Enter what you can spend and see it split the way planners recommend — then make it yours: adjust every line, add your own categories, and track what you've actually booked against the plan.
The first real conversation of wedding planning isn't about flowers — it's "what can we actually spend, and where does it go?" This calculator answers the second half. Enter your total budget and it splits the money across every major category using the percentages professional planners typically recommend, with the venue-and-catering line taking its honest (and always surprising) ~40% share. Then it becomes your plan: adjust any percentage, rename lines, add categories, and record what you actually book as the quotes come in.
These are starting points, not rules. Care more about photos than flowers? Move five points across — the tool recalculates instantly and shows whether your percentages still add to 100 (with a one-click rebalance when they don't).
The plan is step one; the booking is where budgets die. As you sign contracts, enter each real amount in the Booked column: every line shows how it compares to plan, and the top cards track total booked and budget remaining. Going $800 over on the photographer isn't a problem if you see it early and pull it from somewhere else — that's the whole game.
Start from the total you have agreed on and split it by category: the calculator applies planner-recommended percentages (venue and catering taking the largest share), then every line adjusts to your priorities with the rest rebalancing.
Typically 40 to 50 percent combined, which surprises most couples. The default split reflects planner practice, and seeing it early prevents the classic mistake of overspending before the big lines are booked.
As vendors get booked, enter the real numbers: the calculator shows where reality is drifting from plan while there is still budget to reallocate, instead of at the end when there is not.
Divide the budget by the guest count and the trade becomes concrete: every ten guests is a real dollar figure, which keeps the guest-list conversation grounded in numbers rather than feelings.
Yes, everything is computed in your browser: what you are spending on the wedding is between the two of you, not a wedding platform's marketing database.