The Custom Coaster Guide: Quantities, Shapes and Ideas

Coasters are the detail guests pick up, read and quite often take home. That makes them one of the few pieces of party stationery that keeps working after the event. Here is what to think about before ordering.

What coasters are actually for

The practical job

Absorbing condensation so it does not ring a table or soak a linen. That is why the stock matters: a coated card coaster slides around on its own condensation, while pulpboard drinks it.

The job people order them for

Putting a name, a date, a monogram or a logo in front of every guest, repeatedly, for the length of an event. A coaster gets more read time than an invitation.

How many to order

Weddings and parties: 1.5 to 2 per guest

People misplace them and take them home, which is the point. For 100 guests, 150 to 200.

Restaurants and bars: as many as you can

Coasters are consumable. The per-piece price drops sharply in higher quantity bands, so the highest band you are comfortable with is almost always the right call.

Home bar or gift: 50

The smallest useful run, and enough to keep a set in reserve.

Round or square

Square gives more usable area for text and logos, and stacks tidily. Round reads softer and suits monograms, florals and crests. Neither costs more than the other, so it is purely a design decision.

Materials, and what we print

Pulpboard

The absorbent card used for beer mats. Printed edge to edge in full color or foil. This is what we print, because it does the practical job and takes detailed artwork.

Cork, slate, ceramic, wood and leather

These are permanent homeware coasters rather than event coasters. They cost several times more per piece and are ordered in sets of four or six, not in the hundreds. If you are buying a housewarming gift, look at these. If you are covering a wedding bar, pulpboard is the format that makes sense.

Design ideas that work

Names and date

The default, and it is the default because it works. Keep the type large enough to read at arm's length on a dim bar.

Monogram

Two initials and an ampersand, or a single letter. Foil suits this better than anything else.

A photograph

The couple, the guest of honour, or the dog. Photo coasters get pocketed at a rate other designs do not.

A drinks menu

Put the signature cocktails on the coaster itself. Guests read it while they wait, and it saves a separate sign.

A logo

For a restaurant, brewery or hotel, a branded coaster puts your mark on every table for less than any other printed piece.

Mixed designs

Ordering two or three designs in one run and mixing them on the bar gives guests something to notice. It costs the same as one design in the same total quantity.

Matching the rest of your table

The most common thing customers regret is ordering coasters separately from napkins, six weeks apart, and ending up with two slightly different shades of the same color. If you want a set, order it as a set. The same artwork can run across coasters, napkins, plates and can coolers, and we keep the colors consistent across the whole run.