Member- CiaArielleNeugebauer
- 5 years ago
- Wedding: May 2014
Okay, so here’s my second of many questions… I’m curious about tips. Who needs tipped and how much?
We are doing a combined ceremony, Catholic-Baptist, and we are having two officiant’s, my fiance’s priest and my pastor (who also happens to be my cousin). For the priest we should make a donation to the church, is $50-75 enough? And for my cousin/pastor we thought that since he is family we should forgo a donation to the church and instead get him a small gift, like an engraved pen from Things Remembered and maybe a gift card. Thoughts?
Next is the musician… We are having a single pianist do the music, he is the church’s music director and in my list of charges from the church it specifically states “$125 made out to {music director}”. To me that means the money goes directly to him. So do we need to tip him?
Following that comes our photographer. He owns his own business and has no employees. I’ve heard people say that you don’t need to tip vendors who own their own business, but I really like him and he has been extremely helpful so far as well as offering several discounts because my fiance and I were in the same graduating class as his son, so I am thinking about tipping him anyways. So first, is this one of those cases where this vendor doesn’t require a tip (meaning I am not obligated to provide one in this instance)? Secondly, if I choose to tip him based on outstanding service should I give him cash or would a gift card to a local restaurant be acceptable?
I believe our next vendor is the florist… We are making our own pew bows, centerpieces, etc. All the florist is providing is bouquets, bouts, and corsages. Is this a vendor I need to give a tip to, and if so how much? I was thinking we didn’t need to since they are not delivering any flowers that require setting up, and also since we are being charged $45 for delivery when they florist is about 5 minutes from the church… But I want to be sure.
Our next vendor would be the bakery. We ordered our wedding cake from a local grocery store (when we tasted the cake at the bridal show compared to the local specialty bakeries it’s just as good if not better for around half the price), and this particular grocery store has a specialty bakery center with 5 or so decorators… So when they deliver the cake do we need to be tipping them?
The vendor after that would be the DJ, and I am hands down tipping him even though we’ve been guaranteed that the own would be the one dj’ing (is that even a word? lol) because he is doing the lighting at our reception for half price. But how much should he be tipped?
Finally the caterer, and this one is a serious thorn in my side. He is the most reasonably priced caterer around here, our buffet (not counting linens and silverware) is $11.65 per person. However on top of that there is also a 17% service charge, plus a 7% charge because our hall is not in the same county as his office, plus 6% tax. I’m specfically honing in on that 17% service charge though… Shouldn’t that be the equivelant of the tip?
The other vendors who I assume should be tipped are my makeup artist and hair stylist. I’m also going to send a thank you card to the bridal shop I got my dress from after the wedding, because they are keeping my dress/steaming it/etc up until the week of the wedding which means they are housing it for almost a year (granted we paid extra for this service, but I’m still sending a thank you card).
Thanks for reading my nice lengthy conversation above! So… who gets tipped?
