How should I split a wedding budget?

A conventional starting point is roughly 45 percent on venue, food and drink, 12 percent on photography and video, 10 percent on attire and beauty, 8 percent each on music and flowers, and smaller shares on rings, stationery and transport, keeping around 7 percent as contingency. These are planning rules of thumb rather than survey data.

What do people forget in a wedding budget?

Vendor gratuities, alterations, overtime charges if the day runs late, delivery and setup fees, postage across save-the-dates and invitations and thank-yous, and the marriage licence itself.

Why track quoted and paid separately?

Because they diverge for a year. You commit to a venue in March and pay the balance in September. A template that only tracks allocation tells you nothing about your cash position in June.

Wedding budget template

An editable percentage split, plus the part most templates skip — tracking what you have committed against what you have actually paid.

Last updated: 2026-08-07

Wedding budget

Split a total across categories, then track what you've committed against what you've actually paid.

Download (.xlsx)Download .csv

Works in Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers and LibreOffice. No email address.

Why it tracks three numbers, not one

Most wedding templates allocate a budget and stop. But committing to a venue and paying for it are a year apart, so allocation alone tells you nothing about what you owe in June. This one tracks allocated,quoted or booked, and paid so far — and shows what is still to pay.

Keep the contingency line. Weddings overrun through thirty small additions, each individually reasonable.

What's in it

Editable percentage split across nine categories
Allocated / Quoted / Paid / Still to pay per category
A contingency line, kept deliberately

Choose your platform

Other templates

All free budget templates