One of the best things about celebrating Valentine's Day (especially if you're newlyweds or newly engaged) has gotta be taking the time to reflect on all your adventures + milestones as a couple. It's a chance to sit back, relax, and gush about all the fun you have together! And we think the perfect place to do just that is in the comfort of your very own home. (Bonus points for not having to lose your mind trying to get a reservation somewhere!)

The GWS team styled this romantic V-day tablescape and you'll see in a sec just how easy it is to recreate this cozy setting at home. All you need is your coffee table, a couple of pillows, some bud vases filled with blooms (backyard forages or Trader Joe's finds should do the trick) and some moody candlelight. Order takeout from your fave local spot or cook something simple you two both love and put your time + effort into making dessert EXTRA sweet! We have some super fun ideas + recipes for you involving everybody's favorite chocolate, M&M's (more on those below....). For a special day like Valentine's Day, we decided to personalize our My M&M's with sweet, little love notes + playful graphics using their ultra easy personalization portal. The pretty color choices you can pick from for your personalized My M&M's helped inspire our romantic berry + blush tablescape...

We couldn't have created such a fun tablescape without our friends at Found Rentals + Casa de Perrin! Don't you just love those slate Heath ceramic plates + that rustic wood coffee table?!

There are surprisingly lots of cute sayings that can fit onto a teeny tiny M&M! Go for your fave quote or inside joke. And we don't mind if you steal some of our cute phrases: "my one and only", "crazy ❤", "you + me", "smooch", "you're my lobster", "je t'aime" , "forever + ever", "let's make out", and "true love".

And Now for the Tasty Recipes for Dessert...

Honestly, is there anything cuter than a mini donut? We think not! These babies are the perfect size so you can indulge in a few with assorted glazes + toppings!

Ingredients for the Donuts: Strawberry Glaze:

Baked Mini Strawberry Donuts

Chocolate Glaze:

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Yield: 36 mini donuts

Directions for the Donuts:

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup finely chopped strawberries*
• 1/2 cup (6 g) freeze dried strawberries, finely crushed to powder (place in a Ziploc bag, crush with rolling pin)

For the Strawberry Glaze:

• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 2 Tbsps unsalted butter
• 2 tsp honey
• 2 tsp water

For the Chocolate Glaze:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Butter donuts pans with room temperature butter, then sprinkle lightly with flour and shake upside down to remove excess flour.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt, make a well in center of mixture and set aside.
• In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together buttermilk, olive oil, vanilla and eggs, then pour into well in flour. Using a wooden spoon, stir mixture just until combined, then fold in 2/3 cup finely chopped strawberries.
• Fill each donut pan half full. I recommend using a piping bag to get the batter in the pans since the holes are so small!
• Bake in your preheated oven 11 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of donut comes out clean.
• Allow to cool several minutes in donut pan then invert onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
• Once cool dip top halves of donuts into either the strawberry glaze or chocolate glaze and decorate with your M&M's. I love the mix of crushed M&M's along with one cute My M&M phrase per donut.
• Have fun decorating them!!

Donut recipe modified from this recipe by Cooking Classy

• Prepare glaze just before dipping cooled donuts....if you make it too early, it will thicken and make dipping impossible
• In a mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup finely chopped strawberries and half of the powdered sugar.
• Stir until mixture starts to become moistened, then allow to rest 1 minute.
• Add in remaining powdered sugar and freeze dried strawberry powder, then stir until fully mixed (at this point mixture should be have the consistency of a thick glaze, and have a dip-able consistency, if not allow to rest another minute or two until some of the liquids have been extracted from the strawberries then stir again. I recommend adding water to thin. Just allow it to rest if needed until the strawberries begin to break down).

• Place the chocolate chips, butter, honey, and water in a medium bowl.
• Melt this tasty concoction for increments of 20 second in the microwave, stirring after each time, until completely melted and smooth. So easy!

Ingredients for Two Tasty Shakes

One of the fun recipes we dreamt up to pair with our little donuts was an adult ice cream float! With a kick of bourbon to make it just a little bit better and the rim dressed up with crushed M&Ms, these floats seriously tasted as delicious as they look!

Directions:

Chocolate Bourbon Strawberry Shake

• 4 oz. of bourbon
• 2 12 oz. bottles of strawberry soda
• 1 pint of dark chocolate ice cream
• chocolate glaze (same glazed used on the donuts to save you time in the kitchen :)

• First, dip your glasses into the leftover chocolate glaze from our donuts (see recipe above - so easy to make!)
• Now dip them into the crushed M&M's.
• Next, layer a bit more of the chocolate glaze on the sides of you glass.
• Fill your glasses with ice cream and then pour in 1-2 (or more if you'd like!) shots of bourbon.
• Top with your soda.
• Add a paper straw and one cute personalized My M&M for your sweetie and enjoy!

When you order your personalized My M&M's, they come in a cute heart box. Love it! We took the heart box and printed some of our fave photos of us and placed them in the box. The perfect mementos to look about and reminisce over dessert. :)

We hope this romantic date night inspiration gives you some great ideas on how to spend Valentine's Day this year! :)

concept + design: Green Wedding Shoes // personalized M&M'S: My M&M's // photography: Katie Pritchard // furniture + textile rentals: Found Rentals // tabletop rentals: Casa de Perrin

This post is brought to you by the sweetest way to say I love you. Personalize your own My M&M's for Valentine's Day.