Why this site exists
Planning a wedding or a big party means answering a lot of number questions very quickly. How much will this cost? How much should we set aside for food? How many pounds of pasta feed 60 people? What size tent do we rent? Most answers online are a single number with no explanation, or a figure that nobody can trace back to a source.
Event Cost Planner is our answer to that. We have built 16 free calculators across 4 areas:
- Wedding Cost Calculators: total cost, budget split, venue, photographer, planner and cake.
- Catering Calculators: cost per guest, pricing a catering quote, and how much to tip.
- Food Per Person Calculators: how much pasta, rice, salad and appetizers to make for a crowd.
- Event Setup Calculators: dance floor and tent sizes that fit your guest count and layout.
Who runs it
Event Cost Planner is an independent site run by Usama Iqbal. Usama builds free planning tools and checks every figure against its source before it goes on the site.
We are not a wedding vendor, a venue or a catering company, and we don't sell anything on this site. The calculators are free, they don't need an account, and they run in your browser.
Our editorial standards
- Sourced figures only. Every average, price or rule of thumb links to where it came from. If we can't source a number, we don't show one.
- Transparent math. Each tool explains how it works and shows a worked example. You can see and change every assumption.
- Plain English. We write for people planning their own events, not for industry insiders.
- Independent. Vendors can't pay to change our numbers or recommendations.
- Corrections. When we get something wrong, we fix it and update the page date.
You can read exactly how each calculator works, and every source we use, on our how we calculate page.
How the site is funded
The site may show advertising to cover its running costs. Ads are always clearly labeled and kept away from the calculator inputs, and they never affect our figures. See our privacy policy for details.
Get in touch
Questions, corrections or ideas for a new calculator are welcome. Contact us and we will get back to you.