Actually, the flowers are not the main point of my romance endeavors today, but since a really nice bouquet of flowers is really expensive, I thought I'd also share a little tid-bit to save you some money in your next romantic endeavor.

The problem is that the pre-arranged flowers from the grocery store, although they will work for last minute romance, look kind of cheap.  They have that funky colored paper around them and sticky price tags that you have to cut out of the plastic wrapping (not very romantic looking).  I usually take them out of the cheap wrapping and put them in a vase before presenting them to my wife for a romantic surprise.

Here's what you do to save money and end up with a quality romantic flower bouquet:

Go to the local mid to high end grocery store - one with a floral counter - get a nice big pre-arranged bunch and take it to the floral counter.  Buy a couple of green fern stems and ask the person at the counter to re-wrap them in clear plastic (with the additional fern stems in back) and tie a matching bow around them.  Also ask for the new price tag separately - go and pay while the clerk does the wrapping.

Today's bouquet ended up being a really big bunch - it covered half my coffee table.  The cost: $14.99 + 1.00 for the fern + 1.00 for the re-wrap and bow.  At a florist, this size bouquet would easily cost about $50.00.

The result (the pic doesn't do the flowers justice):

It put a smile on her face!  Oh - and what did I do for Dawn today?  I had the day off and didn't tell her.  Before lunch I told her to go to a nice sushi place near her work for a surprise.  Since I am normally at my office about 25 miles away from her work, she assumed I had arranged for a friend of hers to meet her for lunch.  When she got there I was waiting with the giant bouquet of flowers.  Nice surprise.  We had a great romantic lunch!