Etiquette of tipping vendors

You don't have to send thank you letters to your vendors. Pretty much anyone who is providing a service should be tipped; catering staff, bartenders, hair and/or makeup, photographer/videographer, DJ, cake drop off/set up, etc. Anyone who you would tip in normal everyday life should also be tipped for working your wedding.

View Quoted Comment Good to know! Also another question, how much did you tip?

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We tipped the majority of our vendors, like hair and makeup and the DJ, 20%. We tipped each member of the catering staff $75 since they were working our catering stations, not directly serving guests. We haven't tipped our photographer and videographer yet since we haven't received our photos or video, but we will tip them based off of the quality of their work.

I don't know if it's against etiquette, but we won't be tipping anyone who runs their own business and doesn't need to split the cost with anyone (ex. Our photographer, DJ and bagpiper). We will definitely write them great reviews and send them referrals whenever we can (weve already sent our DJ a referral and our wedding hasn't even happened yet).

We will be tipping the catering staff and hairstylist because they're a part of a larger organization and will not be getting the direct proceeds.

View Quoted Comment I appreciate your comment, but I dont understand why you're not tipping people that own a business. If anything they definitely need to be tipped, they pay for business license, taxes and pay their employees and cover the employee's taxes federally

I agree with Amber, that I will probably not be tipping those who own their own business. Yes, they pay for all their business needs- but they get to keep 100% of the profit they make. If the owner of the business is working your event they likely wont be paying employees to work it as well. And generally if you are getting the owner, you are supporting a small business. We chose to use mostly local, small businesses to support our community. Of all of our vendors I believe the only two with employees are the venue and catering- which we planned to tip.

In some cases, if gratuity has already been applied, do not feel the need to tip. This would most likely occur with vendors such as catering or bartending. It is easy to feel like you need to add a cash tip at the end of the service, even if you have already been charged a 18-25% gratuity on your contract. This is not necessary. Just make sure it is a gratuity charge and not a service charge.

Also, unless someone is extraordinary and went above and beyond, a 20% for physical services (hair, makeup, serving etc) is the industry standard. For delivery (say they deliver a $1500 order of flower) $20-50 a person will do versus a $300 tip for that, depending on how labor intensive. Additionally, just because it is your wedding does not mean you have to tip people who do a crappy job well. If a particular server is rude to your guest or lazy, a lower tip is acceptable. If you hairstylist is over an hour late, 15% is not insulting.

I worked banquets and private/catered events for both the Venetian and the Aria in Las Vegas for many years. This is the typical standard rules for tipping we used, so I believe it is a relatively reliable guideline.

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This is smart, to wait for videos and photos before tipping. Curious, how will you send the tips after? Along with a thank you note?

View Quoted Comment The people I hired don't have employees to pay. It's literally just them as the company. I don't see that being the same as any company that has employees. If they wanted to make more money, they could just charge more. I'm a photographer and artist on the side and I don't expect anyone to pay me more than the amount I ask for. I understand people may have differing opinions, but that's the way me and my fiance feel.