A wedding to remember, without a loan to repay.Wedding planning calculator: what it may cost, and the SIP to plan it.

How to use the wedding planning calculator

1. Enter the years until the wedding and what it would cost if it were held today. Add up the big items: hall, food, clothes, jewellery, gifts and travel.
2. Enter the inflation you expect each year, and an expected return a year on your savings.
3. Add any savings already set aside for the wedding. Then see the cost then, and the monthly SIP or one-time amount needed.

How to read your result

Cost then is what the wedding may cost in the year it happens. Monthly SIP needed and one-time amount today are two ways to cover what your savings won’t. You need one of them, not both, or a mix of the two.

For example, a wedding that would cost ₹15 lakh today could cost about ₹27 lakh in 10 years, at 6% inflation. If ₹2 lakh already saved grows at an assumed 12% a year, it could be about ₹6.2 lakh by then. The rest needs a SIP of about ₹8,900 a month, or about ₹6.6 lakh invested today.

Ten years of steady saving can mean a celebration with no loan and no EMIs after it. Mutual fund returns are market-linked and not guaranteed, so review the plan every year, and move the money to steadier options as the date comes close. See how a SIP works on our mutual funds and SIP page.

How the wedding calculator works

First it grows today’s cost by inflation to find what the wedding may cost then. Next it grows your existing savings at the expected return and takes that away. Then it finds the monthly SIP, or the one-time amount today, for the rest. C is today’s cost, f is inflation, t is the years to the wedding, S is your savings, r is the expected return a year, i is r divided by 12 and n is the number of months.

Future cost = C × (1 + f)^t; Savings then = S × (1 + r)^t; Gap = Future cost − Savings then; Monthly SIP = Gap ÷ (({[1 + i]^n − 1} ÷ i) × (1 + i)); One-time amount = Gap ÷ (1 + r)^t