National averages for a classic 120-guest wedding, from the same model behind the estimator. Multiply by your metro — Manhattan runs ~1.9×, rural areas ~0.7×.
| Vendor / line | Typical cost | How it scales |
|---|---|---|
| Catering (food) | $7,500 | Per guest — the purest per-head cost |
| Venue | $6,500 | Mostly fixed, partly per guest (space & staffing) |
| Bar & alcohol | $2,500 | Per guest × hours; the easiest line to shape |
| Photography & video | $4,000 | Flat — same price for 40 guests or 240 |
| Attire & beauty | $2,500 | Flat |
| Flowers & décor | $2,000 | Base + per table, so roughly per guest |
| Music / entertainment | $1,500 | Flat (DJ) — bands scale with headcount ON STAGE, not yours |
| Rentals & lighting | $1,500 | Per guest (tables, chairs, linens, place settings) |
| Planner / coordinator | $1,000 | Flat for day-of; % of budget for full service |
| Cake & desserts | $500 | Per guest |
| Rings (bands) | $1,000 | Flat |
| Transportation | $500 | Flat-ish (vehicles × hours) |
| Stationery & signage | $500 | Per household, roughly per guest |
| Favors & gifts | $500 | Per guest |
| Officiant & license | $500 | Flat |
| Service charge, tax & tips | $2,500 | ~15% of the food & bar block |
| All-in average | $35,500 | 120 guests · peak Saturday |
Full percentages and $20k–$75k allocations live in the budget breakdown guide. Model details: methodology.
Venue & catering: the biggest line and the most flexible one — but the discount lives in the date, not the haggle. Weekday and off-season pricing is published and real; "can you do better on a peak Saturday" mostly isn't.
Bar: the most shapeable per-guest cost. Beer-wine-plus-a-signature-cocktail typically runs 25–35% below a full open bar, and nobody has ever left a wedding because the whiskey list was short.
Photography: negotiate hours and deliverables, not the rate — 8 hours instead of 10, or a second shooter only for the ceremony. Good photographers hold rates but flex packages.
Flowers: the classic overrun. Fix a number from your breakdown, share it with the florist up front, and ask what that buys in seasonal stems — in-season and locally grown reads identical at 20 feet.
Everything flat-cost gets cheaper per head as your list grows — and everything per-guest gets cheaper as it shrinks. That asymmetry is why the guest list is the master lever, and why small weddings should spend proportionally more on photography.
Around $4,000 at national-average prices for photography plus videography coverage — photography alone typically runs 60–70% of that. It's a flat cost that doesn't scale with guests, which makes it comparatively cheap at big weddings and a big line at small ones. In premium metros multiply accordingly (see your city).
Our music/entertainment line averages $1,500, which is DJ territory. A live band typically runs 3–5× a DJ (musicians × hours × travel). If a band matters to you, take the difference out of the bottom of the budget, not out of photography.
A day-of coordinator (~$1,000 on average) is the best stress-per-dollar purchase in the industry — someone else runs the timeline while you get married. Full-service planning runs 10–20% of the budget and earns it mostly on complex or destination weddings, where planner vendor relationships also recover part of the fee.
Caterers and venues add service charge, tax and gratuities on food and bar — ~15% on that block, about $2,500 on an average wedding. It's printed at the bottom of the quote, and it is not optional. Every estimate on this site includes it; make sure your spreadsheet does too.
Guest count, city, style and date — a real number in 30 seconds, plus the monthly savings plan.