Wedding Budget Calculator
A wedding budget calculator turns one number, the total you plan to spend, into a plan by category. Ours splits a budget with percentages you can change, shows the cost per guest, and then shows one thing most budget tools skip: what the money you decide not to spend could grow into.
Open the wedding budget calculator
What a wedding budget calculator is for
Much of a wedding's cost is settled early, when the venue and the guest count are chosen. A budget by category makes the trade-offs visible before deposits are paid: a bigger venue leaves less for photos, and every added guest raises the food and drink line.
How to build a simple budget
- Start with a total you are comfortable with. The calculator opens on the published average for 2025 weddings, about $34,000 (The Knot), as a starting point, not a target.
- Enter your guest count to see the cost per guest.
- Adjust the split. The categories are venue, food and drink, photo and video, attire, everything else, and a cushion for surprises. The starting percentages are an example to edit, not a national average.
- Check the total. When the percentages add up to 100%, the category dollars add up to the budget exactly. If they don't, the calculator shows how much is unassigned or over.
A worked example
A $34,000 budget for 100 guests, split with the starting percentages:
| Category | Share | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Venue | 25% | $8,500 |
| Food and drink | 30% | $10,200 |
| Photo and video | 12% | $4,080 |
| Attire | 8% | $2,720 |
| Everything else | 15% | $5,100 |
| Cushion for surprises | 10% | $3,400 |
| Total | 100% | $34,000 |
That is $340 per guest, and the category dollars add up to the budget to the dollar. The calculator shows these same figures when it opens, computed by the same code.
Then, the trade-off
A budget answers how to spend a total. The Wedding Trade-Off answers a different question: what would the difference between two budgets become if it were invested instead? From the budget tab, one button hands it a trimmed version of your total, $3,500 less in this example, and shows what that difference could grow into at an assumed rate you choose. It never says which wedding to have. A wedding buys things no calculator can price.
What it leaves out
- Local prices. What a venue or caterer costs depends on where and when you marry. The calculator does arithmetic on your numbers; it is not a quote.
- Costs that land late. Taxes, tips, service charges, and delivery fees often arrive at the end. The cushion line is there for them.
- Who pays. Families often share the cost. Enter the total you are planning around, whoever pays it.
Related
- The Wedding Trade-Off: what the gap between two wedding budgets could grow into.
- Multi-Cycle Planning: all of the free tools.