Tipping the Caterer

I wouldnt give an extra tip since labor is included in the cost. we are having a buffet also and i wasnt planning on giving an extra tip.

Interesting. See, I'm trying to remember what people did when I used to *be* the labor lol. I know we got gratuity as part of our paycheck, but I also know that was a waitress at a country club, not at a catering business. Thanks for the input though...that makes me feel a little better about considering not adding anything else. :-)

Good question. I would think that the labor is what they the servers are paid for their 10 hours. Then they expect a tip on top of it. I know it all adds up to a lot, but if you are unsure I would ask your point of contact at the caterer. My numbers are just above yours for catering only and I am sure they are expecting a tip. The general rule that I have heard, is you tip if they don't own the business. Keep in mind that the caterer might be keeping some of the labor costs for themselves. I don't agree with that, since most have a service charge tacked on, but it seems to be normal in San Diego.

Yeah, see I was thinking that too...I don't really want to tip the owner (frankly, she's been at best flaky and the only good thing I have to say about her so far is that the food is good...it'd better be lol) but I don't want to screw the staff either. So do you tip on the total bill or give a portion of the labor costs or what?

We were in a similar situation (except that we did have servers and a bartender) and similarly confused. After reading all I could find, we decided to tip 20% of the total bill, but we split this amount up proportionally among the two servers, chef and bartender (our invoice broke down what each member of the staff cost). Since you're doing a buffet, perhaps you could go down to 10%? Your owner sounds flaky, so whatever you do, give it to each worker each person.

Huh. I hadn't thought to give it to each server individually. How did you manage that? I don't have a coordinator or anything, so I would have to have someone hand them each an envelope I guess.

Well, we only had 4 people to give it to, and they were all accessible during the reception. We put cash in 4 labeled envelopes and gave them to my MOH, who was responsible for handing out all the payments throughout the night. If the workers are just setting yours up and leaving it might be difficult to catch them, but if the money has to go through an unreliable owner the workers might not ever see it.

The workers will be there all night (they should anyway), so I should be able to catch them. Thanks for the advice! :-) And congrats on the recent nuptials!