Do I still need to tip the Caterer?

How many events do you think these people get to do a week? Is your reception 3.5 hours? Will they be doing set up and clean up before and after? I have a huge guest list and a lot of staff coming to work. My caterer says they will be there to set up 3 hours ahead and about an hour and a half after for clean up, not including the tent which comes down the following week. I will be tipping them.

Yes, mine is included in the contract.

Our caterer unexpectedly suggested we have a tip jar at the bar. I'm guessing they probably earn more that way. But we will put a substantial amount of $1s in the jar to start it off so people understand it is the thing to do. The bartender is paid only $15 an hour, nothing goes to the caterer for their service.

As for the other servers and caterer herself...ugh. So hard for me to tip when it seems they are making so much already. But we will and percent will be based on service. Just like in a restaurant.

Also not thrilled about the idea of tipping the officiant - sorry, Rev. Fuller. It just seems that what they really want to make for their time and travel would be included in the price. We are not having a minister or reverend who ask for a nominal fee. This is an officiant who is charging a substantial amount. And the ceremony is a max of 20 min. Having said that, in lieu of being called rude, we will add more then required in the thank you card. But not much.

Rev Fuller, you might have missed where my wedding is going to be but it's in Dayton Ohio, which isn't really a super fancy place and this isn't the fanciest place so when I hear what the caterer quoted as their hourly rate I felt that very fair for the local area.

As for the setup and amount of time, the caterer was the one who said what he thought was needed, and because the reception is in the churches hall where they have a full blown commercial kitchen, so they are excited to use all the church facilities for staging and prep.

If this were at a really fancy place, maybe, but it's just a medium sized caterer where I already see I'm paying a healthy salary to their employees for the time they are quoted to be there. What are other people's experiences when they know what they are paying hourly to the staff?

I'm a bartender for a caterer. I can tell you I earn 10.00 an hour from setup to take down. The servers earn less than that. We normally only work weekends. Our servers get a tip of 30.00 each night covered by the gratuity portion. In the contract. It's included in the total price. Bartenders however use a tip jar. Some nights I make 250 in tips but honestly I've made as little as 6.00. It depends on the crowd and what's being served. Now we are having our wedding catered by someone else and they do not tip the servers from the gratuity portion so we are tipping them each 25.00. I am only tipping the bartenders if I think they didn't make enough ( I will notice lol ) I have worked for other company's that paid me 25.00 an hour so it's not unheard of.

@Fuller While I appreciate your point of view, I think you are misunderstanding my position and if you aren't going to contribute in what I would say is a condescending manner I would appreciate you don't contribute at all. In re: your sutation, yes, I tip wait staff and bartenders at restaurants, and your implication that I don't is somewhat insulting, but those are two terribly different situations. At TGI Fridays the staff might only be making 2.13/hour, and after gratuity they make between 10-20/hour. My situation is I'm paying someone 20/hour to do a job, actually I'm paying 5 people 20/hour to do a job, and 1 person 25/hour to bar tend. If they manage to rock my socks off, sure I want to give them a bonus, but to imply that I'm just trying to find an excuse not to is again insulting.

I have to appreciate all these comments because they made me go out and do the research on service employee compensation and I found that the wage I will be paying is appropriate.

Our waitstaff and bartending staff cost about the same, $20/hr and $30/hr on top of our catering bill. And we did tip the wait/bar staff at the end of the night. We didn't give them a specific percentage of our $4500 catering bill (w/o alcohol) but gave them $50 each.

We did not tip the owner of the catering company (who was there working that night) as she should be factoring her own payment and profit into her catering costs, but the waitstaff she hired so they (like restaurant waiters) are only making their hourly wage (tacked onto our catering cost), not profiting from the thousand dollar catering bill.

From my forum experience, it's customary to tip the wait/bar staff who serve your wedding. I think by the end of our event we tipped different vendors nearly $900. Several hundred of that was basic gratuity, some of it was for going above and beyond.

Waitstaff around the country make between 15-30.00 per hour in a not tip dependent situation. They will probably spend more than 3.5 hours there, since there is setup and clean up involved too.

I don't think the caterer is padding the numbers, and frankly, it's a bit condescending of you to assume that, but if you think that is the case, then you need to have a discussion with him. You should know exactly what they are getting vs what you are paying. A reputable caterer will have no problem telling you because they have nothing to hide.

If I had my way, I would never allow a tip cup on the bar. It's tacky. People will still tip the bartenders (who, by the way, don't work any harder than any other staff person), but they should be discreet about it.

In any case, a service charge is not a tip; it's the salary for those workers. If they are great; tip them, but make no mistake about that.

And tipping the officiant? Well, if it's dictated to you, it's no longer a tip; its a fee.

Yes you should still tip them.

I doubt that even if you're paying $20/hr for the staff, that they actually see all that money. For all you know, they might still only be getting $5/hr or something, and the vendor pockets the rest.

Unless you can verify with the owner that the wait staff see the entire $20/hr, I would tip them.

As for me - we are being billed a service fee that includes tips. If the servers are friendly and helpful, we'll probably still tip them above that.

To clarify some points, I believe he is padding the numbers because we got a first quote from one of the caterers who said he would be doing it for only 3 servers. Then we made some changes to the menu and the owner gave us an updated quote (with the same numbers) and added 3 servers. Having been a very diverse person, before joining the military I used to work at a golf course helping with the caterers. It was for family so I didn't get paid but I got to see most of those numbers and I could put together a manning list if I needed to. Since we are doing buffet style serving with only two meal choices and two sides (I forgot they added another server to do carving after the quote was done) I thought 6 servers was excessive. But I went with it because that's what we had to do since we were locked in from the first meal choice.

So yes I have some background in this field and generally know my way around personnel.

Also the owner said something to the effect that staff sees their full amount. I believe the phrase he used was "and we pay each server 20/hour and the bartenders 25/hour."

I will double check though just to make sure.

I think as it stands I like the idea of planning a set amount depending on the level of service obtained, but I appreciate any additional constructive feedback.

I'm a wedding planner and our rule of thumb is if the vendor is getting all of the money you pay them (for example the bartender is taking home the $25/hour and the caterer isn't taking a cut) you don't have to tip unless they do exceptional, like you said. If the caterer is having you pay $25/hour, but is taking a cut and only paying the bartender $15/hour I would tip him. Hope that helps.

If he is padding the numbers you need to deal/negotiate with him not with the staff he is hiring.

If there is not a % gratuity added on I would say you should tip. And if there is and those people did a great job - then I would tip - the better they did the more I would tip.

I have been on both sides of this as a caterer and as a bartender/server. The prices you are being charged are not the prices they are getting. I used to bust my butt to give excellence service whether or not I got a tip - and when I did I was very grateful.

The bottom line is no one can tell you what is going on except your specific caterer. There are many, many ways of compensating staff.

Personal I would still tip if you aren't paying the money straight to the staff there is never a guarantee of how much they are making. But I worked both front and back at a restaurant so I tent to make sure I tip so the can kitchen staff will get a percentage of that as well. If its not in the contract as an additional fee already then we will be adding it.