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Sarah Jacobsson Purewal/CNET
If you haven’t made your Valentine’s Day plans yet, you may be in trouble — especially this year. Why? Because this year the heart-filled holiday falls on a Saturday.
Yeah, and you thought last year was bad, when V-Day was on a Friday. Trust me, this will be even worse: no Friday fatigue, no early morning workday, basically no reason not to go all out and do the whole Valentine’s Day thing. In other words, reservations are getting snapped up left and right, so you need to start getting your plans together, stat.
Get a babysitter
Your regular sitter is almost certainly booked if you haven’t asked them yet, either sitting for another family, or doing their own romance thing with their significant other. If you need to find a sitter in a snap, an app like UrbanSitter can help. UrbanSitter is a review-based app that uses social network info to find professional sitters you can trust (as in, sitters recommended by parents in your social circles). The app currently operates in San Francisco, NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Seattle, Boston, Denver and San Diego.
Get flowers
If you’re planning on ordering flowers online, earlier is better. While most online flower delivery services can deliver on a dime, your options will be limited and delivery charges will surge if you wait until the last minute. ProFlowers, for example, is currently charging $16 for standard delivery plus a $5 surcharge for Saturday delivery on Valentine’s Day; wait until the Thursday before, and you’ll probably get hit with another surcharge. Shark Tank-approved Bouqs will get you a nice bouquet for $40 (including shipping), but regular bouquets can’t be delivered on Saturdays (though the California collection can and starts at $50), and their arrangements sell out quickly.
If you’re just going to pick up some flowers locally, you’ll still need to make some plans; chances are your local grocery store will be a barren flower wasteland come Saturday morning. For the true last-minute planners in San Francisco or Los Angeles, speedy local flower delivery app BloomThat promises to have flowers to your honey in 90 minutes.
Get a gift
At this point, “thoughtful” has probably been replaced with “whatever I can find on such short notice.” Instead of risking an online delivery that may not come in time, go for a digital gift that you know will arrive by Saturday, such as a subscription to unlimited e-book service Oyster or streaming music service Spotify, a digital gift card to your recipient’s favorite mall store, or an on-demand massage from Zeel.
Make dinner plans
That sexy rooftop lounge may be all booked up, but you’ll still find a decent place for food and wine if you book now. Of 1,693 Manhattan restaurants on OpenTable, 1,216 still have tables available for two at 7 p.m. on February 14, 2015. Of 1,245 Los Angeles restaurants, 849 will let you in at 8 p.m. on February 14, 2015. So while you may not get your first choice you’re sure to get a choice, especially if you book sooner rather than later.
If you plan on cooking instead of eating out, now is the time to do your grocery shopping — the last thing you want to do is try to navigate the grocery store on Saturday morning. Even if you’re just going to order groceries direct from your local store or from a larger service, like AmazonFresh, it’s a wise idea to get your order in now (and get it delivered the day before V-Day, just in case).
Plan ahead
Not sure how your night is going to turn out? Be ready for everything: have a designated driver on call in case you get on the wrong side of tipsy (or use BeMyDD, an app that lets you hire a professional designated driver to pick you up and drive your car home) and maybe grab a last-minute hotel room…just in case.
