You’ve Probably Made This ‘Annoying’ Host Gift Mistake. Next Time, Do This Instead.

This one tweak will make your gift more thoughtful.

You’re headed to a party or get-together and don’t want to arrive empty-handed. So you decide to pick up some flowers for the host on your way. But if you skip one crucial step, that lovely gift of yours might become a bit of an inconvenience.

In a recent episode of “The Liz Moody Podcast,” Moody made a PSA about an all-too-common host gift mistake: bringing flowers but not putting them in a vase or other vessel first.

“There’s truly nothing more annoying than somebody bringing you flowers and then you’re running around and you’re trying to figure out where to put them,” she said in the episode. “We have had flowers in our Vitamix before. I appreciate the flowers. I love the flowers. But just that one little extra touch, it takes it up so many levels.”

Etiquette expert Jodi RR Smith, president of Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting, agrees that putting the flowers in a vase beforehand is a thoughtful move. Arriving with florals still in their wrapping “creates an urgency for the host” and adds “unnecessary stress,” she told HuffPost.

“They must stop what they are doing — welcoming guests, providing introductions, putting finishing touches on the refreshments, etc. — to locate an available vase, cut the stems, arrange the flowers, add water, clean up the greenery, and find a place to put them.”