How Many Napkins Per Guest? Quantity and Size Guide
The two questions that decide your order are how many napkins per guest, and which size. Get those right and the rest is design. Below are the numbers we give customers, based on what actually happens at events rather than on a formula.
One thing makes personalized napkins different from plain ones: they don't just get used, they get kept. Guests slip them into a pocket or a bag as a keepsake, so the numbers below already plan for extras.
How many napkins per guest
Cocktail hour and open bar: 3 to 4 per guest
People take a fresh napkin with each drink, put the old one down somewhere, and pocket one with your names on it. For 100 guests, order 300 to 400.
Seated dinner: 2 per guest
One on the table, one to take home or to replace the one that ends up under a wine glass. For 100 guests, order 200.
Buffet or food station: 2 per guest, per station
Guests go back for more, and take a fresh napkin each time. For 100 guests, order 200 per station.
Dessert or cake table: 1 to 2 per guest
Cake, a second slice, and the napkin that wraps a piece to take home. For 100 guests, order 100 to 200.
Late-night snack: 1 to 2 per guest
Short but busy, and by then guests are collecting souvenirs. For 100 guests, order 100 to 200.
All-day event with both: add them together
A wedding with cocktail hour, dinner and a late-night snack table needs cocktail napkins for the bar and dinner napkins for the table. They are different sizes doing different jobs. Budget for both rather than compromising on one.
Baby and bridal showers: 3 per guest
Shorter events, but food and drink at the same time, and these are the napkins guests love to take home. For 50 guests, order 150.
Which size to order
Cocktail, 4.8 x 4.8 inches folded
The bar napkin. Goes under a glass, gets handed out with drinks, and is the size most people mean when they say custom napkins. Best surface for names, a monogram or a fun fact, because guests read it while waiting.
Dinner, 6.5 x 6.5 inches folded
The plate napkin. Big enough for cake, a slider or a plate of food. Use this on the table at a seated meal or beside a dessert station.
Guest towel, 4.25 x 7.75 inches
The longest size, folded into a band. For the powder room, the sink area, and laid out beside a buffet where guests need more coverage.
Ordering practicalities
Round up, never down
The gap between 100 and 150 napkins is small in money and large in stress. Leftovers get used at home for months. A reprint costs another production run and another shipping window.
Allow two to three weeks
You get a design proof within about a day. Production runs 3 to 4 business days after you approve it. Shipping goes on top. Two weeks is comfortable, three is relaxed.
Foil or full color
Foil presses a metallic finish onto a colored napkin and suits names, monograms and dates. Full color handles florals, photographs, pet portraits and anything with more than one color. Foil is the classic wedding look, full color is the flexible one.
Worked example
A 120-guest wedding with a cocktail hour, a seated dinner and a late-night station: roughly 420 cocktail napkins for the bar, 240 dinner napkins for the tables, and 100 guest towels for the powder room. Most couples order the cocktail and dinner napkins and skip the guest towels, which is a reasonable place to save.