Cigars offer the perfect celebratory experience, and that’s precisely why people give them out to commemorate a birth or to honor a relationship union and a wedding. In fact, I’d argue one of the absolute best times to smoke a cigar is at a wedding.
The top cigars I’d recommend for a wedding
I will go into more detail about each category below and offer a few more options. But here are my top choices if you want a cheat sheet:
- Get the Arturo Fuente OpusX The Lost City in a Double Robusto size for your Best Man.
- Get the Oliva Serie V in a Toro size for your groomsmen.
- Get the Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real in a Robusto size for the rest of your wedding party.
- Get a Cohiba Robusto or a Hoyo de Monterrey in the Cello (Rothschilds) size for your family.
- Get some Nub Connecticut 358 by Oliva in the Rothschild size, or Oliva Connecticut Reserve in the Petite Corona size for your guests.
The best cigars for a wedding in more detail
Buying cigars for weddings can be tricky because you’re essentially buying for other people, and no matter how well you know someone, you don’t know their tastes unless you smoke with them often. Not to mention, most people don’t like bold cigars, and if they do happen to enjoy cigars, more often than not, they won’t end up finishing one given to them. It means you don’t want to splurge too much because you don’t want those cigars to go to waste.
So, when I choose the cigars, I’m going to make a distinction between who’s getting them and pick an assortment that covers the gamut of options. For the groomsmen, best man, and the rest of the wedding party, maybe even family, you’ll want to go with quality above all. For everyone else, you’ll want a cheap yet enjoyable smoke that won’t ruin your day if someone tosses it after it’s barely lit.
The best wedding cigars for the best man
For the best man, nothing less than the best of the best is worthy. Even if they don’t smoke, you’ll want to make sure their experience is better than the rest.
- Aganorsa Rare Leaf Reserve Corojo — Toro size
- Arturo Fuente OpusX The Lost City — Double Robusto size
- Davidoff Aniversario No 3 — Toro size
- EP Carrillo Allegiance
- Montecristo 1935 Anniversary Edicion Diamante — Robusto or Toro sizes
- Padron 1964 Anniversary Maduro — Exclusivo or Principe sizes
The best wedding cigars for groomsmen
For the groomsmen, you definitely want higher-quality cigars than you’d give to the average guest.
- Arturo Fuente Chateau Fuente — Rothschild size
- My Father The Judge — Robusto or Toro Fino sizes
- Oliva Serie V — Robusto or Toro sizes
- Perdomo Reserve 10th Anniversary Champagne — Toro size
- Romeo y Juleta Reserva Real Nicaragua Series — Robusto or Toro sizes
- San Lotano Requiem — Robusto or Toro sizes
The best cigars for the wedding party
The same is true of the wedding party as it is for the groomsmen. It generally includes family and close friends who deserve a higher-quality cigar if they’re going to smoke.
- Arturo Fuente Hemingway Short Story — Figurado size
- Crowned Heads Mil Dias Topes — Robusto size
- H Upmann by AJ Fernandez — Toro size
- New World Connecticut by AJ Fernandez — Robusto or Toro sizes
- Oliva Serie V Melanio — Petite Corona or Robusto sizes
- Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real — Robusto size
The best wedding cigars for family
You might want to have a few selections set aside for close family outside the wedding party, especially if they love smoking as much as you do.
- Cohiba Robusto — Robusto size
- Hoyo de Monterrey — Cello (Rothschilds) size
- HVC Cerro Natural — Robusto or Sabrositos (Corona) sizes
- My Father Le Bijou 1922 — Petit Robusto or Toro sizes
- San Cristobal Revelation Odyssey — Prophet (Robusto) or Odyssey (Toro) sizes
The best wedding cigars for guests
This is where things get complicated because you cannot plan for everybody’s tastes. Most of the guests will either be inexperienced smokers or trying for their first time. You don’t want anything too full-bodied, certainly nothing above medium, and you want to stick with short smokes — so not too much is wasted if they put it down early.
- Charter Oak Habano — Petite Corona or Rothschild sizes
- Macanudo Cafe Hyde Park — Robusto size
- Montecristo White Series — Rothschild or Robusto sizes
- Nub Connecticut 358 by Oliva — Rothschild size
- Oliva Connecticut Reserve — Petite Corona or Robusto sizes
Get to know our expert
I smoke cigars all the time, and I have many recommendations and plenty of advice to share with others. But none of those things qualify me as an expert. Really, it’s the years of experience, the time I’ve invested in the world of cigars, the excellent connections I’ve made with cigar makers and sellers, and the vast wealth of knowledge I’ve gained during that time. I know what goes into a good cigar, and I’ve certainly earned the right to recommend some to others, whether you’re a beginner and this is your first time smoking or have your own cabinet humidor stocked and maintained. Instead of waxing poetic, I’d rather let my recommendations and advice columns speak for me.
