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Gratuity included in the venue?

raeeanneraeeanne member
First Comment First Anniversary
in Wedding Etiquette Forum
Hi ladies, I am slightly confused and would like some clarification on something. My FI and I have visited several venues. Yesterday we were given a quote with the taxes (13%) and gratuity (15%) included in the final pricing. Every other time it has only been tax.

My question is, if we were to book at a venue without gratuities included in the pricing, is it normal to tip the venue 15% at the end? In my case that would be 15% of $20,000 = $3000

Originally I thought of only tipping the manager or bartenders/staff $200-$400 if they did a good job. I just want to make sure we are doing this correctly before we finalize our venue.
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Re: Gratuity included in the venue?

  • AddieCakeAddieCake member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    Ditto Lia for us. 
    What did you think would happen if you walked up to a group of internet strangers and told them to get shoehorned by their lady doc?~StageManager14
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  • crunchymamaof2 crunchymamaof2 member
    First Anniversary First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited April 2013
    Our venue includes tip (not sure the % amount) and service fees. We're only responsible for the taxes.

    15% is the lower end, usually between 15% and 20% is standard. I know some venues have the tips for the bartenders separately as well. I've seen some say that if you don't include a tip jjar you need to include a set % for tip. Personally I'd plan to throw the bartender a small tip in addition if you won't have a tip jar.

    You can also ask your venue to clarify what or who is covered under their gratuity

    ETA: 13% tax? Is that normal? Tax here is 6.25% (or whatever our lovely governor decides to change it prior to the wedding)

    After 6 years and 2 boys, finally tying the knot on October 27th, 2013!

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  • raeeanneraeeanne member
    First Comment First Anniversary
    Yeah I'm in Canada, Toronto to be exact and it is 13% tax here. So if gratuity is not included, which would be my case, who would I be giving the 15% ($3000 gratuity) to?
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  • OliveOilsMomOliveOilsMom member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    Don't have any tip jars out.  You should be tipping the personnel working your event.  Its one thing if a guest decides to tip on their own, but don't have a tip jar out, a reception is a thank you to your guests, they should not be opening their wallets at all.

    My venue included a gratuity and we did not tip anything over that.  You should work a gratuity into your budget.
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  • OliveOilsMomOliveOilsMom member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_gratuity-included-in-the-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:e852e376-4784-4a80-9569-dac95174e6d1Post:dd52aff2-bc8c-44a4-86d6-dff019f4408c">Re: Gratuity included in the venue?</a>:
    [QUOTE]Yeah I'm in Canada, Toronto to be exact and it is 13% tax here. So if gratuity is not included, which would be my case, <strong>who would I be giving the 15% ($3000 gratuity) to</strong>?
    Posted by raeeanne[/QUOTE]

    To the bolded, I would ask the wedding coordinator you deal with at the venue.  It may be that you can give it to him/her on your wedding day and they will divide it between the staff at your wedding.
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  • lyndausvilyndausvi mod
    First Anniversary First Answer 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    Our venue did not include gratuity.  They charged us a labor fee of $30 per person, per hour for a minimum of 8 hours (we were ended up being billed 9 people for 9 hours)    We tipped on top of that (around 11%).  






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
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  • MuppetFanMuppetFan member
    5 Love Its First Answer Name Dropper First Comment
    My package is including tax and gratuity (I told them the per person $ target I had and they indcluded tax and grat in the package which I was not expecting...nice surprise).

    I will not tip extra, except for the bartender. The bartender is separate from my package and they made note that we will be charged tax and grat on that.

    A question here -does the tips people leave for the bartender throughout the meal end up going against what i owe him later? if not, can I ask they not collect tips? i never really understood why there are tip jars at weddings when the people are getting re-tipped off the end bill anyway
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    You'll never be subject to a cash bar, gap, potluck wedding, or b-list if you marry a Muppet Overlord.

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  • daria24daria24 member
    First Comment First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Answer
    We had a 20 percent "service charge" which DID NOT count as gratuity for the serving staff. It was used to pay the wages for the entire staff, building upkeep, etc. So we tipped on top of that amount. But rather than doing a percentage of the bill, we found out the number of servers and tipped them each a flat amount. I would just clarify with your venue that the money actually goes to the servers.
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  • emeejeeayenemeejeeayen member
    5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper First Anniversary
    My venue does tax, tip and a service fee for all food and beverage. That means I pay about 50% more than what the listed price is per person. I have it worked into my excel sheet budget so that if I up the number of people, tax, tip and the service charge are automatically updated as well. 
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  • FruitSnack84FruitSnack84
    Name Dropper First Comment First Anniversary
    Woo!! I'm excited, my venue already has 20% gratuity built into the price per person, so this is great new that we don't have to tip on top of that! Thanks for making my day! :)

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  • FizzySipsFizzySips member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper First Comment
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_gratuity-included-in-the-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:e852e376-4784-4a80-9569-dac95174e6d1Post:c085de3f-8a2c-4aaf-87f3-ac2a0df0f06f">Re: Gratuity included in the venue?</a>:
    [QUOTE]A question here -does the tips people leave for the bartender throughout the meal end up going against what i owe him later? if not, can I ask they not collect tips? i never really understood why there are tip jars at weddings when the people are getting re-tipped off the end bill anyway
    Posted by MuppetFan[/QUOTE]



    No, whatever your guests leave the bartenders is theirs in addition to what you owe for gratuity. You most certainly can ask that no tip jars be left out.
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  • Anastasia517Anastasia517 member
    5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_gratuity-included-in-the-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:e852e376-4784-4a80-9569-dac95174e6d1Post:dd52aff2-bc8c-44a4-86d6-dff019f4408c">Re: Gratuity included in the venue?</a>:
    [QUOTE]Yeah I'm in Canada, Toronto to be exact and it is 13% tax here. So if gratuity is not included, which would be my case, who would I be giving the 15% ($3000 gratuity) to?
    Posted by raeeanne[/QUOTE]

    <div>I'm also in Canada and my venue is the same: 13% tax, 15% gratuity.  Together, it adds 29.95% to the total bill.</div><div>
    </div><div>To the Americans, I think the gratuity is only 15% here because servers actually get paid very close to minimum wage.  I believe it's $9-something an hour vs. $10.25 an hour.  People still tip pretty well, so servers can actually make a good bit of money.</div>
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  • raeeanneraeeanne member
    First Comment First Anniversary
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_gratuity-included-in-the-venue?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:e852e376-4784-4a80-9569-dac95174e6d1Post:8ae0f353-b315-4562-b8de-b5fb5de74854">Re: Gratuity included in the venue?</a>:
    [QUOTE]Woo!! I'm excited, my venue already has 20% gratuity built into the price per person, so this is great new that we don't have to tip on top of that! Thanks for making my day! :)
    Posted by FruitSnack84[/QUOTE]


    Glad to have made someone's day better :)

    Thanks for the responses. I never factored in gratuity being that high so now it's another cost to consider.
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  • FizzySipsFizzySips member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper First Comment
    The venue will have a tip sharing policy to determine who gets what out of your 15 (or 20%). You can ask them to tell you what it is to ensure that the bartenders/lead waiters are getting what you feel is appropriate (you can't tell them how to allocate, but could en choose to send some extra to the lead waiter or BT). In the states, each state dictates the wage that the servers make, it's not a national thing that servers make below minimum wage. I'm paying 10% tax and 20% service charge on top, but the grat has to do with being a sponsored event vs being a member event (members pay 15%).
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