Tipping Maitre D

I hate to tell you this, but that it pretty standard. Is it right? Probably not. BUT a great maitre'd is key to your day. If you want to PM me, I'm happy to weigh in on the situation if it's a person I've worked with.

Be sure that the 22% is actually a gratuity. Many times caterers charge a "service fee" which is NOT a gratuity for the staff providing serving on your wedding day. The service fee, as I understand it, is for the planning and prepping - an administrative fee - and I can understand why it needs to be charged, a lot of work goes into the preparation for your event.

Lesson to be learned - if you think you are paying $50/person for dinner for full service, think again. Add in your "service fee", gratuity, tax, and maitre'd (although here in Cali, that person is likely called a "captain").

If the service fee is 20%, a gratuity is 20%, tax is 8%, you have to add almost 50% to the plate price (and that doesn't include a maitre'd fee).

If you do the math:

$50 per person

$10 service fee

$10 tip

$4 tax

______

$74 per person (not including alcohol, bar fees, bartender tip)

If you have 100 guests, that extra $24/person you didn't count on equals an extra $2400.

Personally, at my wedding, the captain specifically made sure we ate, kept our champagne glasses filled, and then packed up some leftovers and had them and a bottle of champagne delivered to our room (we got married at a hotel). My FIL took care of his tip.

At a recent conference for 225 people that I did the planning for, for three days, the Captain each day was the project manager and my liaison - we made sure that people with food allergies/preferences got what they needed, and they talked to the chef for me, They were available to me as I cued them on timing, turning on/off air conditioning, making sure coffee was hot and available and that other beverages were cold and available. They worked very hard for me and my attendees, all day long. I wish I had my camera and was able to take a picture of the food hot and stacked in the behind the scenes hallways. They had at least ten waitstaff to direct and supervise.

Celia-- even in addition to a gratuity (not service fee) already included in the contract?

I think the gratuity included for our catering staff was about 13%, and then we gave an additional $300 I think to be split between them (6 ppl total). When I asked our catering sales person about who I should give the extra tip to, she seemed pleasantly surprised and like maybe it wasn't super common. But if it is, now I feel like shit b/c $300 for 6 ppl doesn't seem like much :/

PS-- I'll also add that the maitre d' worked way harder during our reception than our DoC. Our DOC was great-- but she was primarily there for setting up decor (which was a massive job with all of our DIYs) and packing it up, and the maitre d was totally on top of the reception timeline, the food, our drinks, the cake, etc.