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Event & Wedding Budget

Paste your budget — one line per item, with the amount you were actually quoted or the figure you have estimated — and this totals it twice: at the guest count you are planning for, and at the higher count you are quietly worried about. Per-head items scale and fixed items do not, so a plan that works at 80 and comes apart at 100 shows up as two numbers side by side rather than as a surprise. It also works out the cost per head, the exact cost of one more guest, how much of the total still rests on estimates rather than confirmed quotes, what has been paid, what is outstanding, who is paying what, and each category's share. Every figure is yours: this tool holds no costs, no per-head rates and no category allocations of its own, and it never says what to spend or what to cut. All arithmetic is in whole pennies, and the contributor totals and category subtotals are each proved to add to exactly the total.

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Worked example

EVENT BUDGET — 4 items, 80 guests planned Every figure below is worked in whole pennies from the lines you pasted. No cost, rate or allocation is supplied by this tool. TOTAL AT EACH GUEST COUNT at 80 guests (planned) $9,960.00 at 100 guests $11,300.00 the difference $1,340.00 the per-head items scale; the fixed ones do not of which fixed $4,600.00 the same at any guest count of which per head at 80 $5,360.00 moves with every guest PER GUEST cost per head at 80 $124.50 rounded to the nearest penny cost per head at 100 $113.00 rounded to the nearest penny one more guest costs $67.00 exact — the sum of your per-head items ten more guests cost $670.00 exact CONFIRMED vs ESTIMATED (at 80 guests) confirmed — 2 item(s) $8,400.00 84.34% still an estimate — 2 item(s) $1,560.00 15.66% $9,960.00 100.00% MONEY (at 80 guests) funds available $24,000.00 as you entered it total cost $9,960.00 paid to date $1,150.00 money handed over still to pay $8,810.00 AGAINST YOUR FUNDS at 80 guests $9,960.00 $14,040.00 left over at 100 guests $11,300.00 $12,700.00 left over WHO IS PAYING (at 80 guests) who total paid outstanding share Mum $4,000.00 $1,000.00 $3,000.00 40.17% Us $5,360.00 $0.00 $5,360.00 53.81% Dad $600.00 $150.00 $450.00 6.02% TOTAL $9,960.00 $1,150.00 $8,810.00 100.00% BY CATEGORY category at 80 share at 100 Venue $4,000.00 40.17% $4,000.00 Catering $4,400.00 44.18% $5,500.00 Drinks $960.00 9.63% $1,200.00 Flowers $600.00 6.02% $600.00 TOTAL $9,960.00 100.00% $11,300.00 EVERY ITEM line category item basis amount at 80 status paid paying 4 Venue Hall hire fixed $4,000.00 $4,000.00 confirmed $1,000.00 Mum 5 Catering Dinner per head $55.00 $4,400.00 confirmed $0.00 Us 6 Drinks Bar per head $12.00 $960.00 estimate $0.00 Us 7 Flowers Table flowers fixed $600.00 $600.00 estimate $150.00 Dad NOTES · Nothing here is a benchmark. This tool holds no typical costs, no average prices and no recommended share for any category, and it will never tell you what you should spend, what to cut, or what to budget for — every figure above is one you typed. · An estimate is an estimate. The gap between a quote and the final invoice is where event budgets come apart: extras, overtime, delivery, service charges, corkage, and the things nobody priced at all. An item marked confirmed is one you have in writing; everything else is still moving. · Per-head items scale with the guest count and fixed items do not. That is why the two totals differ, and it is the whole reason to look at both of them together. · One more guest costs exactly the sum of your per-head items. Nothing is rounded in that figure. · The cost-per-head figures ARE rounded, to the nearest penny, for display only. Every total is held and added in whole pennies. · Shares are worked in hundredths of a percent, floored, with the leftover hundredths handed out one each to the first rows listed, so the share column adds to exactly 100.00%. · The contributor totals and the category subtotals each add to exactly the total cost. Add the columns up; they reconcile. · 'Paid' is money actually handed over, so it is never scaled by the guest count. A per-head deposit is still a fixed sum once it is paid. · An item with nothing said about it is treated as an estimate and as a fixed cost, because the other assumptions would flatter the total. · A contributor listed here is a name you typed. Somebody agreeing to pay and somebody having paid are different things, and only the second one shows up in the paid column. · This moves no money, contacts nobody, and is not financial advice.

Learn the method

Event budgets: the cost of one more guest

Inputs

Frequently asked

What format do the lines take?

category | item | amount | the rest. Separate the fields with a pipe, semicolon or tab; a comma works too, but only on a line that uses none of those. The amount is either a fixed total like 4000 or a per-head cost like 55/head, 55 pp or 55 each. After the amount you can add, in any order: 'confirmed', 'per head' or 'fixed', 'paid: 1000', and 'by: Mum'. Currency signs are ignored, so '£4,000' reads fine.

Why two guest counts?

Because that is where the arithmetic bites. Some of your costs are fixed — the venue, the photographer, the cake — and some are per head, and only the per-head ones move when the list grows. A budget that is comfortable at 80 can be badly over at 100 while every individual line still looks reasonable. Seeing both totals together, before the invitations go out, is the entire point of the tool.

What is 'the cost of one more guest'?

Exactly the sum of your per-head items: catering, drinks, favours, transport, whatever you marked as per head. It is not rounded and it is not estimated. It is the number that actually governs the invitation list, and it is the one almost nobody works out — people add a name and think of it as free because the venue is already booked.

What does confirmed versus estimated mean?

Confirmed means you have it in writing: a signed quote, a contract, an invoice. Anything you have not marked is treated as an estimate, because the other default would flatter the total. The split shows what proportion of your total rests on figures that can still move. It is reported plainly; the tool draws no conclusion from it and does not tell you what a good proportion would be.

Does it tell me what things should cost?

No, and that is deliberate. It contains no costs, no per-head rates, no category percentages and no benchmarks of any kind. Real prices differ enormously by country, city, venue, season and year, and a printed 'this usually costs X' would be wrong for most people reading it — and on this subject in particular, it would function as pressure rather than as information. Every figure in the output is one you entered.

Will it tell me what to cut?

No. It totals what you typed and shows you where the money is. Which parts of a day matter to you is not something a calculator has any standing to rank, and a tool that suggested cuts would be making a claim about your priorities that it cannot possibly support.

How is 'paid' handled?

As money actually handed over, never scaled by the guest count. If you paid a deposit that happened to be worked out per head, it is still a fixed sum once it is out of your account. Paid to date, outstanding, and each contributor's outstanding balance all come from that column.

Do the contributor and category totals add up exactly?

Yes, and that is tested hard. Everything is held in whole pennies as integers, never as decimals, so nothing is lost to rounding: the contributor totals add to exactly the total cost, and so do the category subtotals. The percentage shares are worked in hundredths of a percent with the leftover hundredths handed out one each to the first rows, so the share column adds to exactly 100.00% too.

What if a contributor has not actually agreed?

Then you have typed a name, and that is all the tool knows. The output says so. Assumed contributors are one of the standard ways an event budget goes wrong — a relative is expected to cover something, nobody confirms it in words, and the assumption survives right up until the invoice. Mark what is agreed and what is not, the same way you mark quotes.

Can I use it for something other than a wedding?

Yes. A christening, a funeral, a milestone birthday, a village fete, a conference, a club dinner — anything with fixed costs, per-head costs, several people chipping in and a headcount that is not final. The wedding case is only the one where the per-head arithmetic is most expensive to get wrong.

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