Our venue is a family owned farm-to-table kitchen and events venue, so everything is owned by the same person, who is the head chef. We are having a small wedding (50 people) and plated meals.
Our bill includes separate line items for food and food service, and the contract states that gratuity is not included and there is typically one server per 10 guests. I've looked up all of the guidelines for tipping wedding vendors and am not really sure what is appropriate here.
Typically you don't tip the business owner, who happens to be the head chef here. Our wedding is small, so while I'm sure there will be a lead server, its not really like a maitre d'/head of house position coordinating dozens of servers. Both food cost and service costs are based off a per person calculation; the food cost is quite high (farm to table, local in season ingredients, sustainably produced, mostly organic) but the service fee is reasonable. Our venue fee is definitely on the higher end of what is available in the area (keep in mind, chef is owner of venue). Bartending is a separate contract with a separate company.
Do we tip a percentage based off the service fee only? Do we have to leave separate tips for separate roles, or do we just have an envelope with a cash tip for the servers and kitchen that they can split up however they see fit? Any guidance would be helpful. We don't want to short change anyone but we also don't want to be spending an extra thousand dollars on tips when a couple hundred is actually what is appropriate and called for.
