The ultimate tips on Tips! In this post, we will cover a number of common questions about tips and wedding vendors, including how much to tip, when to tip (or not), and how to go about tipping. Before we dive in though, please be aware that this blog post is written for the Rhode Island/ New England wedding market, and this guidance may change in different geographical areas, across different services, and so many other factors. You should use your own discretion and do what you feel is right!
When should I tip a Vendor?
As with *every* question I will address today, it is very subjective. In my opinion, and supported by the embedded TikTok video from 2024, you should tip a vendor if they gave you a discount or if you booked far in advance of your wedding and their prices have changed. Additionally, if they gave you a free add-on, upgrade, or service, I would also suggest tipping. This would also apply if you feel you were a difficult client to work with (sorry, not sorry). Most important of all, if you had a great experience you should give a tip, and if you didn’t then you shouldn’t give a tip! In another section, we will discuss whether to tip based on if you hired a company or soloprenuer.
@djalexbrown Should you tip your #weddingvendors ? #wedding these are my thoughts! Not a conclusive list and ultimately, its up to you! #foryou #weddingdj #tipping ♬ original sound – DJ Alex Brown Entertainment
How Much Should I Tip a Vendor?
This is also, super complicated, because it works very differently than going to a restaurant (where a tip of 18%-25% may be expected. Those would work out to large numbers for wedding vendors. I’ll begin with a breakdown of tip amounts for services we provide, and in the next section I will explain why there are different numbers.
The chart below will break down different vendors and how much to tip. Here is some more info about the coulmumn labels:
- Vendor Category
- Is vendor working for a company or an individual with their own business? (Also has notes about if the numbers are for each crew member or the entire crew as a a whole)
- Average Minimum Tip Suggested (If tipping), less than this may be considered offensive.
- Average Maximum Tip Amount (This is the average maximum tip that is seen for this type of vendor), anything above this would be considered large, oftentimes even the max tip is considered generous.
P.S.: Before we get into it, what is a company vs an individual?
Theres actually some nuance here, generally a company would be a member of a larger team, working an event for the company, but is not the owner. Some things are more common to see a company, such as photo booths, and catering, as a soloprenuer isn’t an option in certain areas. An individual would be anyone working for their own business; that includes if you hire a company for entertainment, and their owner is your DJ. Old logic would say that you should tip an employee of a company more, and often not tip a soloprenuer at all, since they get to keep their whole rate, however, I disagree with this, and have seen a shift in this trend over time. Many people running their own business are required to be at your wedding by their contract, and your wedding may be taking time from their family, friends and other “life things”. Therefore, I suggest tipping a little more to an individual.
| Vendor Type | Co || I / Notes | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|---|
| DJ | Company | $50 | $200 |
| DJ | Individual | $50 | $400 |
| Photo Booth Tech | $20 | $50 | |
| Planner | For a planner provided by a company, use the coordinator amounts. | $200-$500 (Most common) | (Sometimes up to $5,000) |
| Day of Coordinator (Incl. Venue) | $100 | $400 | |
| Photographer, Videographer, Content Creator | $100 | $500 | |
| Media Assistants (Second Shooter, etc) | $50 | $100 | |
| Hair & Make Up Artists | 15%* | 25%* | |
| Ceremony Musicians (Each) | $25 | $75 | |
| Band (Per member) | $25 | $100 | |
| Religious Officiant | $100*** | $300*** | |
| Professional Officiant | $50 | $100 | |
| Florist, Bakers, Designers, Rentals | (Crew/Per Person) | $10 | $20 |
| Florist, Bakers, Designers, Rentals | (As a Whole) | $100 | $400 |
| Catering Staff | Servers, Bartenders, Kitchen Staff (Per Person) | $20** | $100** |
| Catering | Captain/Lead | $50** | $150** |
*Anything with an asterisk is generally expected the way tipping in a restaurant is.
**This denotes that you should consider if a gratuity is included in the contract, if so, you may want to tip towards the minimum.
***Generally treated as a donation to the organization, not a tip
Thank you to our Contributing Vendors
A quick thank you to some vendors who helped contribute feedback to this post, Rachel Koger with Cose Bella Events, Gianna Palazzo, Gianna Palazzo Media, and Charlene Deluca with Just A Girl Events.
Splitting Your Tips
Oftentimes when we provide the DJ for a wedding, we are also providing other services, such as marquee letters, photo booth, additional lighting or A/V. It’s common for the couple to provide one tip envelope for the DJ team, however, I would recommend against doing that for a number of reasons:
- The DJ is supposed to tip out to anyone else on the crew, if they are given two $100 bills, thats going to make it very awkward for them.
- Generally the DJ should be tipped more than a photo booth or AV tech, so I would encourage you to do separate envelopes for each.
What Method Should you tip by?
Cash is always the gold standard for tipping, although Venmo (or other digital payments) are also an option. Cash is usually preferred. Two things to consider with digital payments:
1. DO NOT MARK THE TRANSACTION AS FOR GOODS AND SERVICES: This will do 2 things, first, it will charge the receiver a fee on the payment (~2% with Venmo), second it may cause the tip to be reported to the IRS. The problem with the way Venmo reports their transactions to the IRS is that they are classified as miscellaneous income. Tips should actually be accounted for on payroll (if they are an employee of our company for example). (Also no one wants to pay tax on tips 🤑)
2. Don’t ask for their digital payment info, if you don’t intend on tipping. But do feel free to ask after the fact. It’s quite common actually for people to ask for a Venmo to send a tip, but never send a tip. I assume people just forget, but since it’s not “cool” to follow up about a tip, it puts a vendor in an awkward position. I’ve spoken with many vendors who have dealt with this, it’s like dangling a carrot in front of a pig and never giving it to him.
Have We Answered Your Tipping Questions?
I hope we have answered all your questions on tips in this post! If you have any additional questions, please feel free to email alex@itslitri.com, and we might even add your question under an FAQ!
