Tipping and the Envelope before the end of the event

So did you ever hear the story of when P Diddy went into a club that he frequents a lot with an entourage of about 20 and the server added 20% gratuity off the bat on two bottles of Champagne? What was wrong with this? Well the other servers who had served Diddy and his entourage would brag about how they would get tips from the diddy meister of $200, $300 even $500 dollars. This server of course only got the $50 or so that he tipped himself in. Absurd right I mean it's diddy.

I hate when I rent a limo or do some other kind of service when the gratuity is already built in. If the service provided does a crappy job I may have paid too much but what if the service provider did an outstanding job, I'm usually a bit put off by having already tipped out so the server gets whats in the bill or contract...

Same thing for wedding Vendors.

We were sitting around the table at the Double T diner a couple of Saturday nights ago after our jobs and David, one of our star djs, told this story. He had a very elegant wedding at a Howard County Country Club. The Bride and Groom seemed Very Very Satisfied and kept complimenting his performance.

The Maid of Honor came up to David about 10 minutes into the wedding and handed him a card of course with a nice note and a $20 bill in it. David didn't look at the envelope until about 2 hours in when he went to the bathroom.

David is a top notch professional so the wedding rocked on but after all that he had done and the compliments he was getting a $20 was nice but maybe at the end of the night would they have tipped out better?

Weddingchannel.com has a really great blog on tipping. They say set a tip fund aside and tip out based on service. Just like at a restaurant, my server is happy, tentative to my needs, and on the mark they will usually end up with a 25-30% tip Tipping should be based on service at the end of the service. As weddingchannel.com says even a tip in a thank you note after the wedding is great.

Of course if you choose not to tip 1st Djs will still do an over the top excellent job. And remember we NEVER include gratuity in our contractual cost the gratuity is for the performer. Also overtime money goes directly to the performer. Overtime is a tip in itself.

For more check out the entire blog post on weddingchannel.com by clicking here


Check out more information on 1st djs online at http://www.1stdjs.com


Kip