Why Wedding Vendor Gratuity is All Over the Place + A Non-Monetary Tip Guide We Can All Agree With

How Much to Tip Wedding Vendors (2025)

A typical single-venue, 6–8-hour wedding is one thing, but a large-scale 150+ guest wedding is a 12-hour marathon—bouncing between a house, church, park, and an all-night ballroom reception, all while battling summer traffic. For weddings like these, tipping on the higher end makes sense. Based on that, here’s a general guide for tipping wedding vendors:

Micro weddings (around 50 guests): $50 per vendor is fair.
Small weddings (around 100 guests): $100 per vendor is a solid tip.
Large weddings (150+ guests): $150–$250 per vendor is reasonable.

Tipping Wedding Vendors is Voluntary, Not Mandatory

You don’t need me to tell you that tipping culture has gotten so out of hand, we now have self-checkout machines asking for tips. And we have no one to blame but ourselves for feeding into tipping culture in the first place. But not me. I’ve never believed in tipping, so much so that I refuse to spend my money at businesses that demand it—which is practically every sit-down restaurant out there. I can’t even remember the last time I ate at one.

Why? Because tipping should be a voluntary gesture of appreciation for a job well done, not an obligation that makes you feel guilty for skipping it. And yet, these days, it feels like society has been conditioned to tip for just about everything. When was the last time you tipped a cashier at Target or the lady at the fast-food Chinese place? Probably never. But somehow, we all instinctively pause to calculate a tip for the Olive Garden waitress who just buried our pasta under a pound of cheese.

Which brings us to the real question: should tipping wedding vendors be necessary? After all, you’re already spending thousands of dollars on their services. Yet, wedding publications insist tipping is practically mandatory, breaking it down by vendor and percentage. Brides even encourage each other to tip. So it’s no wonder tipping culture feels so inflated in the wedding industry.

But David! Didn’t you just recommend how much to tip my wedding vendors?

I did. But even though I don’t believe in tipping, I recognize that many people do. So why not make it easier and save you from the stress of using those convoluted tip calculators every wedding publication tells you to use? With that said, let’s unpack how we ended up here—but if you’d rather skip ahead, scroll to the end for my recommended non-monetary tip guide we can all agree on.

The Convoluted Etiquette of Tipping Wedding Vendors

A quick Google search on tipping wedding vendors makes one thing clear—tipping in the wedding industry is a confusing, unfair mess. Thanks to publications like Zola, Brides, and The Knot, couples are bombarded with convoluted tipping guides that dictate who to tip and how much, often implying that some vendors are more deserving than others. The Knot’s Vendor Tipping Cheat Sheet, for example, highlights specific vendors to tip, while Martha Stewart Weddings and Brides.com suggest skipping tips for business owners altogether.

Even U.S. News recommends tipping only the staff, not the business owners—creating an unnecessary hierarchy among vendors, despite everyone pulling their weight on your wedding day. And let’s not forget that Brides once published an article suggesting photographers and videographers should "pack a lunch" rather than expect a meal—advice so bad they eventually deleted it. But as the saying goes, Pepperidge Farm Remembers.

Personally, I don’t eat at weddings—I work best on an empty stomach and much prefer a drink or two from the bar. That said, many vendors appreciate a hot meal during grueling 8–12 hour days. Feeding your team the same meal as your guests, rather than handing them a sad, cold box lunch, is a simple, meaningful way to show appreciation without falling into the tipping rabbit hole.

Sneaky Service Charge and Gratuity Fees

Many venues and caterers tack on mandatory service charges, gratuity fees, and 'recommended' percentage tips for staff—often calculated before tax—forcing you to pay thousands in tips. Yet, no one in this industry can tell you with a straight face why you, the client, are responsible for subsidizing vendor employees’ salaries just because they’re too cheap to pay them a living wage. And don’t get me started on how California now allows restaurants to add mandatory junk fees, all thanks to powerful lobbying groups.

What Is a Service Charge? Does It Count as a Tip, and Are These Fees Legal?

A service charge is a fee collected to pay for services related to a primary product or service being purchased. Legally, it belongs to the employer and may be distributed to employees at the business owner's discretion. In contrast, tips are considered the direct earnings of the employee. According to California’s labor code, service fees are not considered tips. However, some businesses treat them as tips anyway—so if you tip on top of a service fee, that business is essentially double-dipping. Always read your contract thoroughly, and don’t let wedding vendors (or any other business) guilt you into tipping after they've already tacked on additional service fees.

Wedding Vendor Gratuity: Non-Monetary Tip Alternatives

While I can't speak for every wedding vendor you'll encounter, I can tell you that most don’t expect cash tips—but they’ll certainly appreciate them. That said, these tip alternatives will show your appreciation without costing you a dime—just a few minutes of your time—and will mean the world to most wedding vendors.

Don’t haggle with your vendors for discounts.
Share your vendor’s website with friends and family.
Let your vendors enjoy a drink or two from the bar.
Give your vendors the same meal as your guests—not a sad, cold box lunch.
Follow your vendors on social media. Like, comment, and share their posts.
Recommend your vendor to friends and family—the tip that keeps on giving.
Submit your wedding photos to wedding publications on behalf of your vendors.
Suggest your favorite podcaster, YouTuber, or blogger invite your vendor as a guest.
Write a five-star review on Google, or better yet, record a quick 30-second testimonial video.

Yes, something as simple as a five-star review on Google Maps can mean the world to a wedding vendor—far more than a monetary tip. But again, don’t feel obligated to tip anyone. We all know how much of an investment it takes to put a wedding together, and no vendor should ever feel entitled to a tip.