Cigars for Weddings: How Many to Buy and What to Pick
How many cigars to buy for a wedding, what to pick for guests who rarely smoke, and how to set up a cigar table so nobody is left fumbling for a lighter.
How many cigars do you need for a wedding?
Budget roughly one cigar for every three guests. At most British weddings a third of the guests take one, and a good number of those are people trying a cigar for the first time. Choose a mild-to-medium cigar in a short format — thirty minutes, not ninety — and provide cutters and windproof lighters.
- One cigar per three guests is the working figure for a mixed wedding crowd
- Short and mild: most takers will be first-timers who will not finish a Churchill
- Provide cutters and windproof lighters — nobody brings their own
- It has to be outdoors under UK law, so think about shelter and wind
- Order two weeks out and store them properly until the day
How many to buy
The usual mistake is buying for the guest list rather than for the people who will actually smoke.
At a typical British wedding, something like a third of guests will take a cigar if one is offered, and the proportion is higher if there is somewhere pleasant to stand and lower if it is raining. One cigar per three guests is a sound working figure. For a hundred guests, thirty to thirty-five.
Round up rather than down. Leftover cigars keep indefinitely in a sealed box with a Boveda pack, and running out in front of people is worse than having a dozen spare.
If you are buying for a smaller, known group — groomsmen, a stag do, the fathers — buy for the actual count and buy better cigars with the money you save.
What to choose
Two rules, and they both come from the same place: most people taking a cigar at a wedding do not smoke cigars.
Mild to medium. A strong Nicaraguan handed to someone on an empty stomach after three glasses of champagne is a genuinely unpleasant experience, and they will remember whose wedding it was.
Short. A petit corona, a half corona or a small robusto — twenty-five to forty minutes. Nobody is going to stand outside for ninety minutes during a wedding breakfast, and a Churchill abandoned half-smoked looks worse than a smaller cigar finished.
For the wedding party specifically, it is worth buying something better and buying it in a box. A box of Cuban robustos among six groomsmen is a decent thing to remember, and the box itself tends to survive as a keepsake.
Buying for the wedding party
The guests and the wedding party are two different purchases and it is worth treating them that way.
For groomsmen, fathers and the couple, a box of something good is the better move. Six or ten Cuban robustos from one of the well-known houses — Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta, Partagás — is a real gift, and the box tends to end up on a shelf afterwards rather than in a bin.
It also solves the getting-ready problem. A cigar in the morning while everyone is putting on cufflinks is a different occasion from one after the speeches, and a smaller, milder cigar suits it better — nobody wants a double corona at eleven in the morning.
If you are engraving or having a band made up, order well ahead. Three to four weeks is realistic, and the cigars still need storing correctly once they arrive.
The practical side nobody plans for
Cutters. Buy a handful of cheap guillotine cutters, or have the cigars pre-cut if the venue will do it. Guests will not bring cutters, and a bitten-off cap unravels in their mouth.
Lighters. Ordinary lighters go out in any breeze at all. Windproof jet lighters or long matches in a sheltered spot. Buy more than you think — they walk off.
Ashtrays. Proper ones, or the cigars go in a plant pot. Most venues have none.
Somewhere to stand. Smoking has been banned in enclosed public places in the UK since 2007, so this is outdoors regardless of the weather. A covered terrace open on enough sides is legal and, in October, essential. Talk to the venue early — some have a designated area and some will refuse cigars entirely.
A table with the cigars, cutters, lighters and an ashtray on it works far better than someone walking around with a box, because people who want one can help themselves without being put on the spot.
Timing and storage
Order a couple of weeks ahead rather than the week of the wedding. It gives you room if something is out of stock and it means nobody is chasing a delivery during the last few days, which are busy enough.
Store them properly in the meantime. Cigars left in a car boot or a spare room for a fortnight in January will be dry and harsh by the day. An airtight container with a 69 per cent Boveda pack costs almost nothing and solves it entirely.
Take them to the venue in that same container rather than loose in a bag. Bring the pack with them; a warm marquee is dry, and the cigars may be sitting out for hours before anyone smokes one.
One last thing: the couple's own cigars are worth setting aside separately and labelling. They otherwise get handed out with the rest, which is a small annoyance that happens surprisingly often.
Other celebrations
New babies are the other big one, and the etiquette is looser: a small cigar handed out to whoever is around works, and nobody expects a Havana. Something short and mild is right, because it is being smoked in a hurry by people who are not sleeping.
Birthdays and retirements are usually a single good cigar rather than a quantity. This is where spending properly makes sense — one cigar chosen for the person, rather than twenty chosen for a crowd.
Stag weekends need cigars that survive being carried around in a coat pocket all day. Buy something in a tube, or take a hard travel case and a humidity pack, and accept that at least one will be sat on.