Advanced options
Typical UK budget shares; every wedding weights them differently, so treat the split as a starting point and rebalance towards what matters to you.
What The Wedding Budget Calculator Works Out
- Catering and drinks: 25% of the total budget, the biggest single line. On GBP 20,000 that is GBP 5,000. Venue and catering together typically absorb 40% to 45% of a UK wedding and both scale with the guest list, which makes the guest count the single biggest budget decision a couple makes.
- Venue hire: 18% of the budget (GBP 3,600 on GBP 20,000). Venue deposits usually run 25% to 50% and are paid a year or more out, so the budget is really a cashflow plan.
- Contingency: 16% for contingency and the small items (favours, gifts, alterations) that quietly become a category of their own. Roughly one in three weddings runs over budget and a 10% to 15% buffer turns overruns into non-events.
- Full table: the remaining lines are photography and video 8%, attire and rings 13%, music 7%, flowers 5%, and 2% each for hair and beauty, stationery, cake and transport. The percentages are averages to argue with, not rules; couples routinely double the photography share or swap flowers for entertainment.
- Cost per guest (advanced): the whole budget divided by the guest count, and the catering line per head. Every name added is a meal, drinks, a chair, a slice of cake and often an invitation set; UK per-head catering commonly runs GBP 50 to GBP 120.
- Contingency share (advanced): override the 16% default. The other ten lines are scaled up or down so the table still adds to 100%.
- Total including honeymoon (advanced): adds a separate honeymoon budget so the real cost of the whole event is in one place.
- Still to find (advanced): the total minus what you have already saved or paid in deposits and any contributions from family. Paying deposits over GBP 100 by credit card adds Section 75 protection if a supplier goes under, and wedding insurance is cheap against supplier failure.
- Save each month (advanced): the amount still to find divided by the months until the wedding. A legal ceremony itself costs comparatively little, which is the quiet reminder that everything above the registrar's fee is a choice.
Further reading: MoneyHelper: budgeting and planning.