Engagement to ceremony is usually 12-18 months of irregular deposits, vendor payments, and last-minute additions — Cash Compass keeps every line item visible.
Apple-native · No bank logins · iCloud sync
Venue, catering, photography, attire, rings, honeymoon — each lives as its own category so you can see what's been paid, what's owed, and what's still unbooked. Voice entry handles the $400 deposits and $30 cake-tasting checks without breaking your flow. The chart shows month-over-month vendor-by-vendor instead of a single intimidating total.
If you and your partner are splitting costs from separate accounts, Apple Family Sharing on the $29.99/year plan lets both of you log to the same shared categories from your own iPhones. No bank credentials shared, no joint card required. The category roll-up shows who paid what when the in-laws ask.
The final 30 days before a wedding are when small costs explode — alterations, day-of tips, transport, gifts for the wedding party. Receipt scanning turns each into a 5-second log instead of a shoebox you'll deal with later. After the wedding the same categories collapse into a single line in your annual chart, so the budget stays clean for the year ahead.
Voice, photo of a receipt, or 3-tap manual entry — every method takes under 5 seconds.
Cash Compass picks the category automatically. Override once and it learns your pattern.
Weekly chart shows where money went. Adjust caps before the month is over, not after.
The Knot's 2024 Real Weddings Study put the US average at roughly $33,000 — but the average hides a wide range. Median is closer to $20,000, and the cost varies sharply by region (NYC and California average over $50,000; rural Midwest can come in under $15,000). The honest answer is: decide your number first, then design the wedding to fit. Most couples spend roughly 40-50% on venue and catering combined, 10-12% on photography, 8-10% on attire, and the rest spread across flowers, music, stationery, and the rehearsal dinner. Add a 10% contingency for the things you'll forget — gratuities, marriage license, alterations, last-minute hotel rooms. The single biggest predictor of overspending is starting before you've set the cap.
The day you set a date. Most couples sign their venue contract first, and that single deposit usually defines 35-50% of the total budget — so it's the right anchor point. Create your wedding categories before the deposit clears, log the deposit, and you've already started the sinking-fund habit. From there, vendor deposits land in 3-6 month clusters (photographer at 9 months out, florist at 4 months, alterations at 2 months), so the budget needs to last roughly 12-18 months of intermittent large payments. The longer you're tracking, the more accurately the chart predicts where the final $5,000-$10,000 will go — usually in the last 60 days.
The five categories that consistently blow budgets: gratuities (figure $1,500-$3,000 for vendors and service staff), alterations ($200-$800 per dress, $100-$300 per suit), hair and makeup trials plus day-of services ($400-$1,200), the marriage license plus officiant fee ($300-$700 combined), and post-wedding costs like thank-you cards, photo prints, and dress preservation ($300-$800). Add transportation if you're not local — guest transport, getaway car, day-of shuttle. None of these show up in the headline venue-catering-photo trio, but together they often add up to 8-12% of the total. Create line items for each at the start so they don't surprise you in month 11.
Treat the honeymoon as a separate sinking fund, not part of the wedding total. Most couples spend $4,000-$8,000 domestically and $6,000-$15,000 internationally — and it's usually paid for in a different rhythm (flights 6-9 months out, hotel deposits 3-6 months out, the actual trip immediately after). Beyond the honeymoon, two budget shifts matter: combining or coordinating finances if you haven't already, and rebuilding savings. Most couples drain their cash buffer for the wedding and need 6-12 months to refill the emergency fund. Use Cash Compass to set a monthly transfer back into savings starting the month after the wedding.
Built native for iPhone, iPad, and Mac with iCloud sync. Works offline.
No bank logins, no Plaid, no data sales. All data lives in your iCloud.
Manual entry, charts, category tracking — all free, forever. Premium is optional.
Free to start, voice input for vendor deposits, and category charts that show what's spent and what's still open.
Download Cash Compass on the App Store