How to Tip your Wedding Vendors

Congratualtions!

You are now a few weeks away from your wedding day and all the details and plans are set and ready to go! You hopefully only have a few more items and you are ready to walk down the aisle, but before you do………

Let’s talk about tipping your vendors at the end of your wedding reception…..

Step 1: Create a list of your vendors. If you are working with a professional wedding planner they should have a complete list of all the vendors involved with your wedding and be able to send it over to you. If not, feel free to use this Vendor Contact List  

 

Step 2: Tipping Guidelines (*From Mindy Weiss and The Knot)

Bartenders: 10 percent of the total liquor bill (to be split among them)
Bathroom attendants: $1 to $2 per guest
Catering manager: $200+ or a personal gift
Chef: $100+
Coat check attendants: $1 to $2 per guest
Hairstylist: 15 to 20 percent
Hotel chambermaids: $2 to $5 per room; $10 to $15 if you used a suite as your dressing room
Limo or bus drivers: 15 percent
Maitre d’hotel or headwaiter: 1 to 3 percent of food and beverage fees
Makeup artist: 15 to 20 percent
Musicians: 15 percent of fee for ceremony musicians; $25 to $50 per musician for reception
Photographer/videographer: If you’re paying a flat fee with no overtime, $100
Valet or parking attendants: $1 to $2 per car; 15 percent for valet parking
Waiters: $20 and up each (distributed by the catering manager or maitre d’)
Wedding planner: 15 percent of fee or a personal gift

 

Step 3: If you plan on cash tips, prior to the wedding day divide the tips into individual envelopes. Seal the envelopes and put the vendors name on each of them. If you are working with a professional planner, they can pass them out at the end of the night. If you you aren’t, then it still makes it a lot easier for you to pass out at the end of the night.

 

Additional Details:

1. Feel free to add a thank you card or a small note for the vendor if they did an exceptional job
2. In addition to a tip, leave them a nice review on The Knot, Google and/or Yelp. Reviews really boost wedding vendor business and allow potential clients to see what we do
3. Don’t forget the planner. Your wedding planner is typically passing out tips but doesn’t get one, if you can’t give cash a nice gift goes a long way!
4. You DO NOT have to tip every vendor, choose those you feel did an amazing job

Make it a great one!

Rey