Vendor Meals

If you have a photo booth attendant, you may want to consider him/her as well.

If you have a videographer def. include them. Maybe include a day of coordinator if you have one just in case? Other than those, I think you're good! Florists and hair and MUA typically leave after they're done with their services, so you're fine to not include them.

Bartenders?

View Quoted Comment Thank you. Good point. I’m renting my photobooth from my planners company so it’s going to be the same person

View Quoted Comment So that’s a good point. I’m not sure how to approach this, My catering company is also providing servers and bartenders. Do you typically include personnel from the catering company in the vendor meal? It was not stated in their contract and I’m not sure what the proper guidelines are in this scenario.

I've seen some vendor contracts that request a hot meal. I guess they've been fed donuts in the past. I, myself, have servers and bartenders from our venue but no meals are requested for them. My package includes tip though.

We provided meals to photographer, day of coordinator, and our two dj's/musicians. We were fully prepared to get meals for the venue staff (venue coordinator, bartenders, etc) but we were told that they often are taken care of by the caterers and to not worry about ordering specific meals for them. So, I would just reach out and check with everyone. I wanted to err on the side of making sure everyone was fed and it all worked out.

View Quoted Comment That’s another good point that I wanted to discuss. Does tip come up for you as service charge in the contract. My caterer is adding a service charge but I wasn’t sure whether I should tip the servers. Bartenders for sure! And I know they will have a tip jar at the bar.

View Quoted Comment Thank you. Yeah I was going to reach out to the caterer to see whether the server and bartender meals are already included. If so, will just need to add day of coordinator and the DJ

Our photographers have a clause like this build in to their contract. I’d probably say you’d need to provide for:
Photographers/videographer
Planner/assistantDJ/MCMaybe bartender?
Pretty much people who will be with you for an extended period of time but I wouldn’t count wait staff/servers in to that.

Any vendor you have hired for the wedding will usually have in their contract that you need to feed them a hot substantial meal the same as your guests (without the alcohol) and fed in the same room as guests. Except the florist and baker who are just dropping off their products. It’s because your vendors will be working 5-10 hours with no breaks and no way to discreetly slip out to drive to McDonalds.

View Quoted Comment We had to provide vendor meals for the servers/bartenders at my daughter's wedding. In the end, we provided 12 vendor meals. Between that and tips it adds up to another $2,000 or so that brides don't realize they need to budget for.

My general rule of thumb is that any vendor working your reception should be fed, other than your waitstaff and caterers since they will generally take care of that themselves since they're involved in the food side of things.

View Quoted Comment Yes, I have budgeted for vendor meals and tips thanks to this community and this forum

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This 100%.

We ended up feeding our DJ, bartender, and three photographers. Originally we expected to have just a main shooter and second shooter, but our photographer mentioned that she was going to bring an assistant when we had our consult with her the week of our wedding, so we made sure to tack on an extra meal so that she got fed.

Our officiant was a friend and wedding guest, so he was counted in the guest meals instead of vendor meals. Others you would typically include are musicians, coordinators, and any other entertainers. It is not necessary to include any of the food service staff. If your bartending service is part of your catering contract, you should clarify if they need to be fed or not. If you are using a separate bartending service, then usually a vendor meal should be provided.

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You usually either tip the bartender or they put out a tip jar, not both.

If you are doing an open bar, I would ask them not to have a tip jar and provide gratuity yourself. If you are doing a cash bar, then a tip jar makes sense, as the cost for everything is deferred to the guests. IMO its not appropriate for your guests to tip if you are already paying gratuity. Our bartending service basically said it was one or the other. If your bartending service insists of having a tip jar, then I would not tip the bartenders additional on top of that.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for this. The bartenders are a part of the catering contract but I will double check with them to make sure.

I say any vendors that will be at the wedding most of the night should get food. Like we are adding the dj, photographer, servers, bartender, and officiant in to our food cost. But the people who are just drop off the food we aren't counting.

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Typically, no. If bartenders are part of the venue, typically they are not fed. If they are part of the catering team, typically the caterer will feed them anyway.

View Quoted Comment Confirm with the caterer to be sure