Bartender tips?

Denise40

We are not having tip jars out at the reception. It's in my contract that we would tip that night. What is the average tipping % for bartenders at a wedding? I want to Mae sure they get what they deserve.

southernbelle0915

I'm assuming your contract doesn't have a number? If so, for average service that meets expectations, I'd tip 15%. If they do a great job and exceed your expectations, you can go as high as you want depending on how pleased you are.

Denise40

southernbelle0915 said:

I'm assuming your contract doesn't have a number? If so, for average service that meets expectations, I'd tip 15%. If they do a great job and exceed your expectations, you can go as high as you want depending on how pleased you are.

No there's nothing in the contract about how much to tip. They wanted tip jars out and told them absolutely not. The bartenders are included in my venue package.

lyndausvi

15-18% of the alcohol bill.

Denise40

lyndausvi said:

15-18% of the alcohol bill.

So what it cost us to buy the alcohol, use that amount for to calculate the tip? That would work! Thank you so much.

lyndausvi

are you providing the alcohol yourself?

Denise40

lyndausvi said:

are you providing the alcohol yourself?

Yes we are.

Denise40

lyndausvi said:

are you providing the alcohol yourself?

Yes we are.

photokitty

Denise40 said:

lyndausvi said:

are you providing the alcohol yourself?

Yes we are.



I don't think 15-18 is enough when you buy the alcohol at state minimum pricing. Is there an hourly rate for the bartenders? Did you hire separate or are they provided by the venue? How many guests? How long it's the reception?

Denise40

photokitty said:

lyndausvi said:

are you providing the alcohol yourself?

Yes we are.

I don't think 15-18 is enough when you buy the alcohol at state minimum pricing. Is there an hourly rate for the bartenders? Did you hire separate or are they provided by the venue? How many guests? How long it's the reception?

It's included in my venue package. 6 hours including cocktail hour and we are providing the alcohol.

kvruns

We did 25%, we provided the alcohol and the bartender was there for 3-4 hours (I forget which) serving bottled beer, canned drinks/bottled water, and pouring wine. The bartender was an independent person that the venue recommended 

Cookie Pusher

Our bartender was $250 for 5 hours. We ended up giving him $75, plus I'm pretty sure both DH and I ended up drunkenly tipping him 20 bucks or so during the reception (along with a few guests even though there was no tip jar - it's just what our crowd does), and we let him take home some of the alcohol that was left. He seemed most excited about the alcohol since we did bring in some unique stuff.

lyndausvi

photokitty said:

lyndausvi said:

are you providing the alcohol yourself?

Yes we are.

I don't think 15-18 is enough when you buy the alcohol at state minimum pricing. Is there an hourly rate for the bartenders? Did you hire separate or are they provided by the venue? How many guests? How long it's the reception?

I agree.

I would tip them at least $200 each per bartender.

We provided our own alcohol too.  We had to pay the bartenders $30 per person, per hour.  They worked 10+ hours.   We tipped them an additional $200 each.    The $30 fee went to the venue and we did not know how much was actually going back to bartenders.     They were great bartenders, worked their asses off in the middle of a storm.   

A good percentage of our guests are working in the food/beverage industry, even though there was no tip jar, they still tipped the bartenders.   I'm sure those guys left very happy. 

melbenso

We had one bartender for approximately six hours. According to our venue, her hourly salary was about a dollar over our state's standard (not waitstaff) minimum wage. We tipped her $200. Which ended up being about 20% of our bar bill, though we didn't know that at the time (didn't get the bar bill until about a week after the wedding). Since she made so much more than waitstaff wage, we surely over tipped. But I'd much rather overcompensate someone for good service than under compensate them. In the grand scheme of our wedding costs, an extra $100 didn't mean much to us, but I'm sure it meant a lot to her.