How should I go about this...wait for Valentines?

[Sun_King]

Hey all... I've been planning to tell my SO about my little plan to buy her a plane ticket so that she can finally visit during our 1 year anniversary (it will be on 26 July 2017). I'm saving money and waiting for tax season, going off yearly trends, I should have a pretty sizable tax refund between February and March. This works out because it'll still be a few months out and the cost will be considerably less expensive then buying the month of. I initially wanted to wait until I got my W-2 and saw how much it was going to be which would be the week of 23 January onwards, but then I realized Valentines day is on the 14th of February, only a few weeks later. Naturally I'll be getting her something then and shipping it to her for it to arrive before or on the day of, but I thought about what if I got her a card and other trinkets giving her a hint that I'll finally have the funds available. Of course the flights I've looked at are just place-holder dates (say, she flies out 24 July given the estimation is a 23 hour trip altogether, in which case she'll be sleepy and jet-lagged for a day and be charged up on the 26th).

Of course I know I'll have to talk to her about specifics in her schedule, how long, etc. She is a med student afterall and works two jobs (love that she's a hard worker but at the same time I don't want her to over do it since she tends to get sick ). I think I can afford to wait, it's just a matter of knowing the amount I'll be refunded (each year I average about $2000 so that's not a huge concern). I'd also need to work out getting her a VISA if she can't afford it herself, unless she can use her student VISA...I'd like her to visit for a month but right now I've been getting flight estimates up to two weeks which is more realistic given her circumstances...I'll also be transitioning from the army early July and will be looking for a new place in Savannah, Georgia. In which case, I'm conflicted whether I should get a flight to Charlotte, NC where I have family and a place to stay or a flight for her to arrive in Georgia, which means I'd have to be done house/apartment searching within two weeks. LDR veterans and the like...please give me you thoughts.

Thanks all!

[hmrambling]

Definitely sort out with her the dates that she is available and the specifics of the trip. I'm an Army vet and I suggest you give yourself time to transition as well. The trip won't be entirely around her schedule, as you will have to transition from the Army.

[Sparkling72]

You could make up and print a "ticket" and put it in with the care package you plan to send for Valentine's day.. something cute and cleaver like her name and "Round-trip Ticket to KS" and Date: TBD, Cost: money is in the bank! ... Then, when she gets it and is very surprised, it will lead to the conversation of sorting out dates. If she's coming in July, that's still 5 months of planning time. That sounds like a very fun and exciting surprise!!

[sasad]

You could make up and print a "ticket" and put it in with the care package you plan to send for Valentine's day.. something cute and cleaver like her name and "Round-trip Ticket to KS" and Date: TBD, Cost: money is in the bank! ... Then, when she gets it and is very surprised, it will lead to the conversation of sorting out dates. If she's coming in July, that's still 5 months of planning time. That sounds like a very fun and exciting surprise!!

I seriously LOVE that idea!!

[Sun_King]

You could make up and print a "ticket" and put it in with the care package you plan to send for Valentine's day.. something cute and cleaver like her name and "Round-trip Ticket to KS" and Date: TBD, Cost: money is in the bank! ... Then, when she gets it and is very surprised, it will lead to the conversation of sorting out dates. If she's coming in July, that's still 5 months of planning time. That sounds like a very fun and exciting surprise!!

Wow! I really love that idea. Thanks so much! Everything's starting to come together. I'll make a few improvisions to suit the theme even more. Gonna start looking for a good Valentines Day Card soon. If anyone knows where I can order a card or care package themed around visitation or airplanes (online retailers as well) let me know.

Afterwards I want to look into buying the "loving from a distance" bracelets, but I intend to give it to her in person. In July among other things. Only time will tell but I fully believe everything will come to fruition. Planning and spanning is what I aim to do!

If anyone else has advice or ideas on their romantic attempts to introduce a first meet conversation to their SO to newbies like me, please sound off. Last time I brought it up to her was early October around her B-Day. We talked and she said she was really excited but she thought it'd be a few years before we'd finally be able to meet, so I think it'll really excite her when the time comes. Come February 14th if not sooner I'll give an update on my defacto plan and our conversation.

[sasad]

Wow! I really love that idea. Thanks so much! Everything's starting to come together. I'll make a few improvisions to suit the theme even more. Gonna start looking for a good Valentines Day Card soon. If anyone knows where I can order a card or care package themed around visitation or airplanes (online retailers as well) let me know.

Afterwards I want to look into buying the "loving from a distance" bracelets, but I intend to give it to her in person. In July among other things. Only time will tell but I fully believe everything will come to fruition. Planning and spanning is what I aim to do!

If anyone else has advice or ideas on their romantic attempts to introduce a first meet conversation to their SO to newbies like me, please sound off. Last time I brought it up to her was early October around her B-Day. We talked and she said she was really excited but she thought it'd be a few years before we'd finally be able to meet, so I think it'll really excite her when the time comes. Come February 14th if not sooner I'll give an update on my defacto plan and our conversation.

As a girl, I think if you actually came up with your own care packaged theme it would be better and more personal. I don't think any online generic retailer is going to convey what you want to with that touch of you. I did a whole beach theme one time.. sent an inflatable ball ( flat of course) with a tag that said, we will have a ball together, a beach bucket- with this is for our bucket list, a fishing lure, saying I had the best catch, a frisbee- to toss our fears away etc... come up with something and write little notes. It really gets fun as you get into it.. My parents even started trying to ad stuff too!

[Sparkling72]

Construction paper and stickers are cheap! Hand-made is heart-made! it's easy to decorate the inside of a box. lots of ideas on pintrest.. just search for care package and you'd amazed what comes up!

[iHippie]

What a cool idea, popping the surprise in a card!! Another idea, could be to make a plane themed care package - plane shaped chocolates, tiny flight -related trinkets, faux tickets, even a plane plushy etc. Subtly giving the hint, and wait for her surprised response

[Sun_King]

Hey everyone! Sorry if I seemed AWOL for the past week or so. Was just gathering resources i.e. buying and creating custom parts (namely Etsy, a huge life saver/contributer for custom cards, and the last piece to the puzzle is coming Monday from them). I even had a SSG/NCO help me laminate the tickets I created, pretty awesome guy! Made quite a few prototypes while I spruced them up in my graphic design software (clippaint studio).

I'm intending for her to use them as cute bookmarks since she's always studying for med school so I made various (2) sizes. The next pieces I need are Valentines themed label reinforcements and the eventual hole-punches.

Things have been slow between me and her the past week but this makes for an ideal situation because she won't be expecting anything. Unfortunately I can't just surprise her because it has to go to a shipitto address and she'll have to know when to pick it up so the best I can really do is wait as I have been. But all-in-all I'm happy to let everyone know things are proceeding smoothly and I appreciate all the suggestions. My planned ship/drop-off date is 4 February which I'll then message her something very vague, along the lines of "14 February 2017" to confuse her and by virtue gage her interest. XD. There's a lot more I added since my last post; I added a passport themed highly personalized (love)book with one of the tickets/bookmark hidden on a very deliberate page i.e the one provoking the anniversary and the trip, the extra bookmarks I'll have hidden so I'll be making more notes for her to follow, like an in-built scavenger hunt. My main fear is customs may ruin the intended order and therefore other surprises as they did last time I sent her something. Lol, it's early morning here but I figured I owed the contributers to my thread an update. Will likely provide pictures in the morning or throughout the week as I prepare shipment. Last night I went off-post to Manhattan to look for custom decoratives and boxes.

To be honest, I'm really giddy about the whole thing and I've had to resist telling her I've prepared her Valentines gifts. Don't know if it's normal but I'm really excited for her to see because I've taken pride in making this custom care package for her as opposed to buying a generic one. Feels way more personal because even if some pieces are premade, it's so tailored to our specific situation I can't really help it.

More updates very soon. Only a few more weeks, guys.

[Sun_King]

Hey again, everyone!

As of yesterday I finished the care package and dropped it off at Fedex for pick up come Monday, 30 January. The current arrival date to the ship-it-to freight service is slated for 2 February 2017. I decided to do it this weekend as opposed to 4 February because I had to factor in the pick-up and delivery dates of the last gifts I sent her.

Last time I shipped her gifts was on 26 November 2016 and they were delivered to her ship-it-to location on 1 December 2016 (Thursday of that week). At which point I could no longer track its progress because techinally it was already "delivered". I didn't get an update from her until 9 December (she left me a very emotional voice mail ) when she was able to pick it up. Between 26 November and 9 December is about 14 days so if I had waited until February 4th there'd have been a slight chance her Valentines care package would arrive later than the suspense date! XD. Lol, I just need it there for her the day of, so a few days early shipment isn't a bad thing. So on and so, I'll be letting her know about it come Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday this week once it touches down in Florida. .

Also, both my tax returns have already been accepted and one already has a date for funds release so everything's coming together.

As promised, I'll be sharing images from the care package here. Will do in a follow-up post. Stay-tuned.

[Redheart14]

I'm sure she'll appreciate all your efforts

[Sun_King]

Hey all!

Another update! The care package made it to the mail forwarding locale as of February 2nd ( last Thursday) via Fedex. It's through Ezone, which according to their flight schedule ships to St. Vincent only on Tuesdays so I imagine it shipped from there on the 7th at the very latest. So long as it arrives before 2pm EST to their shipping hub (which it did) it is prepared for the following business day. The one other caveat being that the package came to about 10 pounds so it probably took a little longer to clear customs than last time. I say that because she hasn't told me she had an opportunity to pick it up yet. All the while she had exams this past week so she wouldn't have had time anyhow. Though by now I'm pretty sure it's in country in their local office.

So long as she is able to pick it up Tuesday (Valentines) or on Monday that's my main concern. I'm seriously excited what her reaction is going to be to the trip, or rather the introduction to our "conversation" about it. She forced my hand a bit because in order to pick up at her local hub she needs to know what each item is which may have ruined some of the surprise, but she doesn't know the specifics of the love book, and the plane-ticket themed bookmarks among other things.

All this planning and witholding information is really grating at times but hearing her and experiencing her excitement will make it all worth the effort, and I'll have the happiest grimace known to man the day she finds out! XD

Since we're right around the corner to Judgement Day, guess I finally don't mind sharing pics. Next post.

[Sun_King]

Sweets Valentines Pics

First things first...I had the idea of buying a Valentines pillow. Ordered off amazon and it seemingly said it included the pillow itself but once I got it in the mail it was only the case (and the description changed sometime after I got the case, lol). I went out and bought a red pillow and also bought a voice module and promptly recorded a little greeting. Had to create my own enclosure for the module since it wasn't going in a standard greeting card but I achieved the affect I wanted. Take a looksy. https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/3wC0d5


Here's how everything looked before shipment. Decorated the box interior too: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/2pR181

Had a custom card made with my and her respective locations: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/049fFM

Bookmark-plane tickets in multiple sizes. These took a while with a few prototypes before making the final edits, getting help laminating, trimming the excess plastic, and ultimately hole-punching, label reinforcemrnt, and strings. She's studious and always in the books so why not have a cute reminder with her and string to keep up with more easily. There are also a few I did so that she doesn't have to deal with string:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/FJ2752

https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/6634bV
Of course, the most important part of the package is the book that tells her about the whole thing. Without it, it's missing its soul:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/J9WQ09

Lol, working in HR in the army has its perks. Knowing how to create legitimate-looking certificates. I had to do research on her school and utelize my image/photo editting skills to use the official emblem/logos . Since she is in a school of medicine/doctorship, I did more research on medical symbolism, adding the Caduceus symbol I felt was a nice touch.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/qFC25g
About everything in frame. Got her a military bear from harris since I'm military. When I shipped it I hadn't done much to the bear besides what you see, but I did manage to get an extra jacket for the bear and have a military outlet store have a custom name tape sewn on and one for the back of the bears patrol cap.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/789Azv

Little gift box. Wrapped it in a red cloth and tied the string myself: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/0D8R1T

Little sign I made just in case she wants to be festive and wait until Valentines. Also a personal note I made as a little scroll tucked inbetween. https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/q84S69

The certificate, book, and map card after packing them up. I don't think I did a bad job: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/J347B7

Bear with custom engraved necklace and hidden card on the inside of jacket: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/5K81nw

I got her candy (Sweetarts) but never took a pic, but I did make this little note on card-stock for when she opened it: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/370Xh5

Tourniquet as a goodluck charm for her and her medical studies (souvenir from my army combat life saver class) Lines up with her stem-field so why not : https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/K8R5KH

Box interior after much decorative tissue, tape, and bubble wrap: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/763z7x

Other LDR card that went in the brown envelope in the bears jacket. Put thick card board in to keep from bending: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/69nq62

Custom tags I had made for her and an official military dogtag chain. "Frisk-me" Bear is wearing one two but his is much tighter on his neck. This is inside the map card: https://www.flickr.com/gp/137721462@N06/Ce9045

[kittyxuchiha11]

Wow you put a crazy amount of effort into this! it's so cute and thoughtful, wish my SO would send me cute things like like haha :3

[sunnymess54]

I get so jealous on Valentines Day always have because everyone I've ever been with has always hated Valentine's Day for one reason or another. I wish my new SO was different in that aspect but unfortunately he's the same.

You put a crazy amount of love and thought into every detail and I'm sure she will love it.