You’ll want to show your appreciation to every professional at your wedding for working hard and making the celebration a success. But with so many different vendors and staff members involved in the process, it is difficult to determine who should be getting tips – and how much they should be receiving. This guide will give you a clearer picture of what wedding professionals should be tipped versus which ones are optional, as well as how much you should tip each vendor.
Standard Tips
These are the wedding vendors that you should tip for their services.
- Delivery and Setup Team: The people responsible for delivering and putting together your venue play a huge role in making your celebration a reality, so you should definitely give them a tip. You’ll be paying a delivery or setup fee, but a tip should be added on top of this fee. This includes the employees doing flower delivery, cake delivery, tent delivery and setup, rentals delivery, sound system setup, and whoever else you can think of. Plan to tip around $5 to $20 per person.
- Hair and Makeup Team: The bridal and wedding party beauty team tipping protocol is the same as your standard visit to a salon. Plan to tip around 15% to 25% of the total services.
- Ceremony Officiant: This depends on your situation. For wedding officiants affiliated with a religious institution, you can make a donation to that institution. Plan to donate around $100 to $500. You may also tip the religious officiant $50 to $100. Non-denominational officiants should also be tipped $50 to $100. If your officiant is a family member or close friend, a nice gift will do.
- Venue Coordinator: The on-site coordinator should be tipped if a service fee is not included in the contract. Plan to tip either $250 to $500, or 15% to 20% of the food and drink bill.
- Catering Staff: Check your contract before tipping – the tip may already be included. If not, plan to tip everyone on the catering This includes the chefs, kitchen staff, wait staff, and anyone else involved in preparing and serving food. Plan to tip 15% to 20% of the food bill.
- Bartenders: As with the catering staff, you should check if your contract includes gratuity. If not, plan to tip 10% to 20% of the alcohol bill.
- Attendants: This includes parking valets, restroom attendants, and coat check attendants. Check your contract to see if gratuity is included. If not, plan to tip $1 to $2 per guest that is in attendance. For the valets, do $1 to $2 per car.
- Transportation: If the transportation company gets you and your guests to the venue safely and on time, you’ll want to give them a nice tip. Yet again, check your transportation contract, as there is a good chance gratuity will be included. If not, plan to tip 15% to 20%.
Optional Tips
These vendors won’t necessarily expect tips, but they will certainly appreciate a token of your gratitude for a job well done!
- Wedding Planner/Coordinator: Your wedding planner isn’t going to expect a tip, but if you want to show your gratitude for their hard work, you could tip 10% to 20% of the fee. Since you’ve likely spent a lot of time together, a nice gift would also be appropriate.
- Wedding Photographer and Videographer: Your photography and videography team will capture special moments that you’ll cherish your entire life. If you want to tip them, you may tip between $50 to $200 per professional. As is the case with the wedding planner, you may have spent a lot of time with these professionals prior to the wedding, so a nice gift is also appropriate.
- Ceremony Musicians: If the musicians worked tirelessly to perfect your ceremony music, or if they simply did an extraordinary job, you can plan on tipping them either 15% of the fee or $15 to $25 per musician.
- Reception Band/Musicians: The reception musicians will keep the party going all night long. If you want to show your appreciation, you can tip them $25 to $50 per musician.
- DJ: Decided to hire a wedding DJ for your reception? While you don’t have to tip, feel free to tip them either 10% to 15% of the fee, or $50 to $100.
If you are in the process of planning your wedding, come to the next Georgia Bridal Show near you. You will have the chance to meet with professional wedding vendors of all talents who can help bring your vision to life!
Georgia wedding vendors, as well as other wedding professionals across the Southeast, can contact us about opportunities for exhibition and online marketing with Georgia Bridal Show.