Tipping

Meegles4

The question that's been asked to death (come to think of it, what question HASN'T been asked to death?!)

I need to tip the following people for the wedding:
- Shutterbooth operator
- Limo driver & guest shuttle driver
- DJ
- Videographer

These are the main vendors I'm tipping (not counting hair and make up people). I was initially going to do 20%, but that seems high for some people. Like, if I didn't that for the shutterbooth operator, it'd be $160. For the DJ and video person it'd be like $300+.

Tell me, what did you tip your vendors? A dollar amount or a percentage? Did the percentage vary vendor to vendor? i.e maybe 20% for the limo driver, but a set dollar amount for your photo booth guy?

MMRoberts11

I would do 20% unless it seems excessive.  For example, I wouldn't tip anyone over $150 so if 20% is over that, I'd just do $150.

Also, if they own the company you do not need to tip them unless they went way above and beyond what was in the contract.

Sue-n-Kevin

I agree with MMRoberts11. But while not cheap, I think $100 tip is sufficient for any one person. $150 would be extremely generous.

My DJ owned his own company. So did my hair & Makeup folks. But, rather than NOT tip them, I think we did a smaller tip, enough to show gratitude, but not enough to be insulting.

Meegles4

Thanks. 20% just seems so excessive because it's over $100-$150. I think I'll go with the dollar amount like you're recommending.

And yes, we're not tipping vendors that own their own business (my photographer). We're also not tipping the service staff at the venue, as it's included in our full package payment.

entropicbeauty

Well first of all, I would wait to see how all those people perform. If they do a mediocre or bad job I certainly would downgrade the tip.

I agree with PPs though that I wouldn't tip any one individual MORE than $100. I'm tempted to figure out an hourly tip rate pp for all our service people just to make things easier.