Wedding tip calculator: what to tip every vendor

How the calculator works

Turn on the vendors you hired, then add a cost or a head count where it matters. Each tip uses one of four methods: a percentage of the bill, a flat amount, an amount per person, or an amount per car or guest. Modest uses the bottom of the published range, standard uses the middle and generous uses the top. Amounts are rounded to the nearest $5 so they are easy to put in an envelope.

The ranges come from Zola’s tipping guide (updated June 2026), WeddingWire’s tipping guide and The Knot’s cheat sheet. They do not always agree. Zola suggests 1 to 5 percent or about $200 for a DJ, The Knot suggests $50 to $150, and WeddingWire suggests 10 to 15 percent. We use flat ranges for those vendors because a percentage of a large contract can produce a tip nobody expects. Each vendor’s note shows where the sources differ.

Check your contracts first

This is the check that matters most. Search each contract for “gratuity” and “service charge” before you do anything else. Catering is the big one: on a $9,000 bill, a 17.5 percent tip would be about $1,575. If the contract already adds gratuity, you owe nothing more.

A service charge is not always the same thing as a gratuity. Ask your venue or caterer whether it goes to the staff who work your wedding. If it does not, a smaller cash tip for the team is a kind gesture.

A worked example

Here is the default result on this page, a 120-guest wedding at the standard level. Catering, bartenders and the shuttle already include gratuity, so those are $0. The rest looks like this:

• Hair and makeup, $500 bill at 17.5 percent: $90 after rounding
• DJ, employee of a company: $125
• Officiant: $75
• Two florist crew members at $15 each: $30
• Cake delivery: $30

That is $350 in expected tips. An owner-operated photographer and a planner add $250 of optional tips, for $600 if you give both. Remove the gratuity from the catering contract and that total would jump by more than $1,500, which is why the check above matters so much.

Getting the cash ready

Do this a week before the wedding. The result shows exactly how many of each bill to ask your bank for, so you are not trying to make change on the day. Label every envelope with the vendor’s name, add a short thank you note if you can, and print the list so your point person knows who gets what and when.

Keep two or three spare $20 bills in case a crew shows up with an extra person. Bring back what you do not use. If a vendor who was marked optional went above and beyond, you will be glad to have it.

Edge cases

Friends and family helping out. If a friend is officiating or doing your makeup, skip the cash and give a meaningful gift instead.

Destination weddings. WeddingWire suggests tipping in local currency where you can and asking your venue coordinator about local customs before you plan the envelopes.

Clergy. Donations go to the institution and are often separate from any required fee. Ask the office what is customary and whether they prefer a check.

A tight budget. Everything here is optional. Tip hourly staff and crews first, since owners set their own prices. A detailed review costs nothing. If you are using a cash registry like RegistryBee, payouts reach your bank account every Monday, so you can plan your tip withdrawal around them.