Wedding Budget Calculator
Plan a wedding budget by category, track supplier quotes against it, and see what to save each month. Free, no sign-up, and it runs in your browser.
Dedicated page: /en/wedding-budget-calculator
Context only, checked 10 Nov 2026: the average US wedding cost $34,200 for couples married in 2025, at $292 a guest for 117 guests, per The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study of 10,474 couples. Use it as a benchmark, not a target. Check the current value here.
Multipliers from The Knot 2026 study: Mid-Atlantic $48,400, Midwest $29,000, New York City about $88,000, Utah $18,000, South and West $31,300, against the $34,200 national average.
Reserve 10% before splitting the rest. Protect it until the final invoices are clear.
Category split (%, editable) and your quotes ($)
Estimate only, not financial advice. Category shares are The Knot 2026 planning shares: venue and rentals 34%, catering and bar 22%, photography and video 12%, flowers and decor 8%, music and entertainment 7%, attire and beauty 6%, planner and officiant 5%, cake 2%, stationery 2%, transport 2%. The shares must add to 100%.
Quick answer
A wedding budget calculator splits a total budget across ten categories, tracks supplier quotes against each share, and works out what to save each month. Start from a budget of 34,200 dollars or from a guest count, apply a location multiplier, reserve a 10 percent contingency, and see the per-guest cost and the monthly saving target.
About this Wedding Budget Calculator
Plan a wedding budget by category, track supplier quotes against it, and see what to save each month. It is one of the Food, Kitchen and Everyday on ToolUstad, and like every tool here it runs entirely in your browser: nothing you type, paste or open is uploaded to a server, and there is no sign-up or usage limit.
What a wedding budget calculator does
A wedding budget calculator turns one big number into a plan. A budget of 34,200 dollars is hard to manage as a single figure. Split across ten categories, with a contingency reserved and a monthly saving target, it becomes a list of decisions: how much for the venue, how much for catering, how much for photography, and whether a quote is over or under its share. The calculator does the split using the average shares from the Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study, lets you change every share, and tracks supplier quotes as they come in, so the plan stays honest as the real numbers arrive.
It also works the other way round. If you know the guest list but not the budget, enter the guests and the calculator builds the budget from the average cost per guest, adjusted for your location. One hundred guests in the Mid-Atlantic gives a budget of 41,464 dollars, because the average is 292 dollars per guest and the Mid-Atlantic multiplier is 1.42.
The average wedding in 2026
The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study surveyed 10,474 couples married in 2025. The average wedding cost 34,200 dollars, had 117 guests, cost 292 dollars per guest and used 13 vendors on average. The median was about 24,000 dollars, which is lower than the average, because a small number of very expensive weddings pull the average up. Size drives the total: weddings with 1 to 50 guests averaged 17,100 dollars, weddings with 51 to 100 guests averaged 27,200 dollars, and weddings with more than 100 guests averaged 43,300 dollars. Place drives it too: the Mid-Atlantic averaged 48,400 dollars, the Midwest 29,000, New Jersey 57,000, Utah 18,000 and New York City about 88,000. The calculator uses these figures as its benchmarks and its location multipliers.
How the budget is split
The ten categories and their average shares are venue and rentals 34 percent, catering and bar 22 percent, photography and video 12 percent, flowers and decor 8 percent, music and entertainment 7 percent, attire and beauty 6 percent, planner and officiant 5 percent, cake 2 percent, stationery 2 percent and transport 2 percent. Those shares add up to 100 percent. The contingency is reserved first: 10 percent of the budget, which is 3,420 dollars on a 34,200 dollar wedding. The remaining 30,780 dollars is split by the shares, so the venue gets 10,465.20 dollars and catering gets 6,771.60 dollars. Every share can be changed. If photography matters more to you than flowers, raise photography to 15 percent and lower flowers to 5 percent, and the calculator renormalises the shares so they still add up to 100 percent.
Learn: how to use the Wedding Budget Calculator
- Pick a mode: start from a total budget, or from the guest count.
- Enter the budget or the guests, and pick a location multiplier.
- Set the contingency percent, the months until the wedding and what you have saved.
- Adjust the category shares if your priorities differ from the average.
- Enter supplier quotes as they come in, and watch the over or under status.
- Read the monthly saving target and the category table.
Features
- Two modes: budget first, or guest count first.
- Location multipliers from the Knot 2026 study, including New York City at 2.57.
- Ten categories with the Knot average shares, all editable.
- Contingency fund, 10 percent by default, reserved on top.
- Monthly saving target from what is left to save and the months left.
- Quote tracking with over or under status per category.
- Per-guest cost, the headline number couples compare.
- Download the budget as a CSV file for a spreadsheet.
- Average cost benchmarks: 34,200 dollars, 117 guests, 292 dollars per guest.
Worked example
With a budget of 34,200 dollars and 117 guests, the cost is 292.31 dollars per guest. A 10 percent contingency reserves 3,420 dollars, and with 5,000 dollars already saved over 12 months, the saving target is 2,433.33 dollars a month. Venue and rentals take the biggest share at 34 percent, which is 10,465.20 dollars after the contingency, and catering and bar take 22 percent, which is 6,771.60 dollars. Enter a venue quote of 12,000 dollars and the calculator shows it is 1,534.80 dollars over its share. Start from 100 guests in the Mid-Atlantic instead and the budget becomes 41,464 dollars.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average wedding cost in 2026?
The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study, based on 10,474 couples married in 2025, puts the average at 34,200 dollars, with an average of 117 guests and 292 dollars per guest.
How much does a wedding cost per guest?
The average is 292 dollars per guest, from the Knot study. That is the total budget divided by the guest count, so a 34,200 dollar wedding with 117 guests is 292.31 dollars per guest.
What percentage of the budget goes to the venue and catering?
Venue and rentals take about 34 percent and catering and bar about 22 percent, so together they are 56 percent of the budget.
How much should I save each month?
Take the budget, subtract what you have saved, and divide by the months left. With a 34,200 dollar budget, 5,000 dollars saved and 12 months to go, the target is 2,433.33 dollars a month.
What is a contingency fund?
A contingency is money set aside for costs that run over, which they almost always do. The default is 10 percent of the budget, which is 3,420 dollars on a 34,200 dollar wedding.
How do location multipliers work?
Weddings cost different amounts in different places. The Mid-Atlantic averages 48,400 dollars, which is a multiplier of 1.42 on the national average, while the Midwest averages 29,000 dollars, a multiplier of 0.85.
How do I track supplier quotes?
Enter each quote in the quote box next to its category. The calculator compares it with the category budget and shows whether it is over or under, and by how much.
Can I plan from the guest count instead of a budget?
Yes. Pick guest mode, enter the number of guests, and the calculator multiplies the guests by 292 dollars, the average per-guest cost, and by your location multiplier. One hundred guests in the Mid-Atlantic gives a budget of 41,464 dollars.
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