Love is still on the cards

It’s Valentine’s Day, the most romantic day of the year – or is it? Are we still buying our loved ones proper cards or just sending emojis via social media? Caroline Lindsay and Gayle Ritchie found out

Poor St Valentine. If he was around today, how would the original romantic – imprisoned and executed in 273AD for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry – feel about a world where words of love are being replaced by emojis?

Luckily for him – and the rest of us – research by Royal Mail reveals romance is far from dead in this digital age.

The traditional methods of expressing love win out, with more than two-thirds of us planning on giving a card, compared to 5% who said they had previously sent an emoji instead.

And contrary to popular belief, men are more likely to send a card than women, with 45-54-year-olds feeling the most love.

It seems spouses and partners are the top recipients, followed by children and secret crushes.

Morag Turnbull, external relations manager at Royal Mail, says: “The introduction of universal postage in the early Victorian era led to a blossoming of romantic communication across the UK.

“As with those early communications in the late 18th Century, the reasons for sending a card via the post no doubt remain the same.”

According to the Greeting Card Association (GCA), more than 21 million of them are sent in the UK each year and 2015 saw us spend £1.7 billion on greeting cards, more than ever before – and £44.5 million of this was on Valentine’s Day ones.

Three couples who told The Courier’s Weekend magazine about their romances revealed their plans for today, which include thoughtful homemade cards and gifts, plus a special meal.

Phill and Paula Rogers met in a Dundee pub in 1991 and have been inseparable ever since. However, today won’t be any more romantic than usual for the couple.

“We’ve had an agreement from the early days not to celebrate Valentine’s Day,” says Phill, 45.

“We have a more spontaneous relationship in that we surprise each other with happenings like flowers, little gifts, hidden notes and random date nights. It works great for us.”

Dundee couple Kat Marshall and Sally Melville have been together for three years, thanks to an online dating site. “We decided to spend this year’s Valentine’s Day in and I’m making a dinner of sweet potato and chicken curry,” says Kat, 23. “Sal is making the starter but it’s a surprise.

“We celebrate every year, usually by going out for a meal. We also tend to make each other gifts and cards.”

Will and Jean Gibb from Invergowrie enjoyed a traditional courtship after their first date at a dance in the 1950s.

They’ll be marking the biggest day of romance with a dinner of rump steak followed by gateau.

“Will often buys me a nice bunch of red roses,” says Jean, 82. “But we’ve never sent cards and at our age, we tend not to be quite so romantic.

“Our special tea will be more than enough tonight.”

When it comes to expressing our love, it seems we’re very traditional and still send cards.