Valentine’s Day might be one of the more stressful holidays, depending on your temperament and ability to plan. As most of us have learned from trial and error, planning and execution are often two very different things.
So just to show that everyone has messed up on that crucial day, we’ve gathered some of the best and worst Valentine’s Day fails out there. From dates gone horribly wrong to the sad remains of someone’s idea of a gift, get comfortable as you scroll through, thank your lucky stars it wasn’t you and upvote your favorite examples.
#1 Here's Something For You. Entertaining Valentine's Baking Fail. I Tried To Make My Husband A Cake For A Gift
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#2 A Very Important Question
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#3 Valentine's Vasectomy
Getting the ol’ snippy snippy, I have anxiety issues and am quite nervous but committed, wish me luck!
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Rather confusingly, there were more than one Christian martyr named Valentine. Indeed, there are actually two Saint Valentine’s that are celebrated on February 14th, Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni. One of them (old records are not specific) was buried on February 14th, thus connecting this date to the name Valentine.
You might be wondering, what exactly does the death and burial of a Christian martyr have to do with romantic love? As with so many holidays, this particular date ended up being conflated with an older, pagan celebration. The date and concept were kept, but the “star” of the show was not a Christian Saint, not the pagan Juno.
#4 Found On My College Campus A Few Years Back, A Week After Valentine’s Day
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#5 On Valentine's Day, My Son Decided To Show Me His First Magic Trick: How To Make A Coin Disappear. One X-Ray Later, I Found It
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#6 I Made This For My Boyfriend For Valentine's Day But We Broke Up Yesterday So Here You Go Instead
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The festival of Juno, Lupercalia, was celebrated on February 13–15th, so the “happy” coincidence of Valentine’s burial cemented the day's new name. The original celebration focused on love and fertility, so it was perhaps difficult to remove this association even if you were, nominally, celebrating a martyr.
#7 Someone's Valentine's Day Didn't Go To Plan At London Victoria
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#8 I Tried Making My Fiancé A D20 System Cake For Valentine's
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#9 It's A Good Thing He Loves Me Because My Cake Is Bad
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Modern readers aren’t the only ones to notice this discrepancy. February 14th as we know it, only really took off in the 14th century, with Chaucer's poems about it. Two specific pieces, Parlement of Foules and Complaint of Man seem to have sparked off the whole craze, although scholars have noted that the traditions and conventions he writes about don’t seem to have had any basis in reality.
#10 That’s Valentine's Day For You
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#11 Pizza Roses For Valentine’s Day - Looks Simple Enough... Let’s Blame It On Not Having A Cupcake Tray
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#12 Invited 18 People To A Valentine's Day Poetry-Reading Party. Spent The Day Decorating And Getting Ready. 10 Said They Were Coming. No One Showed Up
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In other words, this entire tradition might be the figment of the imagination of a poet looking back at the older meanings of Valentine’s Day. So if you rank among the folks who had a big Valentine’s Day fail or you don’t like the holiday in general, perhaps it can help to recognize that the whole idea might be made up in the first place.
#13 At Least She Tried… Happy Valentine’s Day
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#14 I Tried To Take A Staff Valentine's Day Photo Where I Work In Florida. It Didn't Work Out As We Had Hoped
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#15 Valentine’s Day Jam Drops: Taste 10/10, Presentation 4/10
Still ate them, still loved them. Just called them “broken-heart biscuits” instead.
Image credits: Safe-Lengthiness2636
Another common and perhaps warranted criticism of Valentine’s Day might be the over-commercialization of the entire thing. In the US alone, 190 million Valentine’s cards are sent every single year. Unfortunately, we do not have an average success rate on these, but one suspects the number isn’t high.
#16 Just Getting Ready To Cook Valentine’s Day Dinner And Opened The Block Of Cheese I Bought Today
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#17 Walked By This While Leaving Work... Someone Had A Bad Valentine’s Day
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#18 This Was In The Mall At 7 PM On Valentine’s Day. A Line Outside Pandora For The Last-Minute “Oh No, I Forgot Valentine’s” Gift. Guys And Girls, Don’t Let This Be You
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#19 Valentine’s Day Gift On My Mom’s Car
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#20 Rose Crepe Cake For Valentine's Day
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#21 Bought My Husband An Anatomical Chocolate Heart For Valentine's Day. He Thought It Was A Chocolate Ballsack
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#22 My Partner's Valentine's Day Gift Was Delivered Like This
Box is also dented a fair bit, but other than that, it’s alright. Still ridiculous to even happen in the first place. Did no one genuinely think doing this was a bad idea?
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#23 Valentine’s Day Biscuits From Bojangles
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#24 Time To Open Up The Valentine’s Day Candy! Oh
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#25 Controller Cookies For My Boyfriend's Valentine's Day Gift
Very tasty, "better-than-bakery sugar cookies" (from the Gluesticks blog, I believe) with simple powdered sugar & milk glaze. The fail here is my awful piping skills and sprinkle placement.
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#26 My Ex Left Flowers On My Windshield
I dated this guy (23M) for 3 months and found out he was cheating. After I dumped him, for 2 months, he would show up at my house unannounced and tell my roommates he was "concerned about me and wanted to check up on me". Several months later, I had already moved on and started dating someone new. It was Valentine's Day and my current boyfriend and I woke up to flowers on my car.
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#27 In Honor Of Valentine's Day, Enjoy The Scary Cake I Made My Husband 10 Years Ago
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#28 Someone Had A Rough Valentine's Day
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#29 For Your Information, Do Not Make Your Sweetheart A Trash-Panda Cookie, Place It Near A Candle, Then Leave The Ceiling Fan On
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#30 I Couldn't Get A Real Man, And The Perfect Man Was Sold Out
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#31 Valentine's Delivery By TheBouqs Company. Expectation vs. Reality
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#32 Right On Track For Valentine's Day
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#33 How Romantic
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#34 Thought I’d Get Some New Candles For Valentine’s Day… Apparently Yankee Candle Can’t Ship Candles And Won’t Issue Replacements
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#35 Um, Ok Probably Not A Great Idea
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#36 Our 4-Year-Old Wrote This On All Of Her Friends' Candy Bags In Pre-School Today And Told The Teacher It Said Happy Valentine's Day
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#37 Happy Valentine’s Day
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#38 Thanks, ProFlowers, Only A Week Late And Like This. Flowers Were Supposed To Be Here On The 12th. They Shipped Late, And Then The Storm Hit. Customer Service Offered Me 20% Off
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#39 When The App Neglects To Flag That You've Run Out Of Characters
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#40 When Valentine's Day Didn't Go As Planned
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#41 Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Fail. Pretty Sure They Are Not Supposed To Be Bumpy
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#42 That Sad Moment When You Realize Your Milk Has A Valentine's Date But You Don't
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#43 He Couldn’t See The Writing And Didn’t Laugh, Probably Because I Forgot He’s Color Blind
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#44 Valentine's Day Fail. Tried Making Heart Cookies For My Friend, Everyone Fails At Something
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#45 Valentine My Son Received At School Yesterday
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#46 Happy Valentine's Day! I Will Never Bake Again
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#47 Dad Passed Away In August, And Mom Received This Today
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#48 More From The Archives: A Valentine's Card Made By My Husband For His Mother
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#49 I Bought Flowers On ProFlowers For My Daughter For Valentine's Day. They Arrived A Day Late And Were Mostly Dead
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#50 My Boyfriend And I Tried To Make A Pink Cake For Valentine's Day
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#51 So I Decided To Be Super Cute And Bake Cupcakes For My Significant Other And Then I Ate Them... Well Most Of Them Anyways
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#52 Looks Like Someone Ran Out Of Money For The Skywriter Today
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#53 When Last-Minute Shopping For Valentine's Day Goes Horribly Wrong
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#54 So You're Saying The Day Before Valentine's Day Is Not A Good Day To Buy Your Kids Something
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#55 Valentine's Day Extraction Of Screws And Plate
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#56 For Valentine's Day, We Tried To Nail It With Cakes
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#57 Bad Valentine’s Day Edition
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#58 Valentine's Flowers For My Long-Distance Relationship Girlfriend Didn't Get Delivered By The Florist
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#59 Somehow My Nice Valentine's Gesture Looks More Like A Crime Scene
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#60 Selfie With My Valentine's Date
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#61 Pretty Sure That Half Of This Valentine's Bamboo-Heart Plant At CVS Is Dead
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#62 Got These Warheads For Valentine’s Day. Did Not Have Any Black Cherry Whatsoever, 4 Lemons, And Watermelon Flavor Was Just Packaged Air
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#63 Valentine's Day Is About Love, Right?
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#64 I Know I Bought Mrs. S A Valentine's Day Card, And I Know I Hid It In A Book, But Which Book? Is It Acceptable To Just Say It's A Game Of Card Hide-And-Seek?
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#65 This Box Of Valentine's Day Candy
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#66 Valentine's Cupcakes That Are Best The Day Before Valentine's Day
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#67 The 1.25 Oz Jack Links Sasquatch Valentine. I Included A 1.45 Oz Hershey's Kiss For Size Comparison. My Husband Was Very Sad
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#68 There Was An Attempt To Make My Crush My Valentine
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#69 Wife Got Perfume From Ulta Today, Pulled Out Her Valentine’s Day Gift In Spite
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#70 I tried To Make A Cute Heart-Shaped Valentine's Day Cake For My Husband. 3 Hours Of My Life I'll Never Get Back
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#71 Might Need To Provide More Direction The Next Time I Ask One Of The Boys To Put His Valentine's Flowers In The Water
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#72 This Valentine’s Day Candy Set Is Bananas
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#73 Okay, So Listen, You Would Think That Being An Artist, I Could Decorate A Cake Better Than This But I Spread The Icing While The Cake Was Still Warm
Then I forgot to put a decorating tip on the tube of writing icing. Valentine's day and birthday fail for my better half.
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#74 Valentine's Box Of Chocolate Is Missing A Whole Line Of Chocolate
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#75 The Shrinkflation Going On With This Valentine's Day Candy
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#76 Not Only Do They Have A Troubled Love Category. It's All Sold Out
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#77 Bought A Valentine's Day Gift For My Daughter, Saw This When I Was Removing The Price Tag
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#78 An Elegant Meal Prepared By My Girlfriend For Valentine's Day
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#79 What Am I Going To Do With The 50 Packets Of Love Hearts That Arrived Too Late For The Workshop I Ran Yesterday?
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#80 UPS Notifications Ruined My Valentine’s Day Flower Surprise
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#81 Guess The Dough Wasn't Frozen Enough For 11 Minutes In The Oven
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#82 The Flowers My Mom Received For Valentine's Day
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#83 Ordered A Nice Light-Up Ring Box For My Girlfriend To Go With A Ring I Got Her For Valentine's Day. It Just Arrived, And When I Opened It Looked Like This
Took almost 2 weeks to arrive and the seller wants me to return the item before a refund is issued. Tried to see if I could salvage it myself but the hinges are snapped and it's damn near impossible for me to fix.
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#84 There's Valentine's Day Candy Out Already
Why can we not enjoy a holiday before the next one gets shoved down our throats?
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#85 The Last Straw... I Hope This Company Gets Industry Blacklisted For Their Absolutely Abhorrent Reduction In Quality And Terrible Customer Service
Full hater mode at this point, wishing nothing but the worst.
Image credits: Bitter_Ad_3976