Wedding Budget: What to Do When the Quotes Exceed It

Why wedding quotes run over the budget

Quotes are collected one supplier at a time, and each one looks reasonable on its own. Nobody adds them up until several have arrived, and by then some have been provisionally agreed. The total is usually over budget before any deposit is paid.

The largest single driver is the guest list. Catering, drinks, tables, chairs, stationery and often the venue itself are priced per head, so the cost per head, the total of the per-guest costs divided by the number of guests, decides most of the budget. A list that grows by twenty people adds twenty times that figure.

The order to cut in

Small cuts to stationery or favours feel like progress but rarely close a gap measured in thousands.

How to rebuild the budget in six steps

1. Put every quote in one table

One row per supplier: what it includes, the quoted price, the deposit, and the date the deposit becomes non-refundable.

2. Take 10% off the top as contingency

A plan that uses the whole budget has nothing for what changes. Hold about a tenth back and plan to the rest.

3. Price the guest list

Work out the cost per head and show the list by tier: family, close friends, colleagues, plus-ones. Seeing the list priced makes the decision possible.

4. Test the date

Ask the venue and main suppliers for their price on a Friday, a Sunday or an off-season month.

5. Rebid on identical scope

Send each supplier the same written specification and compare like with like.

6. Book in order of what sells out

Venue first, then the suppliers with limited dates, each only once the total fits.

Worked example: Marcus and Jo

The guest list did the most. At $140 a head, the thirty guests between 140 and 110 were $4,200. The Friday date kept the same venue and suppliers and removed $2,100; the trade-off was named and accepted, not discovered later. The florist’s quote fell $450 when the scope named the same stems, delivery and set-up as the other two quotes. The plan came to $25,200, leaving $2,800, 10% of the budget, as contingency.

Comparing suppliers

Compare suppliers on three things besides the headline price:

• What the price includes. Hours, staff, delivery, set-up, taxes and service charges. Two quotes for “flowers” can describe different jobs.
• The deposit. How much, when it is due, and when it stops being refundable.
• The cancellation terms. What you owe if the date moves or the event is cancelled, and by when.

A slightly higher quote with a smaller deposit and a later cancellation date can be the safer booking, especially months before the event.

Try it: a shortened Prompt 10

This is a shortened version of Prompt 10 from the Life Admin & Big Events pack, set up to run on its own. Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and fill in the brackets.

You are a former event planner who has run weddings and large parties to fixed budgets. Cost follows the guest list, so the list is fixed before anything is booked, suppliers are compared on identical scope, and about ten per cent of the budget is held back for what changes.

THE EVENT:
- Type, date or month, and location: [details]
- Total budget: [amount]
- Guest list: [number, by tier: family, close friends, colleagues, plus-ones]

THE QUOTES:
- Each supplier: [what it includes, price, deposit, cancellation terms]
- What matters most to you, and what you would give up first: [priorities]

Produce:

1. THE GAP. All quotes totalled against the budget minus a 10% contingency.

2. THE COST PER HEAD. Per-guest costs and what each tier of the guest list costs.

3. THE CUTS. The changes that close the gap, largest first (guests, date, venue and catering, then supplier scope), each with its saving and the trade-off named.

4. THE PLANNED BUDGET. A table of quoted against planned by category, with the contingency, and the deposits and cancellation dates in booking order.

Use only the quotes I give you. Where a price depends on a supplier's answer, mark it [ASK SUPPLIER].

The full Prompt 10 has eight parts rather than four, covering the timeline and the day itself, and it reads the Life Brief built by earlier prompts, so the wedding sits alongside the other dates and commitments in the year.

Checks before any deposit

• The guest list is fixed.
• The plan fits inside the budget with 10% still held back.
• Every supplier was compared on the same written scope.
• Every deposit and cancellation date is in one calendar.
• Each trade-off, such as a Friday date, has been agreed by both of you.

Questions

Written by a former Gartner Managing Partner and investment banking SVP

The guides and the prompt templates on this site come from a career spent building these documents: board decks, forecasts, business cases and hiring decisions, as Managing Partner at Gartner, SVP in investment banking and Country Manager at international subsidiaries. The worked examples are published in full on each product page. Browse the Prompt Library.