First Date Flowers: How Brits are navigating modern dating

First dates can be a totally mixed bag of emotions, with everything ranging from nerves, excitement, attraction, hope—or if you’re unlucky, disappointment.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell what sort of emotion you’re feeling before a first date. After all, being anxious and excited are the same physiological states for your body—so it’s easy to feel confused when meeting someone. 

However, a lot of these emotions we feel before a first date come down to the many questions we ask in the lead-up to them: “Where will we go?”, “What will I wear?”, “Will I look too keen if I get there early?”...and for some, “Should I take them some flowers? 

According to our research, the average Brit thinks you shouldn’t give flowers until at least date two or three. However, that’s not to say you can’t give them earlier if you want to—just 2% of people said they’d be turned off if someone brought them flowers on their first date. 

If you are planning on getting first-date flowers, why not check out our range of flowers under £30?

The ‘ick’ has become somewhat of a dating cultural phenomenon in recent years. It’s said to have been popularised by the reality TV series, Love Island, but what is the ick? 

The ‘ick’, put simply, is just another way of saying turn-off. In the early stages of dating, we’re generally more flippant about overlooking flaws or things we don’t like. Some examples of the ick on dates might include, someone having bad table manners, or even something as trivial as not liking their shoes. 

When a date isn’t going too well, or you’ve got the dreaded ick, our research found that the vast majority of Brits (68%) said they’d persevere to the end so they didn’t hurt the other person’s feelings.

However, 1 in 8 (15%) Brits haven’t been so kind and admitted to leaving a first date in the past without even telling the other person. 

But what exactly are Brits biggest icks, and how do men and women differ? 

Our research found that for both men and women in the UK, the top three icks on dates are: 

• If their date had bad hygiene (73% of women, 56% of men) 
• If their date was rude to bar staff or waiters (62% women, 41% men) 
• If their date went on their phone too much (57% women, 40% men)

Following these three, men and women’s biggest icks differ somewhat. Men say their fourth biggest ick is if a date talks about an ex-partner (36%). 

For women, the fourth biggest ick on a date is if their date criticised their appearance (57%). Interestingly, where almost two-fifths (38%) of women say they would get the ick if their date spoke about them being intimate together on the first date, just 8% of men said the same.

If you’re looking to make it out of the dating stage and make it ‘official’ with someone, you likely have a few ideal qualities in a partner that you won’t make any sacrifices on. These are known as ‘deal breakers’. 

Relationship deal breakers are clear non-negotiables that make a relationship unlikely to work out if your potential partner has (or lacks) a certain quality, and the number of relationship deal breakers will naturally vary from person to person, with some people naturally ‘pickier’ than others. 

Our research found that much like their biggest icks, men and women also align on their biggest deal breakers in a partner. 

The top three biggest deal breakers for Brits are: 

• If they’d cheated before (38% men, 51% women) 
• If they smoked or vaped (35% men, 38% women) 
• If they were unemployed (13% men, 36% women)

Following on from the top three, 1 in 4 (24%) UK women would say it’s a deal breaker if their new partner was shorter than them. Women are also 10% more likely than men to say it’s a deal breaker if their new partner still lives at home with their parents (19% vs 9%). 

On the flip side, just 1 in 10 (10%) men said it would be a deal breaker if their new partner were taller than them.

Once actually in a relationship, it’s vital that you understand your partner’s ‘love languages’ to ensure you’re meeting their needs—and that they’re meeting yours. In fact, a 2022 study found that heterosexual couples’ relationship satisfaction is linked to whether their partner uses their preferred love language. 

What is ‘love language’? The term ‘love language’ was originally coined by marriage counsellor Dr. Gary Chapman in 1992, and there are five different types of love language. 

What are the 5 love languages? The five different types of love language are: 

1. Words of Affirmation: communicating affection through spoken and written praise, appreciation, encouragement, and frequent “I love you’s”.
2. Quality Time: expressing love by fully focusing attention on your partner through shared activities, conversation, and togetherness.
3. Physical Touch: showing care through intimate and affectionate physical contact like hugging, kissing, and sex.
4. Acts of Service: doing thoughtful deeds and gestures to help make your partner’s life easier by relieving burdens.
5. Receiving Gifts: giving meaningful surprises and symbolic presents to celebrate affection.

To help us determine the nation’s top love languages, we asked Brits the things they commonly do for their romantic partners in terms of romantic gestures, and found the most common ‘romantic gesture’ men in the UK do is ‘going for walks together’ (51%), which can be defined as “quality time”. 

For women, the most common ‘romantic gesture’ they do for their partner when in a relationship is ‘holding hands’ (55%), which would fall under “physical touch”. 

However, overall, we found that men and women equally value “quality time” the most in relationships, with 30% of their top romantic gestures falling into this love language category. 

See men’s and women’s top 10 most common romantic gestures for their partners below:

It’s assumed that the vast majority of adults in the UK seek monogamous relationships, but are humans monogamous by nature? While that might be up for debate, biologists deem us as ‘socially monogamous’, according to the BBC’s Science Focus. This means humans normally live as couples, but the relationships aren’t necessarily permanent, and some sex occurs outside the relationship. 

Of course, what classifies as cheating in a relationship largely depends on the couple’s personal boundaries. Cheating is not one specific romantic or sexual act, it’s about going against your partner’s wishes behind their back. Where a drunken kiss might end a relationship for one couple, for another, it won’t have such a severe effect. 

However, our research shows that some people might be cheating in multiple relationships. Where almost half (48%) of Brits told us they’d been cheated on by a partner in the past, only around 3 in 10 (28%) admitted to doing the cheating. 

Interestingly, we found that Wales has the highest proportion of cheaters in the UK, with almost half (46%) of Welsh respondents saying they’ve been unfaithful before.

Following Wales was the West Midlands, where an estimated 1 in 3 (33%) people have been unfaithful. 

The most faithful place in the UK was Northern Ireland, where around 1 in 7 (13%) people admitted to cheating in the past. 

Take a look at the places in the UK with the highest proportion of cheaters below:

With our research showing that both men and women say it would be their biggest deal breaker if a new partner had cheated on a partner in the past, it’s clear that monogamy is still valued by many Brits. 

Despite this, our research also identified a clear rise in those who would be open to polyamory—having multiple relationships with the consent of all the people involved—with 1 in 4 (25%) saying they’d actually prefer to be in a non-monogamous relationship. 

Similarly, 1 in 4 (25%) Brits say they’ve dated more than one person at the same time, with men nearly 10% more likely than women to do this (29% vs 20%).

Age gap dating is an age-old conundrum (no pun intended). It’s a trope that we’ve seen play out time and time again in popular culture, but despite how common these relationships are, they still divide opinions. 

There’s a general popular rule when it comes to age gap dating: half your age, then add seven to work out if someone is too young for you to date, and take seven off your age and double it to work out if someone is too old for you. 

However, anyone who’s ever been in love will know that love and attraction are not as easy as simple equations, so, how exactly do Brits feel about age gap dating? 

Our research found that when it comes to dating younger people, the average Brit would date someone around 6 years and 11 months younger than them.

When looking at men specifically, this rises to 9 years younger, whereas, for women, it’s just 4 years and 10 months.

Where 1 in 6 (15%) women said they wouldn’t date anyone younger than them at all, men were five times less likely to say the same (3%). Similarly, men in the UK were three times more likely to say they would date someone more than 13 years younger than them, with almost 1 in 4 (23%) saying this, compared to 8% for women.

Looking at dating older, our research found that Brits were open to slightly bigger age gaps, with the average coming in at around 7 years older. 

For men, 6 years and 7 months is the oldest they’d go, whereas for women it’s 7 years and 7 months. And, where men are more likely to date someone more than 13 years younger than them, women are more likely to date someone more than 13 years older (16% vs 10%). 

From awkward first dates to choosing baby names together, the dating to serious relationship pipeline can be a wild ride, but here at Eflorist, we’re here with you every step of the way. 

Whether you need a bunch of apology flowers or flowers to celebrate your anniversary, we believe in the transformative power of flowers for every occasion and special moment in your relationship.

All statistics from Eflorist in this content are from a 1,000 adult (18+) study conducted in the UK via 3Gem between the 21st and 24th January 2025.