Tipping Vendors - What's appropriate?

You're supposed to tip everyone after you check to make sure gratuity is not included in your contract.

Not sure about the people you're not actually hiring.

Anyone who owns their own business and has no overhead or people to pay out aren't usually tipped. Although we will be giving them a gift of some sort. The rest are usually tipped 15-20%.

People on WW are a little split on who you tip. Some say you tip anyone that doesn't own their own business, while others say it's anyone who goes above and beyond. I plan to tip based on them going above and beyond, so basically planning on tipping most of our vendors. Double check that your catering is a tip and not a service fee. They are two different things. You should give a small gift or gift card to anyone volunteering at the church.

Yeah anyone that owns their own business I am not tipping! They charge enough!

I tipped my musicians and my caterer. I didn't tip my photographer and I feel bad about it.

I also subscribe to the 'above and beyond' theory of tipping....

The owning their own business thing doesn't really fly.....very often the business owner pays everyone else before they will pay themselves. (And very often, they don't charge enough, no matter what you think.....) And we all have overhead. Like paying for WW.....

Check with your caterer; a 'service charge' or 'gratuity' doesn't alway mean that the people get tipped. It's a sneaky way of hiding a salary. If they are not getting a tip, a percentage doesn't really work. Think 20-40.00 per server. Find out exactly what happens with bartenders; if they are allowed to put tip cups out or accept tips, then personally, I wouldn't tip them again.

Anyone who is a vounteer should get tipped if they make your day easier.

I don't honestly get tipping a photographer or a DJ...it's like tipping your dentist....

Delivery people (florist/cake/decor) should get a small tip.

My question is how do you define above and beyond then? If you hire a vendor, you're paying for a certain level of service and paying for that (talking planners, photographers, djs etc). In that case above and beyond would mean doing something more than what I paid you for. I'm not hiring you and paying all this money expecting average service....I'm hiring you because I think you'll do a great job. So in other words if I hire a day of coordinator to do everything she said she would do in the contract, then she would have to do something that wasn't in the contract for that to be "above and beyond". I think business owners account for all their overhead, etc in their fees. No one goes into a business to do favors and charge less than would make them a profit except for people starting out who will quickly realize this and increase their rates. But I agree with tipping servers, church volunteers, deliveries etc. Also, that said, if you hire say a student photographer and pay them pennies compared to what a pro photographer makes but they deliver pro quality pics then I would give them more. I think every situation is different.