Planning Your Event
Estimate a budget before you commit
A free calculator that builds a realistic total across nine categories — no account needed.
On this page
What it is
A public calculator with nine spending categories, each opening with a few typical rows. You enter what you expect to pay, and it totals the lot.
When to use it
Before you have committed to anything, when you want to know whether the event you are imagining is the event you can afford.
Who can use it
Anyone, signed in or not.
Where to find it
Step by step
Open the Budget Calculator.
Enter your guest count first.
Per-guest rows use it, so setting it first means you only type each rate once.
Work through the categories: Venue & Rentals, Catering & Bar, Photography & Video, Entertainment & Music, Decorations & Flowers, Attire & Beauty, Stationery & Invitations, Transportation & Logistics, and Miscellaneous & Contingency.
For each line, set the unit and enter the rate. "Food per head" is a price for one guest; a flat row is the whole cost.
Add or remove rows so the categories match your event.
Read the running total and the per-category breakdown.
What you should end up with
Options and settings
- Unit
- Flat amount, per guest, per item, per hour, or per day. It decides what your number gets multiplied by.
- Guest count
- One number that re-prices every per-guest row at once.
Common mistakes
- Entering a total in a per-guest row — the calculator will multiply it by your headcount.
- Expecting the numbers to save. This is a public tool; sign in and use the Budget Tracker if you want them kept.
If something goes wrong
- A category total looks impossibly large.
- One of its rows is probably set to per guest but holds a whole-event figure. Switch that row to a flat amount, or divide the number by your headcount.
- Changing the guest count did nothing.
- Only rows set to "per guest" follow the headcount. Flat rows are meant not to move.
Worth knowing
- Do this before you talk to any supplier. It is much easier to say "our catering budget is X" than to work it out mid-conversation.
Related guides
- Track what your event actually costsRecord estimates, what you have spent and what is paid, by category, with the remaining balance always visible.
- A sensible order to do things inThe path most hosts follow in their first week, and why this order saves rework.
- Request, review and accept a quoteAsk for a price, read what is included, and accept it — which turns it into an invoice.
Still stuck? Tell us what you were trying to do and what happened instead.