How Many Wedding Favours Do You Actually Need?

Almost every couple asks this, and almost every couple over-orders. Here is how to get the number right.

Start with confirmed guests, not invitations

Invitations go out to more people than attend. Typical attendance is 75–85% of invitations for a local wedding, and lower for a destination wedding. Work from your RSVP list once it has settled, not from the original list.

Decide: one per guest, or one per couple?

This is the biggest factor. For consumable favours such as candles, one per guest is standard. For larger items such as pashmina shawls, many couples give one per couple or one per household, which cuts the count by roughly a third.

The formula

For one per guest: confirmed guests + 10%.

For one per couple: (confirmed guests ÷ 2) + 10%.

The 10% covers late additions, damaged pieces, and the ones you will want to keep for yourself and your parents.

A worked example

You invite 160 people. 130 confirm. You are giving pashmina shawls, one per couple.

130 ÷ 2 = 65, plus 10% = 72 shawls. Round to the nearest pricing tier — in this case 75 or 100, depending on where the per-piece price drops.

Watch the pricing tiers

Because bulk pricing steps down at quantity thresholds, ordering 100 sometimes costs barely more than ordering 80. If your number sits just below a tier, check the total before you decide — the extra pieces are often close to free, and spares are genuinely useful.

Common mistakes

• Ordering from the invitation list. This is how couples end up with 40 spare favours.
• Forgetting the top table. Parents, grandparents and the wedding party usually get one too.
• Ordering too late. Handmade favours take 2–3 weeks to produce plus shipping. Order at least two months out.

Still unsure? Tell us your guest count and what you are considering, and we will suggest a number.