Vendor gifts...

hopeless_romantic_luv

What did you give your vendors?  I am specifically talking about my Photographer, MUA, Day of Coordinator and DJ...possibly my caterer too b/c she is a small business owner, but my cost already includes a 18% gratuity. 

I would personally be good with a bottle of wine, but that's just me ;0)  I don't want them to think I'm so cheap or ungrateful for their services, but I don't have it in the budget to spend a lot on them either.

Any suggestions or ideas greatly appreciated. 

Jay+Marissa

You know, I brought this up to my mom, and she gave me an incredulous look and said, "aren't we paying them?" And then proceeded to look it up on some wedding site to prove she was right.

So I don't know. I'm of course going to tip my hairstyling and maybe do something small for the DJ and photographer.

shortgirltx

I made bags with various homemade cookies and brownies and they seemed to really appreciate them. 

pphqt10

I gave our make up aritist and hair stylist tips and bottle of wine. After the wedding, because of the AMAZING job they did, I brought back small things for our florist, DJ, photographer and venue coordinator. HTH

SoonToBeMrsHoz

This is a tough pill to swallow because as we all know, any thing that is wedding related already has a huge price mark up and most vendors already charge a set gratuity in their quote, so it's really hard for me to understand that you would have to pay them additional money on top of that.

If a particular vendor didn't already factor in gratuity then I can understand paying them something extra but I am not going to pay a tip for something like videographer the night of the wedding when I haven't even seen the quality of the work yet...

hopeless_romantic_luv

well, and that's what I thought too jay/marrissa.  I'm already paying them and going to order some food for them from Jason's Deli...so I thought maybe just a bag of some bath and body works or victoria's secret body spray for the ladies.  Now for the DJ and guy photog they may not like that too much ;0)  so I'll have to think of somethingcreative for them or some baked goods   Just wanted to make sure and get some feedback from my girls on the knot.

Mariah09202008

I didn't get my vendors anything...just sent them all thank you cards afterwards.

fallbride1109

MIL fed the photographers, I fed my MUA and I tipped my DJ and MUA.  That was it.  Honestly, I just felt like I had paid enough.  We did tip the 2 women that helped at the reception and brunch on top of the service charge because they were exceptional.

I thought about sending TY cards but never got around to it.  I still feel bad about that actually.  Is it too late?  I do recommend them all every chance I get.  Except my wedding coordinator, of course. 

Mariah09202008

I don't think it's too late to send out TY cards!

emimayor

Technically Steph, you have 1 year from your event to send a TY card. I sent one to our cake person about 10 months after our wedding because I had completely dropped the ball.

fallbride1109

Thanks Mariah.  Maybe I still will then.

Oh and Kristy, a standard tip for a DJ is 10% of his fee.  Here's an article I used when I was planning:

http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-budget/articles/wedding-vendor-tipping-cheat-sheet.aspx

hopeless_romantic_luv

thanks ladies!!!

MissesKB

Since I am already over budget, I doubt if any of my vendors will be receiving a tip the day of the wedding. I do plan to send tips with my thank you notes. I also want to wait a while after the wedding. I do want my mind to be in "wedding la la" land and I over tip because I am just so overjoyed nor do I want to undertip if something minute goes wrong the day of.