A wedding budget spreadsheet and the costs to put in it
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A budget spreadsheet for a wedding needs one row for every cost and six columns: the item, your estimate, the quoted price, what you have paid, when the next payment is due and who is paying. Group the rows into the same categories as your budget split, so each total can be checked against it. The full list of rows for a UK wedding is below, with no prices, because prices depend on your area and suppliers.
Set the category totals first with the wedding budget calculator, then use this list to fill in the lines underneath each one.
The columns for a wedding expenses spreadsheet
Copy these headings into the first row of a new sheet:
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Item | One cost, such as “Venue hire” or “Evening food” |
| Estimate | Your figure before any quote |
| Quoted | The supplier’s written price |
| Paid | Everything paid so far, deposits included |
| Due date | When the next payment falls due |
| Who pays | You, or the person contributing to that line |
Two formulas do most of the work: a total under each category, and a “left to pay” column that subtracts Paid from Quoted. Sort by Due date every few weeks to see what is coming up.
Wedding costs list, by category
These are the line items under each of the calculator’s eleven categories. Not every wedding has every line; delete the ones that do not apply rather than leaving them at zero, so the sheet stays readable.
| Category | Lines to include |
|---|---|
| Venue, food and drink | Venue hire for the ceremony and the reception; drinks reception; wedding breakfast; table wine and the toast; evening food; bar tab; corkage; service charge; staff for a late finish; accommodation held for guests |
| Photography and video | Photographer; second photographer; videographer; album or prints; travel and overnight costs for either |
| Clothes, hair and make-up | Wedding dress or outfit; alterations; suits or hire; shoes and accessories; outfits for anyone you are dressing; hair and make-up trial; hair and make-up on the day |
| Flowers and decoration | Bouquets; buttonholes; ceremony flowers; table centrepieces; venue dressing; chair covers or hire; candles and lighting; setting up and clearing away |
| Music and entertainment | Ceremony musicians; drinks reception music; band or DJ; sound equipment; any extra entertainment for guests or children |
| Rings | Wedding rings; engraving; resizing |
| Stationery | Save-the-dates; invitations; postage; order of service; table plan; place cards; menus; thank-you cards |
| Transport | Car to the ceremony; car between venues; guest coach or minibus; taxis at the end of the night |
| Cake | Cake; delivery and setting up; cake stand and knife hire |
| Ceremony and legal fees | Giving notice; registrar; church fees or banns; celebrant; marriage certificate copies; checking of overseas documents if needed |
| Contingency | Wedding insurance; supplier tips; gifts for parents and the wedding party; last-minute purchases; anything that comes in over quote |
The lines that are easy to miss
Some costs arrive after the main bookings, or sit inside another supplier’s quote, so they tend to be left off a first list:
- Legal fees. GOV.UK gives the cost of a registrar as “£62 at a register office” and “£114.50 at a registered religious building”. For a church wedding, the Church of England says the legal fee covers “the vicar’s fee, the church’s fee, calling your banns, a banns certificate, lighting, and all administration”, and that you “will also pay the register office for your marriage certificate”.
- Document checks. If either of you was divorced outside the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man, GOV.UK says there is “a fee of £55 for the local register office to check your documents or £83 if the General Register Office needs to check them.”
- Service charges and corkage, which a venue may list separately from the per-head price.
- Postage on invitations and thank-you cards.
- Insurance. Which? notes that you “may already be covered by other insurances and consumer protections”, so check before buying a policy.
A wedding price breakdown: estimate, quote, paid
The three money columns do different jobs. Estimate is what you planned. Quoted is what a supplier has agreed in writing. Paid is what has left your account. Keeping all three shows where the plan was wrong, which helps you decide where the next saving has to come from.
Reading the wedding expenses breakdown
Total each category and compare it with the figure the calculator gave for that category. If one total runs over, move the difference from contingency or from a category that came in under, and change the percentage in the calculator so the split stays true. The guide to doing a wedding budget goes through setting those totals step by step.
Where to keep a wedding budget spreadsheet in the UK
Any spreadsheet app works. If you want one you can both edit from your phones, the directory’s budget and money page includes Google Sheets, with its cost and account needs. MoneySavingExpert also points to Google’s templates, saying “You can also share documents, so two people can edit it at the same time.”
There is no download on this page. A blank sheet with the six headings above and the rows from the list is all the template needs.
A list of wedding expenses to check before the day
About a month before the wedding, sort the sheet by Due date and confirm the final balance, the date it is due and who is paying it for every row. Some suppliers ask for the balance before the day itself, so get each one confirmed in writing.