Service Charge & Tax Charge

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Every venue we toured had the 20% service charge plus tax and they were upfront about it from the beginning so I guess we didn't reconsider any of them for that reason because we expected it. Our venue doesn't charge any other fees (like room rental fees for example), we only pay for the food and alcohol, so the 20% covers the staff and admin costs. There were a few venues we toured that charged us up to $3000 room rental fee on top of everything else- now that I didn't like one bit.

Yes, it is included in all of the venues I have been to.

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Same - ours is technically PP price for the seated dinner, cocktail hour and 5 hour open bar package. The Service charge is the built in cost of the servers, chairs/tables/ anything else that is not an extra "charge"

There were no additional fees because its built into the one service charge which to us seemed reasonable .

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When you have no choice because literally every single venue for 200 miles adds a service charge? Yes, you have to be ok with it.

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So is your venue all inclusive with the catering, servers etc. as well?

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Interesting, I guess its different down here in Texas. Like I said some have it and others don't.

This is a standard thing. Every single one of the venues we looked at had a service fee and of course tax. A lot of them tax the service fee as well if it isn't considered a tip. Just life.

We are not paying either for our venue- it's $400 flat fee. Why should I pay a service charge to use the venue unless I am receiving service?

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I wouldn't call it all inclusive as we did have to find and book a Cake Baker/Photographer/DJ/Officiant/ETC. But they are a semi inclusive venue. We paid one flat PP rate for exclusive use of the venue for the entire day, on site ceremony, all chairs, tables, linens, cutlery provided, 5 hours of mid shelf open bar, a 3 course sit down dinner (negotiated from a 4 course dinner) full cocktail hour with plenty of food, and private use of both the bridal and grooms suite. The price PP was 105$ before the service charge and tax where added in.

Many of the venues we have looked at have a 20% or higher service charge. There are few venues that are able to accommodate our needs, so we have had to adjust our budget plan to account for the cost. It brings our venue budget down tremendously. It is disappointing. I hope you have better luck!

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You see but that makes sense for a service and tax charge, and the venues that I am looking at that have those charges are usually the ones with the exclusive catering, bars etc.

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Right all venues charge some kind of service charge to my knowledge. I haven;t seen one that did not. IT's not something you can avoid - any event space is going to ask you to pay a service charge and tax of course is unavoidable

Yep, every venue we looked at added both tax and service charge, and in our case, the service charge was not a gratuity, so we had to factor in more money on top of that.

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I agree! It's different for everyone but definitely don't think its standard

Yes we did

I don't have a service charge but I did have to pay sales tax... I was so surprised when I paid the venue deposit!! For whatever reason it just never occurred to me that I'd be charged tax on top of venue fee! It definitely adds up!

Everywhere we looked at had it.. whether they mentioned it right up front or after they knew we were considering.

Yeahh our service/tax/gratuity charge was over $4,000

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Heather- OMG!! I just don't think I could do it. Was it all inclusive though?

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My venue included all food for cocktail hour & dinner, wedding cake of our choice, 5-hour premium, full open bar + wine service at the tables, ceremony site with setup and breakdown of chairs, all serving staff, dinnerware & glasses, linens of my choice, chiavari chairs, printed menus and direction cards, a room in their inn for the wedding night, unrestricted use of the space for the entire wedding day, and a full-service wedding planner to guide us through the planning process and manage the event on the day of.

Most venues in this area are all-inclusive like that, so the service fee makes sense.