‘If you want to make a specific date field, using a datepicker from jQuery UI, you”ll need to validate that field. The jquery.validate plugin for jQuery is one you would be silly to ignore.

However, out of the box, the validation causes some unexpected issues. Notably, the initial error message does not disappear when the datepicker is selected. So while the field is certainly filled, the validation still returns false.

I was lucky to find a magnificent modification to jquery.validate that fixed this issue: http://plugins.jquery.com/node/10756

The author of the modification notes that this works specifically with  jQuery v1.3.2, jQuery UI DatePicker v1.7.2 and Validation v1.6. Naturally, other versions may not see the issue resolved. If you have tested this with a different combination with success please share that.’