Should I Tip My Wedding Photographer?

This post was originally published on my blog on March 7, 2019 – this is a topic I see talked about ALL THE TIME though, so I wanted to bring it back with a few little updates!

You would probably never go to a restaurant & fail to tip your waitress, right? Even if she does a horrible job of serving your table, it is common courtesy to leave a tip of at least 15% of your total bill (and if you’re like my husband, you love to leave much larger tips, especially if the waitress did an above-average job).

What about going to get your hair cut? You leave a tip for your hairdresser, right? A few extra dollars to say, “Hey, thanks for not stabbing me with those super sharp scissors” (okay, not really, you love your hairdresser, right? I know I do!)

It just seems common courtesy to tip certain people. The pizza delivery guy, your Uber driver, the guy who valet parks your car – a tip is simply assumed.

But what about your wedding vendors? And specifically, your wedding photographer? Should you tip them?

If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a thousand times – brides asking on Facebook groups & popular wedding forums: “Do I need to tip my vendors? The DJ? The baker? The florist? The photographer?” And the responses are almost always split straight down the middle: some folks saying, “Absolutely yes” and others saying, “Absolutely no.”

The most common reason I see cited for not tipping a vendor is that a lot of wedding vendors own their own business, and you “should not tip if that is the case”. They say all sorts of nonsense like, “They add a tip into your final price, so there is no reason to give them an additional tip.” Or, “They are the owners of the business, and you don’t tip business owners, only employees.” Or in the case of wedding photographers, I’ve seen it suggested that a bride & groom only tip the second shooter, but not the main photographer.

These statements always boggle my mind. Maybe there are some vendors who add in a “gratuity” line on their invoice, just like certain restaurants will automatically add a certain “gratuity” to the final bill if your party is over a certain number of people. But, of all the wedding photographers I know – none of them add in a “tip”.

If a vendor is running their business correctly, they are figuring up their prices based on their “cost of doing business” – covering their taxes, their costs (equipment, insurance, etc.), and their own salary. Good business owners are not just pulling numbers out of thin air when they come up with their prices. And I have never seen it suggested, in the plethora of courses I have taken & friends I have talked to, to also add in a “tip” to my prices. In fact, the thought of adding in a “tip” never even occurred to me until I started seeing all of these folks claim that I “already” have added it in.

So am I suggesting that you do tip your wedding photographer & other wedding vendors? Not exactly.

Here’s my take on tipping:
If a vendor has gone above & beyond for you, then go ahead and tip them.

If they have showed up early and then stayed late, if they have stepped in & helped in a capacity outside of what they were hired to do, if they were helpful in the planning process & always there to answer questions (even if they weren’t directly related to what they were hired for), if they simply wow’ed your socks off – then yes!

A tip shows your appreciation & acknowledgement of that person going above & beyond (because, unfortunately, not every vendor goes above & beyond.)

Do you have to give them a tip though? No – most wedding vendors do not expect to receive a tip at the end of the night – I certainly don’t! And if you’ve maxed out your budget & additional gratuity money is simply not there, there are other ways you can show your appreciation!

• Leave 5-star super positive reviews on every wedding vendor platform you can think of: the business’s Google page, their Facebook page, Wedding Wire, The Knot, and certain wedding groups & forums have places for you to say how impressed you were with your vendors. Sing their praises from the rooftops – words are free & so so valuable to small businesses!
• Tell everyone you know about how amazing your wedding vendors were – especially newly engaged friends! Additionally, I’ve seen brides jump on forums & Facebook groups after their wedding & tell everyone how amazing their vendors were – positive feedback in a place where other brides & grooms will see it is always so helpful!
• Send them a little gift in the mail – maybe the night of the wedding, you simply forget to get tips together, or your budget is maxed at that point in time. But, then you go back to work, get a paycheck or two, and begin to have some extra money again. At the very least, a hand-written thank you card after the wedding is a beautiful gesture of gratitude (and if you really want to give a gift, slipping a gift card into that card is super easy).
• Continue to support your wedding vendors – even after your wedding day! Follow their blog & their social media accounts, ‘like’ their posts, and leave them comments. Trust me, those little things go a long long way in supporting your small-business wedding vendors!

If you decide that you do want to tip your wedding vendors with cash on the wedding night, I highly recommend that you delegate that task.

Put each tip in an envelope & label it with the vendor’s name & then hand those envelopes off to a bridesmaid or close friend. Wedding days fly by & the last thing you want to have to remember is to walk around & tip your vendors at the end of the night.

Lastly, if you want to give your wedding vendors a little something extra, but forget to get it together or simply forget to deliver it on the wedding day, don’t hesitate to follow through after you get back from your honeymoon & mail it over to them! I can’t tell you how many weddings I’ve been to, where in saying goodbye to either the bride & groom or their parents at the end of the night, I’m told: “Oh my! I have a tip for you..” followed by an excuse: “..but I forgot it” or “..it’s locked away in the getting ready room” etc. It’s always followed up with, “I’ll mail it to you!” However, have I ever received one of those promised tips? One time. Am I upset about that? No – because like I said at the beginning, I never expect a tip on a wedding day. But, if you promise to do something, follow through & do it. Even if you feel silly because a few weeks have passed. Or simply, don’t say anything at all.

So, should you tip your wedding vendors? It’s completely up to you! It isn’t required or expected, but if a wedding vendor has gone above & beyond for you, a tip simply shows your appreciation & acknowledgment of that action.