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The Guides for Brides Wedding Budget Calculator

The Guides for Brides Wedding Budget Calculator


Alison Hargreaves Guides for Brides Bio
Alison Hargreaves Updated:
12th of October 2022

If you want to know how much to spend on your wedding day, then what better way than with our free wedding budget calculator? We'll take your budget and split it between your wedding venue and suppliers to let you know how much you should be spending on each category. It's the easiest way to keep track of your wedding finances and stay on track with your budget.

Wedding budget calculator | Guides for Brides

How to use the Guides for Brides Wedding Budget Calculator

If you know how much you can roughly afford to spend on your wedding day, then simply enter this number in the Your Total Budget box and click the Allocate button. We'll then use our clever algorithm, based on thousands of brides' budgets, to recommend a maximum spend for each of your wedding categories.

If you have no idea where to start when it comes to your overall wedding budget, then take a look at our report on the cost of weddings in 2019

If you definitely can't budge from your total budget, then click the Freeze box next to it. That way, if you end up spending more than budgeted for on one of your categories, we'll take the extra amount from one of your other categories to ensure that your total always stays the same. If you leave the Freeze box unticked and then go over budget in one of your categories, we'll simply add up your total to show you your projected spend. 

Similarly, you can tick Freeze against any category, and we'll fix the spend in that area and adjust the rest of your wedding budget breakdown accordingly. 

Give our wedding budget calculator a go on the Guides for Brides Wedding Planner

Top tip

Don't forget - once you have your wedding budget breakdown, you can export it to your online Wedding Planner and app so that you can check your budget on the go. Haven't got the Wedding Planner app? Download it for free on iOs and Android.

Top wedding budget tips | Wedding Budget Calculator | Guides for Brides

Top wedding budget tips

Know you've gotten to know our wedding budget calculator, we thought we'd share some of our top wedding planning advice for getting your dream day on a budget...

Prioritise your wedding suppliers

Decide with your partner which parts of the day are the most important to you. Do you want to focus on the wedding menu and drink, or is entertainment and live music a key part of the day for you? Is the wedding fashion a priority, or is it more important to invest in your videography? Having this discussion before you start wedding planning can help you decide which areas you truly want to spend your money on, and which areas you can afford to cut back on. 

Expect to go over your wedding budget

Although our wedding budget breakdown should help give you an idea of how much weddings cost, we know from speaking to our married couples that over 50% of brides end up going over budget. We recommend keeping 10% of your overall wedding budget back for emergencies or unexpected costs. Having a little hidden pot handy can help you deal with things that pop up without going into debt. 

Keep your wedding guest list short

This is a tricky area to negotiate, but the quickest way to cut wedding costs is to keep your guest numbers down. Having a more intimate wedding means that the overall costs for your wedding venue, catering, drinks and favours go down, making it the simplest way to plan a wedding on a budget. 

Marry in wedding low season

Another quick way to cut down the cost of your wedding venue (and likely your suppliers too) is to marry in less popular months, or on a weekday, as demand will be a lot lower. These days Fridays and Saturdays are likely to cost the same, while Thursdays and Sundays are increasing in popularity. The cheapest months to marry are January, February, March, October and November. 

Be upfront about your wedding budget

You can always ask your wedding suppliers for a discount, but we find the easiest way to save money with suppliers is to let them know how much you're working with up front and ask them what changes can be made to keep costs down.

Keep track of your spending

As well as our wedding budget calculator, Guides for Brides also has a clever budget tracking tool as part of our online wedding planner. This means that as you get quotes from your wedding suppliers, you can add them in to your budget tracker and keep track of what you're spending. This avoids any accidental overspending! 

Sign up for your wedding online wedding planner here to get access to our free wedding budget tracker. 

Alison Hargreaves Guides for Brides Bio

About the author


Alison Hargreaves

Alison has been advising brides, grooms and bridesmaids for more than 25 years. She has an unrivalled knowledge of the British wedding industry and frequently appears on podcasts and expert panels. She regularly attends international wedding conferences to keep the UK at the forefront of wedding planning trends.

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