It’s the morning of another event Saturday. Early this morning I received a text from my client asking how much she should tip the caterer.

This is a very common question… who should I tip and how much? This is a very subjective question. I know how hard wedding vendors work to ensure a smooth and happy wedding day. I always suggest tipping, particularly if you feel that you received extraordinary service.

Who should you tip? Potentially everyone — Catering managers, servers, banquet captains, bartenders, the bellmen, photographers, videographers, floral designers, wedding planners, entertainers, everyone who works on the event.

How much? That is largely dictated by budget. Even a small tip is appreciated. It shows that you recognize a job well done and an extraordinary effort. I have seen tips of $20.00 to more than $1000.00.

My feeling is that the most important part of the tip is the thank you note. Take time to write a little note to each vendor you know personally to thank them for a job well done.

I’m going to share one of my little secrets with you… I like to give out tips prior to the wedding taking place. Before the reception begins, usually during setup, I take my clients’ tips and thank you notes and hand them out to each vendor privately and tell the vendor that this is a gift from the family in anticipation of a beautiful wedding day. I find that this makes the vendors even more eager to please. I have never had an instance where the family regretted the tip later. If you don’t have a wedding planner to do this, give the job to the best man. Traditionally, it was his duty to hand out gratuities.

So, when it comes to your wedding vendors, think generously… Not just with money, but with praise and thanks. It will go along way to making a spectacular wedding celebration.

Destination Weddings seems to be a topic on everyone’s minds. We at Just Marry! have seen a big increase in destination weddings here in Orlando and outbound as well.

A college student writing an article for Boston University just contacted me to ask me questions about the pros and cons of planning a destination wedding. As soon as the article comes out, I will link to it. Anyway, one of her questions was, is a destination wedding less or more expensive than a traditional wedding.

That is an interesting question!

My associate Aimee Bressler handles most of our inbound Orlando destination weddings. Her brides typically have fifty guests or fewer. Many of her clients say that they decided to do a destination wedding specifically so they don’t have to invite 250 guests to attend. Some of them do it for budgetary reasons, others do it because they don’t want to be “on stage” on their wedding day.

Aimee’s clients typically spend between $3000.00 and $12,000.00 on their entire wedding. That certainly seems like a big savings over an in-town traditional wedding.

Michele Butler and I typically handle the outbound destination weddings and the large in-bound destination weddings. Our clients for outbound weddings typically have ten to 100 guests and spend starting at $40,000.00. That’s a lot of money for ten people! The reason these couples do it, usually has something to do with sentimentality. They want to be married in a place that is very special to them and they want to share that place with their guests.

Our inbound destination weddings spend anywhere from $40,000.00 to $150,000.00 or more. These weddings typically have 150 guests or more. These couples usually say they marry here because the guests live all over the country, or all over the world, and they wanted to have their wedding in a location that was easy to travel to and had lots of things for their guests to do.

So, can you save money planning a destination wedding? Absolutely, but you have to plan carefully!