Tipping Wedding Vendors

JeanLouiseFinch · ‎10-03-2011

Our daughter's wedding is this weekend. A venue was rented and we have contracted separately with our floral designer, DJ, caterer, baker, and photographer. The venue hires the bartender. I'm seeing different recommendations online. Who gets tipped and who doesn't ?

spumoni99 · ‎02-16-2019

I would think the guests would tip the bartender, especially if it is a host bar. Maybe the DJ but the others I am assuming are charging what they expect to get paid and no tip is necessary but I may be wrong? I went to a wedding last fall and the bar was a host bar but we tipped the bartenders and I saw other guests tipping them also.

nikkisaunt1 · ‎05-11-2011

The bartender does not need to get tipped. Guests can tip him if he goes above and beyond for them. The wedding couple can tip him if they feel he did something extra special. At my nephew's wedding they tipped the bartender because he entertained while making several drinks.

The florist does not need a tip. Usually you will pay and they will drop off and no tip is needed. If you love the flowers leave a nice review on Google or Yelp.

The photographer does not need a tip. If he does a good job, you may purchase more photos. But the best photographer will be one that will get great photos and hardly be noticed.

now who should you tip? The DJ most definitely. Usually the maitre d or venue hosts who ensure you have a great party.

you should not need to tip the caterer or baker themselves unless they are also acting as hosts of the venue. Their services are part of the package bought.

Been to many many weddings and these have generally been the recommendations -- at least for weddings here on the East Coast

haddon9 · ‎03-09-2010

@JeanLouiseFinch I just went through this in May. My daughter got married and the venue was at a wildflower preserve so we had to bring in almost everything!....we had over a dozen vendors (never again!!).

Bottom line....we tipped all service people and even some who were the owners of their own businesses. We had a wedding planner who I gave a nice tip to. I did not give a tip to the florist (who had her own business) but I did give one to her assistant. Same with the photographer.

We gave a tip to the DJ, food service people (we had four vendors for that including cocktail hour & dessert), we tipped a wait service that we hired separately to serve & clean up. They also manned the bar and we gave them a tip. I don't believe that guests should be tipping or purchasing their drinks.

We didn't tip the vendors that provided the rentals (tent, dance floor, tables, chairs, linens) since we just weren't there when it was all being set up. The only vendor that included a tip in their pricing was the transportation service.

After all of the planning, I had forgotten about providing for tips just a few weeks before. Once I realized and even gave it a thought I was really frustrated trying to figure out what was the right thing to do!

Our wedding planner was the one who handed out the tip envelopes since I wanted to enjoy the reception and didn't want DH who has a lot of health problems to deal with it. It all turned out very well and we all had a wonderful time.

The day goes by in a flash! Make sure you write down what is important to you so it happens. For example, the photographer never took any mother/daughter pictures which I only realized several days after the event. I was disappointed by that though she did take amazing photos of the happy couple.

I wish you the best for your daughter's wedding and the happy couple!

Janey2 · ‎06-07-2010

Everyone gets a tip I never attended any type of affair where guests tipped the bartender. Never heard of that.

JeanLouiseFinch · ‎10-03-2011

@Janey2 wrote:
Everyone gets a tip I never attended any type of affair where guests tipped the bartender. Never heard of that.

@Janey2 Bartenders will usually set out a glass and people will put a couple of bucks in. Our venue is only licensed for beer, wine, and hard seltzers - no mixed drinks. Ther will also be pop and bottled water. The groom's father is covering all the beverages. Hopefully he'll remember a tip.

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

Guests can and usually do tip the bartender but the HOSTS should still tip the bartenders, $100 per bartender is recommended. The gratuity for the waitstaff is usually included in the facility or catering bill. It was 20% for my daughter's wedding. If it's not included, you add a 15 to 20% gratuity to the bill. Hubby tipped the photographer $100 but later we found out it's common to tip 15 to 20% of the bill. My daughter and her husband paid the photographer so I don't know if they tipped or not. They also paid the dj themselves but the groom's father tipped the dj duo $100 each. In planning the wedding budget, the wedding planner told us to budget in 20% for all the tipping. We were very happy when her sister opted for a beautiful but casual wedding in the garden of her home. She had asked for her wedding money for the down payment on her house.

Sooner · ‎03-10-2010

I don't have wedding experience, but I did contract a lot of meeting locations and meal and transportation services. If it were me, a tip where needed would be included in the contract. That's what I always did.

shoekitty · ‎03-10-2010

Your wedding planner should be able to give you a suggested price. I know gratuities ran me,for my granddaughters wedding in the ballpark of 7,000. Whew. It was shocking at first. I hadn't really put much thought into until month before wedding. Wedding planner gave me suggested idea. Then I had to guess as what to tip her as of course, she didn't suggest hers, lol. There was the caterers, bartender, DJ, videographer, photographer, florist, cake people, and a few others. The biggies were the caterers, flower people, they set up and stayed, moved flowers from alter and to reception room Big job. Flowers were a huge cost. Then there were a few photo people. The list went on. Besides getting the money at bank in right denominations there were the envelopes to put money in. I wrote note in each. I purchased gift envelopes from Amazon. I still have a bunch! The wedding workers really deserve it. It is a cost that needs to be put into wedding from beginning. But I didn't. Wedding planner mentioned in it costs...but flew by me because I was still in shock from cost of dinner, lol

oh, and the hairdressers too. Good luck. It is a job, but so worth it. We still talk about my granddaughters wedding. We concentrated on guests having a good time and boy they did and appreciated it. But they came from all over, had hotels and took days of their time. We loved it

shoekitty · ‎03-10-2010

Regarding the bartender. It depends . We had open bar with limit. There was no tip jar. We tipped him. I took the bill and. Gave 20%. We had a venue in Malibu mountains that we hired out. We hired a wedding planner who managed everything. The bartenders were hired by the venue. I don't think guests left tips. But, the bartenders said it was the best wedding they catered in 2 years, lol. It was fun. But if you have a wedding with a bar on site that serves the public or club members , that is a different matter. However, I would probably give a small gift to them if they got tips from guests. As most people at weddings don't tip much. I would absolutely talk to wedding venue and ask them about tipping or your wedding planner if you have one.

@JeanLouiseFinch have the best wedding ever. It is stressful. But once the wedding march starts it is fun from then on. Best wishes to your daughter. Have a lovely, wonderful,wedding