Google Sheets · XLSX
Free Wedding Budget Spreadsheet (Excel and Google Sheets)
This free wedding budget spreadsheet comes as a Google Sheets copy or an Excel file, with no email required. Use it to plan category targets and per-guest costs before booking, then track contract totals, deposits, balances and due dates as you pay vendors.
Get the spreadsheet
- Make a copy in Google Sheets (you need to be signed in to a Google account)
- Download the Excel file (.xlsx)
The Google Sheets link asks you to make your own copy, which lands in your Google Drive; nobody else sees what you type. Start by entering your total budget and guest count on Setup. Share your copy with your partner so you can both log payments in the same place.
The file has four tabs:
- Setup holds your total budget and guest count, plus summaries of projected spending, payments and balances.
- Budget shows each category’s target alongside projected spending and the amount over or under.
- Items has one row per expense, from the venue to postage: 34 common items are listed, with space for 120.
- Payments logs each payment against its item; the Items tab adds those payments up.
Yellow cells are for typing: estimates, contract amounts and payment details. Gray cells are formulas; leave them alone.
You can find the site’s other free tools and printables in the tools hub.
Plan your wedding budget spreadsheet around your guest count
The Knot’s 2026 Real Weddings Study, covering US couples married in 2025, reports an average wedding cost of $34,200 and an average guest count of 117. Couples with budgets up to $15,000 spent $8,900 on average. A split built from national averages needs adjusting for a smaller budget.
Here’s what that gap does to a percentage split. Take a hypothetical $12,000 wedding with 70 guests. The spreadsheet’s starting split gives food, drink and cake 27%, which is $3,240. That’s about $46 per guest for all three. The same study puts average catering alone at $80 per person, so 70 guests at that price cost $5,600, about 47% of the whole budget, before a single drink or slice of cake.
To make the numbers fit, reduce the guest count, find a lower per-guest quote or move money from other categories.
That’s why the Items tab has a column for per-guest estimates. Type the caterer’s price per person there, and the estimate follows your guest count. Change the count on the Setup tab from 70 to 55 and you’ll see the effect on every per-guest line at once. Do this before you sign anything priced per head, and use the same column for bar packages, chair rentals or favors priced per person. For favors, the winter favors guide works out cost per guest for several ideas.
Where the starting split comes from
We calculated the Budget tab’s starting percentages from The Knot’s 2026 average vendor costs, checked October 22, 2026. The selected figures total $47,540. Each category’s subtotal is divided by that amount and rounded to the nearest whole percent:
| Category | Starting split | Built from The Knot averages |
|---|---|---|
| Venue & rentals | 31% | Reception venue $12,900, event rentals $2,000 |
| Food, drink & cake | 27% | Catering $80 × 117 guests, alcohol $2,800, cake $540 |
| Photo & video | 11% | Photographer $3,000, videographer $2,300 |
| Flowers & decor | 10% | Flowers $2,800, lighting and decor $1,900 |
| Rings | 6% | Wedding rings $3,000 |
| Attire & beauty | 6% | Dress $2,100, hair $150 and makeup $150 (each for one person), jewelry $390 |
| Music | 4% | DJ $1,800 |
| Transportation | 2% | Transportation $1,100 |
| Stationery & postage | 1% | Invitations and stationery $510 |
| Favors & gifts | 1% | Favors $480 |
| Officiant & license | 1% | Officiant $260 |
| Other & buffer | 0% | Your choice |
This is our starting allocation, not The Knot’s recommended budget breakdown or a breakdown of its $34,200 average wedding. It uses a DJ rather than a band and leaves out a planner and extra entertainment. The category labels allow for expenses beyond the source figures: add your own estimates for postage, a marriage license or additional outfits on the Items tab.
The buffer starts at 0%. To reserve money for unexpected costs, move a share from other categories into Other & buffer, keeping the total at 100%.
After you book: contract totals, deposits and due dates
Once you book a vendor, enter the full expected cost in the Contract total column, including tax, service charges and any planned tips. Update that figure if the agreed cost changes, such as when you confirm your final catering head count.
From that point, the Projected column uses the contract total instead of your estimate, and the Budget tab shows whether that category is now over its target.
Then add the deposit, the deposit due date and the date the balance is due. Every payment you make goes on the Payments tab, against its item. The Items tab works out:
- paid to date and what’s still owed;
- the next payment: the rest of the deposit if it isn’t fully paid yet, otherwise the balance;
- the next due date, highlighted when it falls within 30 days;
- a status: Not booked, Deposit due, Balance due, Overdue or Paid in full.
Logging payments once, on their own tab, is deliberate. If you overwrite a “paid” cell instead, a second installment can quietly replace the first. With a log, the running total is the sum of the payments you entered, and you can see who paid each one, which helps when parents contribute.
The Setup tab adds up the next payment for each item due within 30 days, including overdue payments, and shows overdue amounts separately. It counts one upcoming payment per item. If a deposit and final balance are both due within 30 days, the balance enters that summary after you log the deposit, so check both dates on Items when planning your cash needs.
Changing the sheet to fit your wedding
Use the empty rows for your own expenses and leave unused rows blank. Each item needs a category from the drop-down and a unique name. The Payments tab matches payments to items by name, so two rows called “Flowers” would each pick up the same payments. If you rename an item after logging payments, update its name in the payment log too.
To rename a category, type the new name on the Budget tab. The drop-downs on Items read from that list, but existing assignments keep the old name until you update them. Reuse an unneeded category for a different expense group.