Wedding budgets don't blow up in one bad decision. They drift — a few hundred here on linens, a service fee there, a deposit that someone logged in their head and nowhere else. The spreadsheet was accurate in March. It is now July.
The fix is boring and it works: every line item carries what you planned, what it actually costs, and what you've paid so far, with each payment dated and logged. The total updates itself. When the florist quotes 15% over, you can see in one glance whether the buffer absorbs it — before you say yes.
A ledger, not a guess.
Seventeen categories, pre-built
Venue, catering, photography, flowers, attire, the DJ, the things you forgot exist — the standard categories are seeded on day one, ready for real numbers.
Three numbers per line, not one
Planned, actual, and paid. A budget with one column is a wish; with three, it's an instrument. The committed-spend percentage tells you how much room is actually left.
Payment history per line item
The venue takes a deposit, a progress payment, and a final balance. Each payment is logged where it belongs, so 'did we pay the second installment?' has an answer.
Status flags that surface trouble
Overdue, outstanding, paid in full — see at a glance which vendors are settled and which invoices are quietly aging in an inbox.
Category
Planned
Actual
Paid
Venue
$12,000
$12,400
$12,400
Catering
$9,500
$9,180
$4,590
Photography
$4,200
$4,200
$1,400
Flowers
$2,000
$2,350
$500
Illustrative numbers. Yours will hurt more, but at least they'll be accurate.
The average US wedding runs about $34,000. The difference between budgeted and surprised is a second column.
The method behind it: the wedding budget breakdown.