Tipping Caterer/ Waitstaff Question

Can you ask the coordinator how much most people have tipped in the past for your number of guests? Or at least to give you a breakdown of how much the food itself is costing?

Our was like that too where there’s a lot of things put into one lump sum. The coordinator told us as an example that a couple recently had a 60 person rehearsal dinner and tipped $500. We’re having about 100 people for our reception so I’m thinking we’ll just leave a 1k tip (give or take, depending on how many guests we end up with)

Your idea of tipping each server a set amount is perfect. I worked for a caterer part time while in school and while my employer was honest and passed the tips to the servers, I've heard horror stories of other companies not being so fair. Some keep all the money, some only give maybe $10 to the servers and keep the rest. I would try to find out how many servers and then put the decided amount of money ($25 would be fine) in separate envelopes for each server. $25 might not seem like a huge amount, but if the servers are working five hours, that's an additional $5/hr they are making. Nothing to sneeze at.

Definitely ask the coordinator - unfortunately, the venue I worked at the staff was never tipped by the couples (at least not that we know of), on rare occasions we got a $20 each which was definitely appreciated, especially since the shift pay is most often less than minimum wage ($75 for a 12 hour shift).

I’ve read that it’s perfectly acceptable to tip them individually.

Oh also ask your coordinator about tipping them individually and where exactly the tip money goes if you just add it to the bill.

My brother is a waiter at an event venue and if the hosts just add the tip to the bill, the waiters don’t see a penny of it. However, you are allowed to tip the waiters directly. But most people who have events there don’t realize that the tip money doesn’t go to the waiters unless they give it to them directly!

Thank you for the advice everyone!

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This should be looked at depending on area as well. I've done catering before too and a $25 tip for 5 hours where I'm from would be super tiny. I never planned for tips, but I only once never got one and it was always at least $75 but usually $100+ for 9 hour shifts. (Remember, if the wedding is 5 hours, the staff is there probably at least additional 3 hours before and 1 hour after doing set up/break down) Also in a lot of areas caterers worked at a tipped waiter salary so if I got only a $25 tip, I wouldn't have even been at minimum wage.

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I agree with this. $25 seems low to me. Ask your venue what the F&B costs are for tipping purposes. I'm sure they can also give you recommendations on tip amounts and based on the service, you can make it more or less, but at least you'll have a ballpark amount. I'm sure they get asked this all the time. I would assume the food and bevereage cost is at least $100 p/person? Even if it's $50 p/p, that would be $2500. 20% is $500. If you have 10 servers, that would be $50 each. I wouldn't think for 50 people there would even be 10 servers. Remember to tip the bartender as well.

I would NOT ask the coordinator, she has a conflict of interest. I would go with 25 to 50 per server, depending on how fancy the place, etc.