Valentine’s Day is all about love and partnerships and all that good stuff, but…aggggrrraaahhh…whether you are a girl or guy, don’t you just want to tear your hair out sometimes trying to think of that perfect gift to get them? Well, you don’t have to. We did all the footwork work for you by scouting around and asking everyone and their mother about what says “I Love You” to them.

The answers varied depending on a person’s interests, but there were some major overarching themes that stood out. Ready to get started?

Valentine’s Day Gift Guide

For Him

Fancy Dinner: Usually it’s the guy’s role to plan the fancy Valentine’s Day dinner, but some men definitely wouldn’t mind a role reversal. Why don’t you make the effort for that hard-to-get restaurant reservation and take some of the stress off of him. The best part? You get to get to eat a great dinner and spend time with your boo.

Personalized Comic Book: Is your guy a comic book geek? And we mean that in the most endearing way of course. Give him a heartfelt gift of actually making a comic book for him. This could be drawing and writing up one yourself, or enlisting an artist friend of yours to help out. Ideas for a storyline could be how the two of your met or you could do a full-blown action story where he is the hero and you the heroine.

Man Time: So simple and won’t even cost you a penny. Men we surveyed said when they are in a relationship, while they love their partner, one of the best gifts they could ever receive is Man Time. What exactly do they mean when it comes to Man Time? They want to grab back some of the time they had when they were bachelors. This could mean anything from just letting them have the remote for a for an entire night and watching whatever they want without any interruptions with their hand down their pants, to having guy nights with their male friends at a game or bar. We say, give him what he wants from time to time.

Sex: Another gift that is so simple that it might not even cross our minds. If you and your guy are on this level of intimacy already, this was a common request from the men that we spoke with. Seems like the both of you will be winners in this situation.

For Her

Custom Photo Album: If you have a sentimental woman on your hands, you will have her all teary-eyed with a fabulous custom photo album or scrapbook. Put together a book with pictures documenting your relationship together and personalize it even more with sweet notes scattered throughout. She will be completely blown away by the thought and effort you put into it.

Jewelry: Sure it might sound cliché, but it’s cliché for a reason. Women just seem to love jewelry. It is a reasonable request if you think about it though. After all, women may shop for clothing and jewelry, but they may not always invest the money for fancy jewelry designs. This is where you come in. Some requests that came through to us were designer pieces such as a Cartier Love bracelet. Another option would be to go with a personalized trinket. Three Sisters Jewelry makes beautiful hand stamped jewelry that you can customize with any words or numbers that you want. Try anything from your names together and birthdates, or getting ‘I Love You’ or ‘Will You Marry Me?’ on them. If you have no clue what to get her, ask her girlfriends for advice and include a gift receipt as a ‘just in case.’

Apartment Key: If you are ready to let her a bit more into your life or want her to move in, we love the idea of presenting her with your apartment key. For an extra sweet touch, you can attach a pretty or custom keychain on it. A word to the wise, do not present this to her in a ring box or any box that looks like it might have a ring in it.

For Him & Her

Time: While the two of you love each other, we bet that you don’t 100% share the same interests. But it would be incredibly meaningful to the other party if you tried to take part in their passions. Say he loves sports and you hate them? Get tickets for the next time his favorite team is in town and go with him. Is she a big fan of the stars and loves staring through her telescope all night when you would rather be inside? Sign up for an astronomy class and just go with her one time.

Trust us, taking your valuable time and using it to do something that THEY love will really touch their hearts. This in turn conveniently turns into a lot of brownie points for you. Other ideas that the two of you could take part in include cooking classes, wine tastings, dance lessons and more.

–Joyce Huang

Tell us: What are you planning on giving this Valentine’s Day?