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How many cocktail napkins

k&t2011k&t2011
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in Wedding Reception Forum
We will have about 300 guests at our reception.  We are having a cocktail hour with passed appetizers, completely open bar from 5:00pm to 2:00am, and a dessert buffet.  About how many cocktail napkins would we need?
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Re: How many cocktail napkins

  • Maggie0829Maggie0829 member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    You should probably estimate about 3-4 napkins per person but since you are going so late into the night you may want to estimate a tad higher.  Are you going to get them personalized?  If you are I would do half in one color plain and then the other half in another color with your personalization...this way if you have a lot left over you can use them at another time (the plain napkins I mean)

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Combo Breaker First Comment
    Will the the guests only be using the napkins you provide? Or will the venue also have napkins as well?

    We bought personalized napkins for the cocktail and cake eating, but the venue provided napkins for dinner, etc.

    We ordered 200 and we had about 125 guests. I would say we had about 50 leftover, but they came in packs of 100 and we purchased two different colors.
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  • k&t2011k&t2011
    First Comment
    We have seperate dinner napkins so these would just be for the appetizers, cocktails, and dessert.
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Combo Breaker First Comment
    I dunno. I guess it is better to have more than not enough napkins. But if you ran out of the cocktail napkins and guests were still eating, I am sure you could ask your venue for some plain napkins.

    I would say you should order at least twice as many as you have guests. So at least 600. Maybe 800? A lot of the places sell them in either packs of 50 or 100.
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  • k&t2011k&t2011
    First Comment
    I think I will do 800 customized and then 200 or so plain white ones.  Thanks for the suggestions.
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  • LowerEastSiiideLowerEastSiiide member
    5 Love Its First Anniversary First Comment
    I'd go with 1,500. I don't hold on to my napkins and if I''m there for 9 hours- man I don't know I'd go through alot. I'd prob spill my drink at least once (there goes 10). With every app I'd take a new one. With every drink, I'd take a new one... I understand not everyone will use at least 15, so I think you are fine with 5x the amt of guests but I'd even go up to 2k to be safe
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  • Beachy730Beachy730 member
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Comment
    Does your venue provide napkins?  We didn't bother with any personalized napkins because our venue had regular ones for us and they just seemed like a waste.  If anything, I would just like 300 personalized ones and put them out just for cocktail hour.  Honestly, nobody will ever say "I can't believe they didn't get napkins with their names on them."  

    If you are at a venue where you need to provide your own napkins, I would still only do 300 personalized ones, and the rest just plain white or plain in your wedding colors.  You can reuse any of the leftover plain ones, but you won't have many uses for leftover wedding napkins.
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  • k&t2011k&t2011
    First Comment
    Our venue provides absolutely nothing except the space (not even tables and chairs) and is about 10 miles from a small town along a river, so I have to provide everything. 
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