Before you order
How many sparklers do I need?
The arithmetic is simple. The two adjustments are what people get wrong.
Short answer
Start with one per guest. Cut that to the share who will really line up, which is about 80% at an evening reception, then add another 10% for the ones that refuse to light. Round up to whole packs of 96.
Not every guest lines up
By the time the send-off happens, some of your guests have left, some are in the car park, and some are holding a drink they are not putting down. The number of people physically in the line is always lower than the number on the invitation list.
Eighty per cent is a reasonable default for an evening reception. Go higher if your guest list is small and close; go lower if it is a large wedding with a long day behind it.
Some sparklers will not light
A few in every pack will refuse to catch, or will catch and go out while someone is still working down the line. Ten per cent covers it. This is not a defect so much as physics and a breeze.
Round up, never down
Sparklers come 96 to a pack, and being one short is worse than having twenty spare in every scenario we have seen. The spares get used anyway. Photographs after the exit, the second pass your photographer will ask for, the four guests who reach the line late.
A worked example
- 150 guests invited
- 80% likely to line up = 120 people
- +10% for duds = 132 sparklers
- 132 ÷ 96 = 1.4 packs → order 2 packs (192 sparklers)