Starting A Budget: To start a budget, enter your total budget amount, the number of guests you expect will attend your wedding, and the number of male and female attendants you plan on having. You must enter a minimum of 2 guests, which represent you and your fiancé. However, if you are not planning on having a bridal party, you can enter 0 in the fields for female and male attendants. When you are done, click SUBMIT, and we will breakdown your budget and suggest how much you should spend on common wedding line items. You can easily customize your budget by adding or removing line items (see below).
Adding Custom Items: If there are certain items you would like to include on your budget that are not listed as part of your suggested expenses, click "add items" in the toolbar at the top of the page. A popup will appear where you can indicate the name of the item, the category under which it falls and the estimated cost of the item. Any custom item you add will be counted as an additional expense, and cause your total budget amount to rise. If you would like to compensate for this, simply lower your original budget amount by the total cost of all custom items. For example, if you have two custom items that each cost $100 and your total budget is $10,000, lower your total budget amount to $9,800 in the "Budget" field in the left navigation bar.
Removing Items: If there are line items on your budget that do not apply to your wedding, you can remove them by checking the remove box and then clicking SAVE or UPDATE in the toolbar at the top of the page. These items will be moved to the bottom of the page, and you will have the ability to add them back if you wish. The Budget Calculator will automatically take the dollar amount from your removed items and spread it evenly among your remaining items.
Update vs. Save: Anytime you enter new information into your Budget Calculator, click UPDATE and we will total your columns for you. Clicking UPDATE does NOT save your information. This allows you to play with costs for different items and see how small changes affect the budget total. If you want to save any of your work, you must click SAVE in the toolbar at the top of the page.
Changing Your Starting Numbers: If you would like to enter a new total budget amount, adjust the number of guests attending the wedding, or change the number of male or female attendants, use the fields in the left navigation bar. When you have made your changes, click RECALCULATE. Your changes will be reflected in your budget, but your custom line items, your estimated amounts, actuals, deposits and balances due will not change.
Budget Planning Tips: We provide budget tips for each line item to help you save money or give you an idea of what you can get for the amount of money you are spending. If you do not want to see our planning tips, click "hide planning tips" in the toolbar at the top of the page. If you decide you want to see planning tips again, click "display planning tips."
Exporting Your Budget: If you would like to export information from your Budget Calculator to share with your future spouse or family, click "export" in the toolbar at the top of the page. We will export the numbers you have entered, organized in columns.
Start Over: If you would like to start a completely new budget, erasing all custom items or any other information you have entered, click the "Start Over" link in the left navigation bar. You will be taken to a page where you can enter your budget amount, the number of guests you estimate as attending the wedding, and total number of male and female attendants. Once you enter this information, we will create a completely new budget for you. Please note, starting over with permanently erase all the information you have previously entered into your budget.
Suggested Amounts: We provide you with suggested amounts as to how much you may want to spend on the line items in your budget. The suggested amounts we show are based on national averages and the advice of top wedding coordinators. Because prices vary dramatically across the country and each couple has different spending priorities, our suggested amounts are intended only as general guidelines. You have the option to enter your own estimates as well.
Your Estimate: We pre-fill this column for you in case you decide to use our suggested amounts as your estimate for each line item. However, you can always type in your own numbers to indicate how much you plan to spend on each budget item instead. Remember to click SAVE in the toolbar at the top of the page so you don't lose your changes.
Your Actual: When you know the actual amount you are spending on a particular line item, enter it into your budget. We will then calculate whether the amount you are spending puts you over or under the total amount you planned to spend on your wedding.
Over/Under: To keep you on track, we calculate the amount that you are over or under the total amount you originally planned to spend on your wedding. We calculate your over/unders by subtracting your estimated costs from your actual costs.
Deposit & Balance Due: Enter your deposit amounts, and we will calculate the balance remaining for each budget line item.