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As someone whom is new to the business, i haven't tipped any vendors.
Persoanlly they charge a fee and this is what you pay, that's it.In case of waiters and the dj's yes. The waiters becuase you where happy with the service and the dj if the partty extended later then what was planned.Eveyone else you just pay them their flat fee.If your happy and pleased with their services then you refer them to your friends.

It is typical to tip the officiant, the coordinator, the valet and the DJ or Band. Like you our cake came with our Hotel Package so we did not tip the Bakery. There were so many servers in our room and the hotel had added a 19% service charge for banquets so we felt that was enough. Although we did slip the 2 supervisors that ran the room a tip. The only vendors we did not tip was the Florist and the vendor that provided the chair and table covers. The photographer was gone so fast we never tipped them. After I saw their product I was glad. Check out a few other sites to see what is most common. Ultimately YOU will determine if the service provided is tip worthy. Good luck and have fun!

The quickest rul of thumb is not tip tip business owners (florists, coordinators, many djs, media,) unless they go above and beyond the call of duty. In may case, its usually not cash, but maybe a nice bottle of wine or a gift card.
Limo drivers 20% of bill
Catering & wait staff: 15-20% (double check that it isn't already part of your contracted amount - some time they have both a "service charge" but still expect a tip - they're the same thing according to my contact at a national caterers association)
Musicians: $20-25 pp
Officiant: $100 an up (they usually let you know)

Most vendors’ tips are referrals and a good feed back from you. Something as little as a Thank you card is placed at office doors and albums for other clients to see. This draws more customers to them and vendors are able to flaunt their businesses for a job well done.

As a photographer, I never expect a tip. Referrals are by far the best tip I could ever get!

My planner said not to tip. The tip is included in your catering bill ussually under a "service charge". We tipped our DJ because he was AMAZING and we also tipped our venue coordinator and day of wedding planner. But we didn't have to.

It depends on the vendor. Many caterers and venues include the gratutity in the final bill. As for officiants, dj's, photographer's, waiter's there are several things to take into account. For officiants, dj's, and photographer's, if they are business owner I would say no to tipping. If they are employee, then a tip would be appropriate if they did a good job. I know that hair stylist and servers usually expect a tip. As business owner I rarely get tips, but have occassionally received a gift card to a nice restaurant. The best tip you can give a vendor is referrals to friends & family getting married in the future!!

It depends how your contracts read. When I got married our caterer originally included the tip in the contract. I had them remove it from the contract price, and we tipped the day of both them and their staff what we felt was appropriate. The venue does not get tipped, but most all vendors should be tipped unless it is already included in their price. A wedding planner would be an exception and referals would be best suited for them.

I always appreciate a small tip from my clients... and I have found that the coolest people (my favorite clients) are the ones who actually think about that.

I don't think you need to tip a vendor if they did not impress you with their work.

If you loved your live musician vendors, you should provide some kind of tip. The tip should depend on the length of the total performance. For a ceremony only, perhaps $10-$20 for each musician. For longer performances, $40-$50 tips per musician are appreciated.
If you were not pleased with your musicians, you should tell them in a nice way what went wrong, not expect them to guess. My 2 cents worth as a string ensemble manager/vendor.