At Don’t Buy Her Flowers we ‘do’ thoughtful gifting. We want the person receiving one of our packages to feel loved and cared for, and know that someone has thought about them by choosing a gift package that is just right, whether it’s to celebrate, commiserate or offer the next best thing to a reassuring hug when they can’t be there.

That idea of thoughtfulness was and remains at the centre of Don’t Buy Her Flowers. When founder Steph had her first baby she was inundated with beautiful bouquets and wondered why people give new mums another thing to care for when they’re doing more caring than they’ve ever done in their life.

Don’t Buy Her Flowers launched in 2014, starting with just three packages and Steph packing orders in her spare bedroom – ‘spare’ because the kids were lumped together in bunkbeds in a box room.

With her brother in law Alex in charge of the website and Steph’s connection with women through her blog, the business grew quickly and customers began asking for it to be broader than just for new mums.

As it turns out, there are so many occasions when someone could do with some TLC in the post.

A year later, Steph had some help packing boxes and Hannah began running customer services.  In 2016 Steph’s brother Chas became Head of Operations, moving the business out of the house to set up a team and warehouse in Gloucestershire. We now also work with businesses on corporate gifting, and we’re very proud of our collaboration with Stand Up To Cancer on a bespoke package developed for anyone going through cancer and their loved ones.

There is gifting and then there is Don’t Buy Her Flowers, set apart by the thoughtfulness and the fact that our customers can make a bespoke package that perfectly suits the person they are sending it to. It becomes a physical manifestation of a human gesture.

Flowers say “I’m thinking of you”. A gift package from Don’t Buy Her Flowers says ‘I’m thinking of you, this package is all about you and I hope it makes you feel good’.

‘When I had my first baby and received lots of flowers, I was feeling completely overwhelmed with everything – the baby, the visitors, the bodily functions – and trying to arrange flowers and then dispose of them was all a bit much, however pathetic that sounds. I found that other parents felt the same and Don’t Buy Her Flowers was born’

Steph Douglas, creator of dontbuyherflowers.com

Read more about why Steph started Don’t Buy Her Flowers here.