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Wedding cost per guest calculator

How much does each wedding guest really cost?

Only the per-guest part: food and drink with service charge and tax, plus cake, favours, chairs and stationery. Fixed costs stay put. The Knot's 2026 study puts the US average at $292 per guest ($34,200 for 117 guests), but that includes the venue and photographer, so cutting one guest saves far less than $292.

Dividing the whole budget by the guest count mixes two kinds of cost. The venue, photographer and dress cost the same for 80 or 120 people. Food, drink and favours grow with every name you add. Only the second kind is saved when you cut someone.

Enter your fixed costs, the per-head price on your catering quote and your guest count to see the true cost of each guest and how many your budget covers.

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Built by Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Survey averages from The Knot, Hitched and Bridebook; tax rates from GOV.UK and the Canada Revenue Agency, linked at the bottom of the page. Worked out in your browser.

The calculator

Work out your cost per guest

Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.

Costs that stay the same

Venue hire, photographer, music, attire, rings, flowers, decor, transport: everything that costs the same for 80 or 120 guests.

Costs that grow with each guest

Before service charge and tax.
Charged on food, drink and the service charge. UK quotes usually include VAT: enter 0.
Cake, favours, chair hire, stationery and postage per guest, tax included.

Your guest list

The two of you, and any vendor meals.
Two different numbers

Average cost per guest vs the cost of one more guest

The average cost per guest is the total divided by the number of guests. It is useful to compare with surveys: The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study found a US average of $34,200 for 117 guests, about $292 each. Hitched's 2026 survey found a UK average of £21,990, £272 per guest, and Bridebook's 2026 report £20,604, about £278 per guest. No national per-guest survey exists for Canada; a Wealthsimple survey in August 2026 found a mean spend of about $37,000.

The cost of one more guest is what changes when you add or remove a name: their meal and drinks with the service charge and tax, plus per-guest extras. That is the number to use when you decide between your A list and your B list.

Real numbers

A worked example

Fixed costs of $15,000. Food and drink at $90 a head, a 20% service charge and 8% tax: $90 x 1.20 x 1.08 = $116.64 a meal. Add $20 a guest for cake, favours, chairs and stationery: $136.64 per guest.

120 guests plus the two of you is 122 meals: 122 x $136.64 = $16,670.08, plus $15,000 fixed = $31,670.08, an average of $263.92 a guest. With a $30,000 budget you are $1,670.08 over. Cutting guests at $136.64 each, the budget covers 107 guests (total $29,893.76). Dividing the overspend by the $263.92 average would have suggested cutting only 7 guests, which still leaves you over budget.

Read the small print on the quote

Service charge and tax by country

  • United States: caterers and venues often add a service or admin charge on food and drink, and sales tax depends on the state and city. Some states also tax a mandatory service charge.
  • United Kingdom: the standard VAT rate is 20%, and most wedding quotes already include it. Enter 0 tax unless a quote says "plus VAT". Some venues add an optional service charge.
  • Canada: GST is 5%; HST is 13% in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia and 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island; some provinces add PST, which does not apply to every service.
Before you send invitations

Mistakes that blow a wedding budget

  • Using the average per guest to plan cuts. Cutting 10 guests saves 10 x the per-guest cost, not 10 x the average.
  • Forgetting the couple eat too, and that vendors may need meals.
  • Comparing a per-head quote before service and tax with a budget after them. A 20% service charge plus 8% tax turns $90 into $116.64.
  • Ignoring the steps: one more guest can mean one more table, centrepiece, invitation or server. The full kit counts these.
Before you rely on this

What this will not tell you

This splits costs into fixed and a single per-guest amount. It does not count step costs (a new table, invitation or server every few guests), A/B/C list tiers, separate service and tax rules per line, payments or a party split; the paid kit does. Survey averages are not prices. Estimates for planning only, not financial advice. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Questions

Questions people actually ask

What is the average wedding cost per guest?

In the US, The Knot's 2026 study found about $292 per guest ($34,200 for 117 guests). In the UK, Hitched's 2026 survey found £272 per guest and Bridebook about £278. Canada has no national per-guest survey.

How much does adding 10 wedding guests cost?

Ten times your per-guest cost: food and drink with service and tax, plus per-guest extras. At $136.64 a guest that is $1,366.40, plus any extra table, invitations or staff they need.

How do I cut my wedding guest list to fit my budget?

Work out the overspend, then divide it by the cost of one more guest, not by the average. The budget covers (budget minus fixed costs) divided by the per-guest cost, less the meals for people without an invitation.

Does the couple count in the wedding headcount?

For catering, yes. Caterers charge for every meal, including the couple's and often vendor meals, even though they are not on the invitation list.

Do UK wedding quotes include VAT?

Most do. The standard VAT rate is 20%; check whether a quote says 'including VAT' or 'plus VAT' before you compare it with your budget.

What counts as a fixed wedding cost?

Anything priced as one fee that does not change with the guest count: venue hire, photographer, videographer, band or DJ, officiant, attire, rings, most flowers and decor, and transport.

Where every rule comes from

Sources

Survey figures and tax rates were checked on these pages on 2 November 2026. Survey averages are what couples reported spending, not prices; if a source has changed since, the source wins over this page.

  1. The Knot, 2026 Real Weddings Study (average wedding cost): https://www.theknot.com/content/average-wedding-cost
  2. Hitched / The Knot Worldwide, average UK wedding cost 2026: https://www.theknotww.com/press-releases/the-average-cost-of-a-wedding-in-2026-around-21990-according-to-hitched
  3. Bridebook, how much does a wedding cost in the UK: https://bridebook.com/uk/article/how-much-does-a-wedding-cost-the-uk-average
  4. Wealthsimple newsroom, wedding spending survey (Canada, Aug 2026): https://newsroom.wealthsimple.com/the-market-mindset-most-couples-budget-for-their-wedding-they-overspend-by-nearly-70
  5. GOV.UK, VAT rates: https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates
  6. Canada Revenue Agency, GST/HST rates by province: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/charge-collect-which-rate/calculator.html
Citation

Cite this tool

Free to use and free to quote. If a figure here is useful in something you are writing, a link back is all that is asked.

Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Wedding Cost Per Guest Calculator. Shahzeb Speaks. https://www.shahzebspeaks.com/wedding-cost-per-guest-calculator/

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Planning with an A, B and C list?

The Wedding Guest-Count Cost Calculator kit puts each quote on its own line (fixed, per guest, per invitation, per table or per staff member) with its own service charge and tax, compares your A, B and C lists side by side, finds the most guests your budget covers counting every extra table and server, tracks contracts and payment due dates, and includes a fair hen, stag or bachelorette cost splitter. Excel, Google Sheets and an offline web version.

Get the full kit, $19