Wedding budget calculator

What the numbers mean

A wedding budget is a total, a guest count and a list of lines that must add up. The calculator multiplies the total by each share, so you can see at once what a 5-point change in the venue line does to everything else. The per-guest figure is the total divided by the head count; it lets you compare your plan with the national average of $292 per guest from The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study, bearing in mind that the study covers couples married in 2025 who answered an online survey.

Worked example

Take a $30,000 budget for 100 guests with the default shares. The venue, food and drinks line is $15,000 ($150 per guest), photography and video $3,000, music $2,400, flowers and decor $2,700, attire, rings and beauty $2,400, stationery $900, planner and officiant $1,200, transportation $900 and the reserve $1,500. The total is $30,000. Reducing the list to 80 guests with the same budget lifts the venue and food line from $150 to $188 per guest.

How much does the average wedding cost?

The Knot 2026 Real Weddings Study, which surveyed 10,474 US couples married in 2025, reports an average cost of $34,200 for 117 guests, or $292 per guest. The reception venue averaged $12,900 and catering $80 per person. Averages hide huge spread: the same study reports $17,100 for weddings of up to 50 guests, $27,200 for 51 to 100 guests and $43,300 for more than 100. The survey recruits couples through The Knot and WeddingWire, so read it as a snapshot of couples who plan online, not of every wedding in the country.

How is the budget divided?

Each line is the total times its share: amount = total × share ÷ 100, and the per-guest figure is that amount divided by the guest count. The nine shares in the form are a starting set that adds up to 100% (venue, food and drinks 50%, photography and video 10%, music 8%, flowers and decor 9%, attire, rings and beauty 8%, stationery 3%, planner and officiant 4%, transportation 3%, and a 5% reserve). They are editable defaults, not survey results: The Knot publishes dollar averages and a rule of keeping 5% in reserve, but not a fixed percentage for each vendor, so change them to match the quotes you receive. The form warns you when the shares do not add up to 100%.

What does a guest actually cost?

Venue, food and drinks scale with the head count; most other lines do not. With a $30,000 budget and 50% for the venue, food and drinks, 100 guests get $150 each for that line. Keep the budget and cut the list to 80 guests and the same line becomes $188 per guest. In The Knot data, catering alone averaged $80 per person, so 117 guests come to about $9,360 before the venue fee, bar, rentals or service charges. Ask each vendor whether the quote includes tax, gratuity and service fees. Example numbers, not a forecast.

What is not in the average?

The Knot lists some costs outside the main average: the rehearsal dinner ($2,800), the engagement ring ($4,600) and the honeymoon ($5,500). If you plan to pay for those, add them to your own budget on top, or take a share from the lines above. For single vendors The Knot lists, for example, $3,000 for a photographer, $2,800 for flowers and $2,100 for a wedding planner.

How much should I keep in reserve?

The Knot advises setting aside 5% of your budget for a "just in case" fund, and the form starts at that value. On $30,000 that is $1,500. Typical uses are an extra headcount, an alteration, a replacement vendor, or an overtime fee. If the reserve is untouched, it becomes honeymoon money or goes into an emergency fund.

Does the time of year or the place change the cost?

Yes, by a lot more than the season. The Knot reports averages of $33,200 for January to March, $34,300 for April to June, $35,400 for July to September and $33,200 for October to December. Location varies far more: $32,600 for a hometown wedding, $41,700 for a domestic destination and $43,700 for an international one, with regional averages from $29,000 in the Midwest to $48,400 in the Mid-Atlantic. A local quote beats any national figure.

Common mistakes

Setting the budget before the guest count is the classic one: venue, food and drinks scale with every invited person, and The Knot reports average costs of $17,100, $27,200 and $43,300 for the smallest to the largest guest-count groups. Treating averages as targets is another; an average of $34,200 includes very expensive city weddings and very small ones, and a quote from your own area is worth more. Leaving out the costs that sit outside the average (rehearsal dinner, engagement ring, honeymoon) makes a plan look cheaper than it is.

Limits of this method

The percentage split is a planning device, not a law: a couple who spend little on the venue because a relative hosts will have a very different split. The calculator also does not know your taxes, gratuities or deposits. The Knot results come from an opt-in online survey of its own members, so they describe those couples, and the study reports averages, which a few expensive weddings pull upward.

Estimates for planning only — not financial advice; vendor contracts decide the real prices. Sources, checked October 27, 2026: The Knot, The Average Wedding Cost, According to The Knot Data (2026 Real Weddings Study, 10,474 US couples married in 2025; page updated June 24, 2026). Related: the budget calculator, savings goal calculator, emergency fund calculator, loan calculator and roommate rent split calculator. How we check our calculators.