Tipping

cfblechman

Are you tipping your vendors with a percentage or a flat rate? a % seems like a lot to me, so I am thinking max 50 bucks or so per vendor. What are you doing? And what is "right"? Thanks in advance!

kristin183

I am doing a percentage.
A flat rate does not really work for each vendor. Like The Caterer is $3000 tipping them $50 would kind of be an insult. We are tipping 15%-17% unless they are over the top wonderful then we will tip 20%.

daria24

Same as Kristin about 15 unless they do exceptional service. Although we are sticking to 15 for catering because it's a huge amount and we've already paid a 20 service charge, which did not cover gratuity.

2012FutureMrsB

I found some websites earlier today that stated if the vendor owns their own business, then you aren't expected to tip at all b/c they are getting ALL the money from your payment. However, if the vendor is an employee for a company, then he/she might not be getting paid a whole lot, so it is customary to tip 15-20% for most things. Here's three websites that I found:

http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/weddings/budget/guide-wedding-tipping-00000000006385/index.html

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

http://www.frugalbride.com/tipping.html

kristin183

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2012-weddings_tipping?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:3ae4d68d-f10a-4dec-8810-da13c14a7b86Discussion:c664f6ab-8d59-484b-975b-8f73923bed8ePost:6a3a29f0-376f-4ef8-8a21-3986f90987bd">Re: Tipping</a>:
[QUOTE]I found some websites earlier today that stated if the vendor owns their own business, then you aren't expected to tip at all b/c they are getting ALL the money from your payment. However, if the vendor is an employee for a company, then he/she might not be getting paid a whole lot, so it is customary to tip 15-20% for most things. Here's three websites that I found: <a href="http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/weddings/budget/guide-wedding-tipping-00000000006385/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/weddings/budget/guide-wedding-tipping-00000000006385/index.html</a> <a href="http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-budget/articles/wedding-vendor-tipping-cheat-sheet.aspx">http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-budget/articles/wedding-vendor-tipping-cheat-sheet.aspx</a> <a href="http://www.frugalbride.com/tipping.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.frugalbride.com/tipping.html</a>
Posted by 2012FutureMrsB[/QUOTE]

Agreed; our DJ and Photographer own their business. So likely we won't tip.
Luckily we didn't have a service fee on the catering but we will tip a percentage. The MUA and Hairdresser own their own business but are friends and cut me amazing deals so I will be tipping. The bartender is a friend of my cousins and is charging us $10 and hour and then we are giving a generous tip on top of that because he gave us such a great deal.

Every vendor is so different implementing a flat rate would not necessarily make sense.

MiksChick23

Agree with PP. I also got my cake and flowers from a grocery store and they do not accept tips. I will instead write a heartfelt thank you note to them (as well as my photographer and DJ). Servers will get 15% b/c I originally thought my tip was included in my service charge...so its a large amount of money.

michellep1

I might make this a separate post as we get closer, but I'm struggling a little on this.  We get two DJs with our package - one is the owner of the company, one is not.  I'm not sure what to do!  I don't want the owner to feel neglected or look rude when we hand an envelope to the employee, but at the same time I don't want the employee to feel snubbed if we don't tip.  I'm not sure how to handle this! Any advice?

We will do the standard 15%, 20% for amazingness.  Our wedding coordinator was included in our reception package, which includes gratuity, but I plan to send her flowers or an Edible Arrangement or something because she's really been amazing and I'd probably have eloped by now without her!