Wedding budget calculator
Estimate venue, catering, vendor, and hidden wedding costs with the same core factors used on the original wedding calculator, but in a faster compressed layout.
Core budget
These inputs cover the guest count, venue, food and beverage, entertainment, and photography package most couples price first.
Guest count drives food, beverage, corkage, and several hidden reception costs.
Use the venue fee before service charges, tax, and day-of extras are layered on.
Enter the base catering and bar estimate per guest before service fees and tax.
Use the combined cost for the DJ or band package you expect to book.
Photography defaults to a basic package rather than full photo and video coverage.
This is the base dress and tux or suit cost before alterations and beauty prep.
Reception costs
Use this section for the charges that make a quote jump after service fees, staffing, vendor meals, and venue rules are added.
Many venues and caterers add a service charge on top of rental and food totals.
Use the combined tax rate that applies to the taxable wedding services in your area.
Tips for coordinators, catering staff, bartenders, drivers, or other day-of support.
Some vendor contracts require hot meals for photographers, videographers, and musicians.
Some venues charge per guest for outside cake service, wine, or champagne pours.
Load-in, teardown, extra staffing, and end-of-night cleanup often sit outside the first quote.
Reserve tenting, heaters, or backup weather prep if the event depends on outdoor space.
Attire and admin
These are the smaller but very real costs that usually arrive after the venue and catering quote feels settled.
Tailoring often lands outside the original dress or tux budget.
Trials are usually separate from the day-of hair and makeup booking.
Invitations, RSVP cards, and oversized envelopes often push mailing costs above the initial quote.
Some venues require a separate liability policy for the event day.
Include the county filing fee plus a few certified copies if you need them for records.
How this calculation works
The total combines the visible sticker price with service fees, tax, and the wedding-day extras that are easy to miss on an early quote.
Wedding math
Line items
Worked example
This mirrors a couple planning a 120-guest local wedding and shows how the all-in number grows once fees, tax, and pre-wedding spending are included.
The first quote looks manageable at a glance, but the catering-driven fee layer and the planning runway add a second wave of cost that people often miss.
Inputs used in this example
This is where service fees, sales tax, corkage, insurance, and setup charges sit.
That works out to about $371 per guest.
Worked example math
The useful takeaway is that venue and catering are only part of the picture. In this example, the fee layer and pre-wedding spending add thousands before the day itself arrives.
Frequently asked questions
It includes venue, food and beverage, entertainment, photography, attire, taxes, service fees, gratuities, vendor meals, setup labor, invitations, insurance, and legal paperwork.
Most first quotes skip service fees, sales tax, gratuities, vendor meals, setup labor, alterations, postage, insurance, and other practical costs that still need to be funded.
Guest count directly affects food and beverage cost, cake cutting or corkage, and several reception-related extras, so even small changes can move the total quickly.
No. This page focuses on the wedding itself. Honeymoon travel is better budgeted separately in the holiday calculator.
Full wedding estimate
$36,129