Vendor Tipping Etiquette: Is this good?

dolewhipper · January 2015

Is THIS a good guide to go by for tipping vendors? I literally have ZERO idea what is fair for good or great service other than for my hair and makeup stylists.

huskypuppy14 · January 2015

I skimmed it quickly. It seems like a pretty good guide. I would tip the photographer more than it said. We tipped ours 100 extra.

mlg78 · January 2015

I only tipped the hairstylist (20%), DJ ($50) and limo driver ($50) day-of. I would never tip a photographer until you've seen pictures. My DJ & limo driver tips were not 20% as that would have been a significantly higher amount and simply not in our budget but I felt the $50 we gave each of them was still pretty fair.

[Deleted User] · January 2015

I also believe if the vendor owns the business you are not obligated to tip them, but I am not 100% sure on that and it's been awhile.

We also had small gifts made up for all our vendors and presented them with the tips. (Small crystal bowls filled with candy in our wedding colors.)

[Deleted User] · January 2015

The only thing that I would change is that you should plan on tipping your photographer. If you feel that they kept the photos flowing & got people together that you like, tip them then. You can always do half the tip that night & then tip more after you see your photos. I know many people will say if the vendor is the business owner, you don't have to tip them but I personally disagree with that. To me tipping isn't a way to for the vendor to make more money because they are being underpaid by say the owner, tipping to me is a way of saying "thank you for doing a great job & providing a great service" so that should apply to the vendor if they are the owner or not.

badbnagdway · January 2015

I agree with others that tipping the photographer $20-$30 seems off. This is one of the largest expenses and tipping $20 on a $2,000 service seems weird, kind of like, why bother? A tip of $100 or so seems more in line. If you know your photographer a little, you might be able to come up with a good gift for around that price, but I would be wary of anything that wouldn't be truly useful for them. Anything personalized with your wedding date is obviously a poor choice.

If I could find a tripod for lighting that would not blow over in the wind I would buy that for our photographer, because her flash fell over a few times when we were shooting our engagement photos and she said that happens a lot.

poodledoodleooo · January 2015

I think this was a pretty fair tipping chart. Here is what we are going to do:

$50 per server (we will have about 6)
$200 for bartender (possibly more as our reception will be 7 hours, including the "cocktail hour." I'd love your thoughts on this)
We were told by our venue/caterer that tipping is really not necessary, but it's also not included. They basically said they pay their staff very very well, so tipping is really up to us.
Rehearsal Dinner Catering $70 (20%)
All of our ceremony stuff is included in the church fee. Fi and I give regularly, and generously, to the church so we don't feel obligated to give more.
The rest of our vendors are independently owned. We will probably tip the Baker for the delivery - around $20 since we are really tipping for the delivery and not the actual work on the cake.
For the florist, DJ and photographer - I'm a little but uncertain on how to approach. These vendors are all family friends in some capacity, so giving cash seems a bit weird. But they are also still vendors, we are still paying them. We might go along with the generous gift + glowing reviews online rather than a cash tip as a thank you. I'd love your thoughts on this as well!

Also, for independent owners I think one the best gift you can give them are referrals and glowing reviews so don't forget to say thanks that way!

Jessie42613 · January 2015

Here is what we did:

-The venue had gratuity built into the contract, so we didn't pay extra on top of that.

-$100 to the photographers (so I guess $50 each)

-$50 each to my DOC and DJ

-$25 to my floral delivery and limo driver - side note: we had the limo for only 2 hours. I would have tipped more if it was a longer contract

My mom took care of paying for my hair, and I did my own makeup.

My DOC, DJ, and photographers all own their own business, but I agree with @Erikan73, we tipped to say "thank you." Whether or not someone is the owner, they're working just as hard (sometimes harder) and deserve the same thanks, plus good reviews.

frenchiekin · January 2015

Also agree that the $20-$30 for photographer seems low. Granted, we are dedicating a huge portion of our budget to photography already... but I feel like we will need to give him something substantial - maybe a physical gift in the $50-100 range. I would also be especially sure to tip the 2nd shooter if there is one - in our case that person is not the co-owner of the business.

Question regarding tipping catering manager/staff - our catering bill (not affiliated with our venue) has a 20% gratuity built in to our contract. Should we plan to tip servers on top of this? Or even the manager (who also owns the business) if he goes above and beyond? As many of us know, 20% of a wedding food bill is a huge sum of money in itself already, so there's not much left in the budget - just want to make sure we don't come off as cheap or ungrateful!

tcnoble · January 2015

frenchiekin said:

Also agree that the $20-$30 for photographer seems low. Granted, we are dedicating a huge portion of our budget to photography already... but I feel like we will need to give him something substantial - maybe a physical gift in the $50-100 range. I would also be especially sure to tip the 2nd shooter if there is one - in our case that person is not the co-owner of the business.

Question regarding tipping catering manager/staff - our catering bill (not affiliated with our venue) has a 20% gratuity built in to our contract. Should we plan to tip servers on top of this? Or even the manager (who also owns the business) if he goes above and beyond? As many of us know, 20% of a wedding food bill is a huge sum of money in itself already, so there's not much left in the budget - just want to make sure we don't come off as cheap or ungrateful!

Ours is very similar - and when you're spending as much, like you said, 20% of that bill is pretty substantial. I asked our contact at the venue about this specifically and she said the servers/wait staff are paid well, but that it's common to have parties tip the "captain" or whomever is basically organizing the service that day. We will still tip the bartenders separate of this though.

marie2785 · January 2015

So...what would you do for a photographer that does not edit the photos? The photographer we hired has someone else in their company do all the editing and put together our wedding album, which I've been told is the most time consuming part.

Would you still tip the photographers $100?

tcnoble · January 2015

I probably wouldn't tip $100 to the one person. Granted, the person editing can only do as good a job as the pictures they're given - so the person shooting is quite important. But probably would split the tip because there's two people doing the work.

Jessie42613 · January 2015

marie2785 said:

So...what would you do for a photographer that does not edit the photos? The photographer we hired has someone else in their company do all the editing and put together our wedding album, which I've been told is the most time consuming part.

Would you still tip the photographers $100?

Can I get a little more information on this?

Is it a larger company and this person has been hired, at a regular hourly or weekly rate, exclusively to edit photos? Do you even have communication with this person?

I think I'd still tip the photographers the $100. I might be way off base, but I see it as sort of the same as tipping your servers, but not tipping the guys who are cooking in the back, who you never see or talk to, even though their job is damn important.

Hmm.. maybe I should have tipped the cooks..

marie2785 · January 2015

Jessie42613 said:

marie2785 said:

So...what would you do for a photographer that does not edit the photos? The photographer we hired has someone else in their company do all the editing and put together our wedding album, which I've been told is the most time consuming part.

Would you still tip the photographers $100?

Can I get a little more information on this?

Is it a larger company and this person has been hired, at a regular hourly or weekly rate, exclusively to edit photos? Do you even have communication with this person?

I think I'd still tip the photographers the $100. I might be way off base, but I see it as sort of the same as tipping your servers, but not tipping the guys who are cooking in the back, who you never see or talk to, even though their job is damn important.

Hmm.. maybe I should have tipped the cooks..

Larger company. You meet with a rep, pick the photographer you like based on portfolio and then meet with the photographer(s) to plan your day. They have a special group (full time staff) that does all the editing so post-wedding, you work with the editing group. The photographer told me she loves it since she's a photojournalism style photographer (which is what we wanted), and doesn't like the editing portion of the job.

Vendor Tipping Etiquette: Is this good?

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