Venue gratuity

Btw, gratuity and service charges are different beasts. If you have a "service charge", that might not be gratuity, so make sure to check with the venue if your contract says it's a "service charge" and not "gratuity".

Also at least In CA service charge is taxable (joy...at 9% where my venue is) while a gratuity is not. My mostly inclusive venue has a 20% service charge (separate from gratuity).

Yes, it's normal mine is 22% and 6.5% sales tax

Just double check that it's gratuity. Our venue includes a 20% administration fee which is NOT gratuity. Gratuity is not added, that is at our discretion

It is standard but there have been occasions where the service fee charge was not distributed properly to the employees. Some states actually have case history from complaints from employees of catering halls and they are not actually allowed to charge it to the customer .. Some will call it by a different name, but a tip should be up to you (just like any restaurant)

Yes it is normal. I've seen from 18% to 22%.

It would be for the catering part of your venue. Not the venue itself.

Gratuity is a tip for the staff.

For all my estimates (caterer, beverages, cakes, etc) I asked prices including tax + gratuity.

One vendor quoted me without to be within our budget. Told her that that with tax + gratuity, it is $1800 over budget lol. Nice try.

Make sure it is gratuity and not a service charge. Gratuity covers your tip, so you are pre-tipping your wait staff. If it is a service charge, you still need to tip the service staff (20% of the service cost)

Like pps have said - check to see if it's a 'service charge' or gratuity. I've got a service charge and tax on mine before gratuity

20% Service Charge and 6% Tax. Also Per PA state law our service charge gets taxed too.

Mine is 7% tax and 22% admin fee. These are standard add-ons and ours are on the high end.

Our contract lists a "Service Charge" is that tip? I thought we would have to tip the staff on top of that?

My venue has decided to be difficult. They list a 20% gratuity charge and 7.5% tax; which I was fully aware of before we booked the venue. No problem. After reading some of these posts/questions on here, I asked about a month after booking if the 20% gratuity was a tip for the wait-staff. She said, "no." Then why the hell call it "gratuity" if it's actually a service charge? I'm bordering on playing dumb if it ever comes up again: "Oh? The contract lists it as "gratuity;" the definition of "gratuity" is a tip in gratitude for service. You should have called it a "service charge," then I would have gladly tipped on top of that/taken it into account when considering booking.

My venue and all my vendors charged 7% tax but not a gratuity charge. That is left up to us after the wedding is over. How much of a tip they get depends on how well they performed their services. We will have 20% tip for each vendor in cash in an envelope. Before we leave we give them to them and add or subtract from the money as we see fit. Living in Indiana is weird. If vendors automatically charged like that here they would not stay in business. People here are like nope not paying that up front because your service may not warrant it. I am from Columbus, Ohio and everywhere charges a gratuity from 15% to 30% depending on location and specialty. Things are done odd here. Like my barista he doesn't want a payment until he shows up at the location. We had to sign a contract and there was 2 different amounts on the invoice. One was for if we paid with cash or check and the other was for if we used a charge card. No gratuity added. The florist that cancelled was 50% of floral total down payment and a signed contract. That is what I consider normal LOL. Every location and vendor is different.

Yes ours is about 20%

Find out what it's for. Usually, what the venues call a gratuity is not a tip, per se, but the fee that covers the salary for the staff. I think it's sneaky personally, but you need to know what your paying for.

Service charge =/= gratuity about 99% of the time. If you look closely you'll probably see that you are being taxed on the service charge. If it were a gratuity then sales tax would not be assessed. Must like a resort fee, it is basically just a hidden charge. But to answer the OP's question, yes, it is standard. It's part of the price of your package. They break it down this way so they can appear more competitive pricing wise.

Yes, that is standard. Ours is 19%. However, our venue contact factored in taxes and gratuity in our quotes, so we knew the bottom line going into our decision.

Our is 20% plus 8.4% tax. However, be careful to check your contract, our vendor charged us gratuity on the site fee as well as charged us the plated dinner surcharge when we asked for buffet. I called immediately and got that taken out. Be sure you get an itemized quote and check the math!

You have to give gratuity to everyone to seems like - the venue, the officiant, the guy to glanced over at you a minute ago, the photographer. Everyone.

Ours included a "service charge," and it was pretty fuzzy about whether or how it got passed through, to the employees. We gave each of the servers $40 each and we had fabulous service. The dining room captain said we were the only couple he's known, to tip directly, and the staff was thrilled.

At my bridal shower venue they had a 15% service charge and 10% added for gratuity. In our state, they tax on the per person cost of food/beverage, plus both fees. Ugh!