If you’re looking for a way to keep the romance in your relationship, then follow our hints and tips below to let your partner know just how much you care!

Buy tickets to their favorite kind of film. Whether it be science fiction, romance or a thriller, by showing willingness to compromise you will not only gain their respect, but you’ll get to see exactly what you want next time you go to the cinema!

Check in the TV guide when your partner’s favorite program is on and put it on before they ask, even if you hate it!

Book a hotel or bed and breakfast at their favorite place and keep them blindfolded until you get there. Spend the day doing exactly what they want. A day of dedicated pleasure is priceless!

If you haven’t much money, prepare a picnic of all their favorite food and drink and take them somewhere you can be alone. Even if it’s just your room with the door locked, light some candles and play some romantic music and enjoy the time together.

Buy your partner flowers. Men enjoy receiving flowers as much as women so pick out a bunch that mean what you want to say.

Just as your partner leaves for a night out with their friends, give them the most passionate kiss you’ve ever given them. They’ll spend the whole night thinking about you and wishing they were at home with you!

When you know your partner has had a particularly tiring day run them a bubble bath, pour them a drink and warm them a towel. To give them an extra relaxing experience, offer to cook dinner or wash up - this will guarantee a place in their good books!

Offer to read your partner a chapter of the book they are currently reading. Make sure the lights are dimmed and you’re both snuggled up in bed, just be careful not to fall asleep!

Talking dirty to the one you love is one of those sexual behaviors people are uncomfortable with the first time they do it, and the first time they do it with a new partner. To do it well means letting loose and exposing yourself, which always feels scary the first time. Here are some steps to getting comfortable with dirty talk, and ideas for introducing into your sex play.

Here’s How:

Be authentic in your dirty talk.
Dirty talk can feel silly if you expect it to be what you’ve seen in the movies. You might have this idea that dirty talk is something specific. But good dirty talk is completely what you make it, and to do it well, you have to be yourself. While you may take on a role in your dirty talk you need to find something of yourself in the role.

Find your dirty talk voice.
You need to find your own way of talking dirty. Your dirty talk might be low rhythmic grunts, high pitched squeals, or precise whispers. It might reflect the way you talk in your daily life, or it might express a different aspect of your personality. Experiment with speed, how fast you talk. Change the volume of your voice, try whispering, try screaming, try everything in the middle. You can sound commanding and harsh, trembling and uncertain, and everywhere in between.

Expand your dirty talk vocabulary.
Most of us are raised not to swear. Dirty talk is your opportunity to pull out all the stops on the foul mouth express. Unless you’re role playing calls for it, avoid clinical terms (like penis). You can do research online, by reading some raunchy erotica.

Practice dirty talk when you’re alone.
Carol Queen, author of the highly recommended Exhibitionism for the Shy, suggests starting on your own, talking dirty while you masturbate. Fantasize about having sex with your partner and talking dirty to them. You can start by doing it in your head, but eventually do it out loud.

Establish ground rules with your partner.
One of the reasons many of us don’t talk dirty is fear of sounding ridiculous, or being put down or rejected by a partner. It’s important to set some rules when you’re willing to take risks like this. Rules like no laughing at one another, and no judgment are important. In the heat of the moment anything can come out of your mouth, and you need to know that your partner is respectful of the ways that can be exposing.

Start slow the first time.
Don’t feel you have to rush right into elaborate dirt talk. A great way to start with dirty talk is to describe out loud what is happening during sex. Things like “I love the way your hand feels in my….” Or “Your …feels so good on/in my…” Describe what’s happening and how it feels in your body. You can also experiment by telling your partner something you’re going to do to them, or something you want them to do to you.

Make dirty talking a two way conversation.
Once you’ve taken the risk and initiated talking dirty with your partner, ask them to do the same. It isn’t for everyone, and you might find that you like doing it more than hearing it (or vice versa). But being on the receiving and the giving end of dirty talk can give you a different perspective on it, plus you may learn a few things from your partner you didn’t already know.

Does your spouse refuse to stay at a bed and breakfast? Maybe these thoughts can help you convince them:

1. It’s generally smart to begin with the usual methods of convincing — logic and the like. If that doesn’t work, resort to the more complex (sometimes trickier) options outlined below.

2. Explain that bed and breakfasts are almost universally recognized as a more personal alternative to hotels and motels. And that you can make sure you will have a private bathroom.

3. Assure your spouse that inns are run by professionals — and stay at a larger bed and breakfast (i.e. one with more than 10 rooms) at first if that helps.

4. Appeal to other interests: “The best public golf course in the state is right next to this bed and breakfast.”

5. Cut a deal: “If we stay at a bed and breakfast, I’ll buy the present for your mother’s next birthday. And your father…”

6. Make the trip a secret, but be aware that this could backfire. If your spouse gets upset when you arrive, the whole trip could be sour.

7. Be sure to pick a top-notch bed and breakfast. Get recommendations from other friends and from online discussion groups.

8. Splurge on a nice room. Perhaps your spouse will enjoy the Jacuzzi tub and king-size bed.

9. Let the innkeepers know what’s going on. They’re likely to go out of their way to help ensure a pleasant stay.

10. Be patient. Bed and breakfasts are totally different than chain hotels and motels, so it might take some time for your spouse to warm up to the experience

The best ways to say “I love you” are usually in simple, everyday, seemingly unimportant ways. Leo Buscaglia, who wrote and taught about love, said “Words and deeds that say ‘You enrich my life’ go on forever.”

Here are some suggestions to get your own creative juices flowing so that your love for one another will go on forever.

• Make sure you say “I Love You” at least once each day to your spouse.
• Write unexpected love notes.
• Give your mate an unexpected hug, a surprisingly romantic kiss, or a teasing tickle often.
• Be spontaneous and surprising with winking at each other.
• Whisk your spouse away for an unexpected weekend alone.
• Star-gaze together.
• Take a walk in the rain with one another.
• Share memories by looking at old photographs and talking about memories you share together.
• Schedule a day to just be leisurely together.
• Listen.
• Share why you love your spouse.
• Give the gift of your time by performing trivial chores for your spouse (fold clothes, run errands, wash the car, etc.)
• Don’t forget anniversaries and birthdays.
• Smile.
• Blow a kiss from across the room.
• Dance with your spouse in your own living room.
• Hold hands.
• Plan and cook a meal together.

Concerts in the local park, art displays and picnics are wonderful, cheap date ideas, whether for you and your significant other, you and the kids, or you and a blind date.

Some other ideas? How about these:

• Fill a thermos with homemade cappuccino and go parking, to watch the sunset of course.
• Take a long, slow walk together, hand in hand.
• Have a picnic - at the beach, in a park, on the living room floor…
• Learn to slow dance, and do it, to the radio!
• Dress up and go to a free art gallery or museum.
• Pretend that you’re going to buy a car and test drive the ones you both like. (Take turns)
• Go to the bookstore and just spend hours browsing–maybe treating yourselves to a cup of coffee.
• Go out to breakfast rather than dinner. Save money and avoid the crowds.
• Visit a local historical site in your area.
• Go to a local museum, zoo or aquarium.