Do you tip the venue?

Depends on the contract. Ours mention 18% service charge so no we will not be tipping anything else for them.

I'd check your contract but I think it might be nicer to give them a couple bottles of wine and a wonderful review.

Yes, I would tip the venue owners if it's not automatically added to your bill. Since they are helping you throughout the day, you can tip them similarly to a DOC or service captain which would be $100-150 each.

VC; your 'service charge' is not a tip. Generally, it's the charge to pay they staff their salary. If you're talking about a venue that includes food, waiters, etc, it's roughly what they would make as servers in a restaurant.

This is not that.

Ours has automatic 18% gratuity on top of all fees. We're not tipping over.

Tuning in for advice on this, too, but agree with PPs. Check the contract. Ours includes 20% gratuity plus lots of little charges, so I don't think an additional tip is right. I'd like to do something nice for the CC beyond a nice review, but don't really know what.

Often a "service charge" is NOT a gratuity. It is literally the wages for the staff. We had a 20% service charge but tipped each staff member $50 as well because the service charge was not a tip.

You need to be clear on this and not feel sheepish about asking exactly how that 18-20% is alloted and exactly what it covers. What of my giant pet peeves with venues is the use of the word 'grauity' to cover 'salary'. It's just bullshit covered in whipped cream. You think you tipped the staff; the staff did not get a tip.

And if they're good, they should.

@ Celia - Ah thank you. Our venue is a restaurant so I guess it would make sense. Actually all venues we looked at restaurant or regular venue had that added for some reason so we figured it was just "tips" for the staff.

Ours doesn't include gratuity, so we plan on giving the owners and servers something extra after with wedding. They have been so extremely helpful, even before we booked them.

Thank you all! I looked at the contract and did not see anything mentioned about gratuity. I'll definitely have to do something for them because they are so sweet and helpful and I know they're going to go above and beyond on my wedding day!