Bartender etiquette???

Well if their doing both the cocktail and reception, 40 bucks each at the end of the night sounds reasonable to me.

Hmmmm, I have no idea how much you should tip. It's only for an hour but bartenders tend to get very decent tips. I would say $20 but that is only a guess. Could you ask them what they normally get tipped?

Maybe others have a better idea.

If you really want to know the going rate, why not ask the restaurant manager what he suggests? He'll give you an honest and fair estimate.

If you won't allow them to have a tip jar, then be very generous. I know bartenders that make $75-100/hr in tips. In a bar- it's about $1 per drink. Restaurants are a bit less. I wouldn't tip them less than $50-100 each.

I hate tip jars. And frankly, I never understood that concept; in a bar they're going to make less than minimum wage; you're already paying them 25 bucks an hour. I'd say 20-30. each.

How many guests do you have? I would tip at least a buck for each guest. So if you have 50 guets, I would tip them each 50 dollars. (And yes, that's only for the cocktail hour)

That's the first thing I requested from my venue...tip jars were a deal breaker b/c I dislike them so much. They are already getting a 20% gratuity on everything first of all. It really depends on how well they do. I've done bartending....sorry but I think $75 is a little much for a private event each hour. I'll probably give them $200 at the end of the night if they do well.

Professional bartenders and servers -- by professional, I mean, a bartender who knows how to make requested drinks, not a college kid who hasn't been to bartending school working a one-time job -- usually get tipped on the value of the drinks (and/or food) they serve, not their hourly rate. Not saying you need to go astronomical or tip the bartenders on an hour's worth of drinks for however many guests, but if it were me, I'd ask the hotel manager what is customary, and go from there.

I'd say about one to two bucks per adult guest. You are paying them fairly already, but like previous posters said, they usually make about a dollar a drink in tips so if you won't allow a tip jar then make sure you're not under-tipping.

I think $2/guest would average out to a dollar a drink for a cocktail hour.

OH and that's to split between the two... so if you have 100 guests, tip $200 for them to split. That's what I would do anyway

I work at a venue and I bartend most of the time. I personally would not expect a tip if gratuity is included. As a matter of fact, they are making alot more than most bartenders make. If that was my hourly pay on an event, I wouldn't expect tips at all. However, I would be very thankful to get tipped.

They may wonder what they should do if one of your guests asked if they are allowed to take tips. What woudl you want them to say?

Gratuity is included in their fee fr the reception you mentioned, does that actually go to them? If so, then I'd tip them 20/each for the cocktail hour and nothing for the reception.

Good point LLDW, FH and I have discussed this.....I want them to say to the guests that the tipping has been taken care of. If the guest insists, than they should not argue and take it.....I mean, what can the bartender really do at that point?

I'd say probably at least $1 per guest split between the two of them. We don't mind if they have tip jars out, though, so that's not something I've researched.

Oh, and see if any of the gratuity included goes to them - if it does, then anything you do would be above and beyond if they do a super fantastic job. And then even $20 would be nice.

Thank you all for your opinions. FH and I will definitely talk to the restaurant coordinator and see what she suggests. I think we will probably tip $25 or so for the cocktail hour, because they will also be tipped a certain percentage of the entire reception's bill (which, sadly, will not be a low number). I just wanted to see how others would approach this scenario. If our guests try to tip them I will ask that they decline, but if a guests insists then they should just accept it. Thanks again!

You have to be really careful when "gratuity" is added to your reception bill. A lot of times the bartenders and waiters don't even get to see that $$. I would make sure you ask

I asked her and she said bartender gratuity is included in our total bill (I'm talking about the reception, not the cocktail hour). I phrased it to basically ask if they need to be tipped separately. I appreciate the different viewpoints and different scenarios to watch out for!