilian gourmet truffles made with Belgian chocolate and nuts) from Emmy's Brigadeiro.

Photo credit: Bamboo Sushi UK

A tasty bouquet - a fun alternative gift to Valentine’s flowers

Rather than send flowers to you love, how about an edible bouquet? We’ve seen lots of tasty treats available on Facebook and Instagram recently from chocolate bouquets to brownie boards. Be sure to select a supplier that is local to you but for inspiration you can check out Fel’s Honeypop who makes tasty bouquets or Sweets 4 my Sweet who make popcorn slabs and chocolate domes which you can have fun smashing with the included hammer!

Photo credit: Fel's Honeypop

Hampers - a great gift for your stay at home lockdown Valentine's Day

With so many wedding and events companies having to think outside the box during lockdown, you can get your hands on some really fun hamper ideas and you will find that suppliers are willing to go that extra mile to make sure the gift you buy is ideal for you. I like these cocktail hamper sets from Twist Cocktails and boozy hampers from Full of Fizz.

I’ve seen all sorts of foods available to try too, from the flavours of South African rusks to a Valentine Hamper from Penny Beral Catering & Events which includes a selection of delicious hand made and savoury snacks and nibbles.

This article's lead image is a luxury made to order gift box containing handmade marshmallows, chocolate truffles and macarons by Love from Lila xx who also bakes these luxury brownies pictured below. 

A message from Love from Lila xx: Chocolate is such a popular Valentine's gift, so why not take it to the next level with these luxury chocolate brownies in the post? Order online, delivered within approx. 3 days, these brownies are made freshly with luxury, sustainable ingredients and are dusted with edible shimmer for that extra special touch. They come gift wrapped, in recyclable packaging making them eco friendly too!

Photo credit: Aneirin Designs

Give a gift of a personal and bespoke Valentine’s song

Having recently been interviewed by the lovely Natalie Austin on 5 Minutes With, I discovered that Natalie writes beautiful bespoke songs and poetry which she can perform for you or coach you to give the performance of you life to your love.

A message from the London Voice Coach: There’s no better way to say “I love you“ this Valentine’s Day than a bespoke personalised poem or song written especially for you. Songs are recorded and presented on a London Voice Coach USB in a stylish gift box. Lyrics & poems can also be framed on a gorgeous backdrop of your choice.

Personalised magazine - a unique keepsake gift for your Valentine

I’d be delighted to create a 12 page magazine for you to give to your Valentine as an incredible keepsake. The magazine is in your choice of colours and you can choose from a number of different articles. 1x digital proof, 1x printed magazine and p&p included in one price. A bit like “This Is Your Life”! We can fill the magazine with favourite photos, a love letter from you and perhaps a fun how well do you know each other quiz!

Get in touch with liz@wedition.co.uk for more information.

Photo credit: Hayley B Weddings

Gift buying guide for Valentine's day lockdown