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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man with a mission to make people’s relationships better is beginning a service that delivers date activities to your door.
Nate Bagley just returned from his months-long trip recording love stories and advice from happy couples across America. He and his “Loveumentary” co-host, Melissa Kong, spoke to 100 couples — young, old, newlyweds and those just starting out together — hoping to find out more about love. What they found, Bagley said, is that while some couples are truly, madly in love, many couples could connect better.
“It all kinda fell into place perfectly. I spent the last few months studying love and interviewing people who are in love, and I noticed one of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of relationships and having a really strong foundation and people being truly committed and connected with each other is a lot of people are just really busy. They don’t make the effort, they don’t have the time to be creative and actually spend meaningful time together.”
With that in mind, Bagley and his business partner, Steve Boyer, have created Unbox Love — a service that delivers a monthly date suggestion service. The model has become popular nationwide, delivering a surprise bundle of makeup, snacks or other items each month.
“It’s for the people who don’t make time for themselves,” Bagley said. “They’ve got kids, they’ve got jobs, they’re running people to practices, they’ve got all sorts of other commitments, whether it’s church or PTA, and they get stuck doing a dinner and a movie or watching a season of ‘Dexter’ together on the couch.”
We're trying to rekindle the type of creativity and connection that people had when they first started dating.
–Nate Bagley
Unbox Love, which will launch in March, sends couples a package filled with everything they need to have intimate dates. Bagley said the dates are focused on giving couples time to connect and interact without having to plan too much ahead of time — a common hindrance of thoughtful dates, he said. The activities might include making a craft, learning something new or doing something for the first time together.
“We’re trying to rekindle the type of creativity and connection that people had when they first started dating,” Bagley said. “We really want to see relationships flourish and grow. I wouldn’t put anything in a box that I wouldn’t want to do with my significant other.”
The idea came to the business partners just after Boyer’s sister’s wedding. She had been given 12 boxed dates — one for each month of the first year of marriage — and Bagley and Boyer thought it would be a great concept to share with others. Hours later, they bought the unboxlove.com domain and started devising date activities and a business plan.
Bagley said his trip filming the “Loveumentary” taught him what strong, happy couples look like, setting the bar higher than he realized it could be.
“I feel like if people were more aware of what level they could raise their happiness and relationship to just by being a little bit more intentional and by putting in some creativity and thought into the time they spend together, I think they would be blown away with the quality of their relationship and how it would change and the type of connectedness they share together,” Bagley said. “I’m just hoping we can have some small part down the line of elevating the level of happiness expected in a relationship.”
