The Inside Scoop on Tipping your Wedding Vendors and Why it isn’t Factored into our Cost

Tipping your vendors is often something that gets forgotten. Many people will assume that vendors factor tips into their billing and are shocked to find out it is pretty standard to tip your vendors. While I do understand the frustration behind this, it’s worth talking about why we don’t factor tipping into our costs, and why many service providers besides catering, hair and makeup, and transportation don’t stick gratuity into their proposals.

Adding Gratuity to Proposals

If you saw that your wedding vendors such as your planner or photographer added a gratuity into their proposal, would that make you feel happy that they already factored it into the cost? Or even worse, if you found out that there were hidden fees added to the proposal to account for your tip, would that make you feel good about that vendor? Presumably, that would be pretty upsetting because you don’t necessarily know off the bat if they will be providing a service that is worthy of a tip. I personally think it is better to leave this up to the couple as a formality depending on the vendor themselves. Many vendors will not be expecting a tip, but it of course is greatly appreciated. Even though vendors set their own pricing, it would be a bit slimy to factor in tipping into their costs. Even though this isn’t the same as waitressing where their wages are much lower than what is livable, it’s more about being appreciative or satisfied with the servicer providing the service.

How to Know what to Tip

There are many resources that are online to help you narrow down what sounds right for appropriate tips for your vendors. It can be a little confusing because there are a lot of differing opinions on this, so hopefully you can find a number or area that works for you. I give a tipping guide to my couples to help them decide on who to tip and how much to tip. You often will find that many of your vendors don’t technically require it and won’t assume you will be tipping them.

What’s Better than a Tip? A Review!

In all honestly, I would much rather have a great review written by my couples than to receive a tip. The value of the reviews on Google and The Knot is way more important than the extra cash for me, and I’ll always tell my couples that good reviews are worth gold!! If every couple from now on gave me a glowing review instead of a monetary tip, I would be elated!!

Why some Vendors may Require a Tip

The reason that some vendors such as catering, hair and makeup, transportation, or others already put tips into their proposal is because many of the people working the event didn’t actually see most of the payment you made to the vendor. If they are hiring out makeup artists, drivers, or service staff, many of these tips go directly to the vendors that are working your event to give them a better wage.

Tipping can be quite a taboo topic in regards to your wedding day. If you don’t feel that you want to give tips to your vendors, I would highly suggest leaving them a nice review instead. Vendors work hard to provide amazing service for your big day, and even though they don’t always require a tip it is always greatly appreciated!! If you’re interested in my tipping guide, we can talk further here about helping you with your wedding day!