Wedding Budget Planner

• The guest count drives the money. Catering, drinks, cake, rentals and paper are priced per guest, so the budget and every per guest vendor price move as the RSVPs come in. It shows what each guest costs, what 10 fewer guests would save, and what the B list adds.
• Expected before the RSVPs, real after. Guests still waiting count at the yes rate you expect, each answer swaps a guess for a fact, and a final head count for the caterer takes their place in the budget.
• A booked vendor replaces the plan. Each category starts as a plan; once a vendor is Booked, its real total and tip take over, and the category reads Over plan the moment it goes over. While you compare quotes, Budget shows the best one, and a vendor paid past its total is flagged.
• Payment Calendar: every deposit, payment, final balance and tip still to pay, soonest first, with a running total and what each month asks of you. Overdue and due soon payments show on the Dashboard.
• Guests: up to 400, with household, side, A or B list, RSVP, meal, plus-one, child and table. Headcount counts the invitations to send, each side, and the meals for the caterer.
• Seating: each table against its seats, over-full tables in red, and a who sits where list for the venue, with each guest's meal.
• Who Pays: the two of you and each family, a cash pledge, whole categories or both, what each has put in and what is still to come, and whether the pledges cover the wedding.
• Checklist: 47 tasks counted back from your wedding date, from the budget a year out to the thank-you notes after. Mark each one Done; overdue and due soon tasks show on the Dashboard. Change, add or remove any, up to 100.
• Dashboard: days to go, budget against the expected cost, paid and left to pay, the guests to plan for, a Heads up list of what needs you, the next five payments and the caterer's meal counts.

Start Here, Dashboard, Budget, Vendors, Payment Calendar, Guests, Headcount, Seating, Who Pays, Checklist, Setup, AI Prompts.

Room for 20 budget categories, 60 vendors, 400 guests, 40 tables, 10 people on Who Pays and 100 checklist tasks.

A second workbook. Type the ceremony time and the minutes each part of the day takes: everything before the ceremony works backward from it, everything after runs forward, and you can pin a start time, such as the first dance. It tells you when the day starts and whether you finish before the venue closes. Its Day-Of Contacts tab shows who arrives when, whether each one is set up in time, and the tip envelopes to hand over.

Ask an AI inside your spreadsheet (Copilot in Excel, Claude for Excel, Gemini in Google Sheets): it reads the open file, so 20 prompts have it explain the file, suggest where to cut $2,000, draft a polite RSVP reminder, check your typing, find duplicate guests, compare your quotes, plan your payment months, seat your guests, write the caterer's counts, plan the tips, catch missing due dates, add a thank-you list, and more.

Or any AI chat (ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini): 20 prompts already carry your numbers from the sheet, so they work in any AI (a money health check, will the money be there each month, are our RSVPs on track, which quotes to take, catch up on our checklist, how many guests can we afford, split the costs fairly), and 15 read the attached file: review the whole plan, a wedding week checklist, a day-of timeline from your vendors, thank-you notes, questions for each vendor, a smaller version of your wedding, what are we forgetting, a rain plan, and more. The AI tools are not included: each comes with its own plan, and Copilot in Excel needs Microsoft 365.

• Sample data (one made-up couple about ten weeks before their wedding) shows how it works, and its dates move with the day you open it. Type over it, or clear it and start fresh.
• The formula cells are locked, so a stray key cannot break them. The yellow cells are the ones you type in. Google Sheets does not lock them, so in Sheets type only in the yellow cells.
• Seating is a table by table plan and a who sits where list for the venue, not a drawn floor plan.
• Giving it as an engagement gift? Download it and send the couple the files.
• This file does arithmetic; it is not financial or legal advice.
• For your own wedding. Please do not resell or share the files.