Wedding Dress Budget + Alterations Tracker

Ask a bride what her dress cost and she will quote the dress. The dress is not the bill. The bill is the dress, the veil, the shoes, the undergarments, the preservation — plus tax — plus three fittings nobody mentioned at the appointment. This tracker prices the whole look against ONE cap, and shows exactly where caps go to die.

The sample is the usual story, in numbers. The dress is $1,350 — $1,525.50 with tax at the EXAMPLE rate — comfortably under the $2,400 cap on its own. Add the accessories and the total with tax is $2,158.30: still under. Then the Alterations Timeline rolls in: fitting 1 ($120), fitting 2 ($210), fitting 3 ($95) — $425 of quiet, per-fitting bills. Grand total: $2,583.30. OVER THE CAP by $183.30, flagged in writing, with the sentence nobody says at the salon: it was the fittings that did it.

Each fitting carries its date and a live countdown to the wedding day (98 / 70 / 35 days in the sample), plus what has been paid and what is still to pay ($95). The tax line is an EXAMPLE setting — 13% Ontario HST as published for 2026 is pre-filled, and your province or state rate is yours to verify and replace; the sheet uses whatever rate you set.

What it does for you:
– Tracks the whole look — dress, veil, shoes, undergarments, hairpiece, preservation — pre-tax
– Applies YOUR sales-tax example rate (verify and replace) to a with-tax total
– Rolls the alterations total in from a dated three-fitting timeline
– Judges the grand total against ONE cap with an over-cap verdict and the amount
– Counts every fitting back from the wedding day and tracks fittings paid vs still to pay
– Adds a planning expense log, zero-based monthly budget, dashboard and 12-month summary

What’s inside (.xlsx, works in Excel AND Google Sheets):
– Start Here — setup steps, total cap, EXAMPLE sales-tax rate and wedding date settings
– Dress Budget — 6 look lines, tax amount, alterations roll-in, grand total and cap verdict
– Alterations Timeline — 3 fittings with dates, work, costs, paid status and days-before-wedding
– Expense Log, Monthly Budget, Dashboard, Monthly Summary

Instant download. Type only in the yellow cells — formula cells are locked (password: sheetdaily, disclosed on the Start Here tab so you can unlock if you ever need to). Sample dress is pre-filled so you can see exactly how it works; clear the yellow cells and type your own. Planning tool only — alterations quotes are per seamstress and per dress; get yours in writing at the first fitting.