Receiving flowers as a thank you sign or a wishful expression has become a real luxury, to the point that, when someone gives us flowers, we no longer pay attention to the minimum rules of the etiquette.
As a famous Milan florist told me, men do not give flowers anymore, because women do not know how to receive them and it is, unfortunately, profoundly true.
Sometimes we believe that the gesture, the respect of the rules of bon ton is mere formality, while the gestures are revealing thoughts and, therefore, the sensitivity of people.
Here are the basic rules of how flowers are presented.
First rule: Never bring flowers to a lady, always send them!
If the flowers represent a thank you or a wish, they must be sent and accompanied by a personal note. In fact, whoever receives the flowers will know that the sender went to the florist, gave information on the flowers and wrote a personal thank you note. Those gestures denote attention to the person.
Second rule: if you are invited to a lunch or a cocktail at someone’s home, the flowers will be delivered to the landlady’s house on the morning of the day of the invitation. In this way, not only you show enthusiasm for the invitation, but above all you give a hand to landlady to make the event’s environment more welcoming. Some people may take offense, because they would read in this gesture their implicit inability to beautify the house to receive guests. These are rare cases of very sensitive and very expert people on etiquette rules! When in doubt, follow the rule number three.
Third rule: the flowers are sent the morning after the evening of the invitation. In this way not only we thank the landlady for the pleasant evening, but overall we let the landlady remeber an evening spent together. This, in my opinion, is the most correct rule to follow.
In any case, sending flowers to someone is always a classy gesture.
Therefore do not mind spending money and send, send, send flowers!
