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About this tool
Split a wedding budget by category, get cost per guest and a phase checklist, then copy a planning prompt built from those numbers.
Wedding Planning Prompt Builder divides a fixed wedding budget across categories, derives the all-in cost per guest and the combined venue-and-catering budget per plate, and places you in a planning phase based on the months remaining. The category percentages are planner rules of thumb — including the 10% contingency most planning guides advise holding back — applied to your own total rather than to national averages. The output is a planning prompt that already carries those numbers, so an AI assistant answers about your wedding rather than a generic one.
Open Wedding Planning Prompt Builder on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Enter the Total budget, pick a Currency, then set Guest count and Months until the wedding.
Choose a Budget model of Single-day wedding or Multi-event wedding, say what you will not compromise on, and add a city, a non-negotiable and anything to avoid.
Read the all-in cost per guest and the category split that holds back 10% contingency, then press Copy prompt to paste those figures into an AI assistant.
Turns a headline budget into the combined venue-and-catering per-head figure, so you know it runs higher than a caterer's food-only quote.
10% is held back before the plan is made, so the committed spend figure is honest.
Shows only the work that belongs to the months you have left.
Venue and catering is usually the largest single line, commonly around 40 to 50 percent of the total, with photography and video near 10 to 12 percent. These are planning rules of thumb rather than fixed rates, and they shift for multi-event weddings where outfits, decor and guest accommodation take a bigger share.
Hold back about 10 percent of the total. Overruns come from guest-count creep, extra service hours, delivery and setup fees, and last-minute additions, and a plan built on 100 percent of the budget has no room for any of them.
Divide the total budget by the confirmed guest count for the all-in figure, then divide the venue-and-catering allocation by the same count for the venue-and-catering plate figure — most planning models bundle venue hire together with food and service in one line. That combined number is still lower than the all-in figure, but it is higher than a caterer's food-only quote, since it also carries venue rental, staging and permits. Ask any caterer to quote food and service only if you want a true like-for-like comparison.
Vendors who take one booking per date — venue, caterer, photographer — go first, ideally nine to twelve months out. Outfits, invitations and decor follow at six to nine months, menu tasting and RSVPs at three to six, and the final headcount, seating and outstanding payments in the last month. Confirm your own caterer's headcount cut-off, since it varies by contract.