Getting married in Hawaii; do you tip the marriage coordinator?
 

We will be getting married in Hawaii in a few weeks and was wondering if you tip the marriage coordinator/Rev. and how much would be a reasonable tip?
Thanks!

It's usually not customary to tip the wedding coordinator. A nicely written thankyou note usually suffices.

ttt

I used to be a wedding coordinator, I always got tips. On the few occasions I did not, the bride brought me a gift (I worked at a resort in the USVI)

When I got married we followed the general rule that if the person providing you a service is the owner of the company, then no tip. If they are an employee of the company providing a service, they get a tip. Try looking on theknot.com - they are sure to have lots of advice on this.

I am not sure why you would write a thank you note to a paid wedding coordinator. They should write a thank you note to you, their valued customer.

You wouldn't think of sending a thank you note to most other businesses that sold you a service (unless they did something really exceptional for you). While a wedding is "something exceptional" for you, it is not for them. It is their job!

Totally agree with you Rusty!
Trisha, are you talking about the coordinator or the minister??

Rusty and BigJim -

I think sometimes people want to write thank you notes to whoever (photographer, florist, minister, etc)had a part in making their wedding day work as it usually involves months of planning and talking with those people numerous times. Brides (and grooms if they are helping!) sometimes develop a nice relationship with those people.

Besides, a thank you note only takes a few minutes to write and people usually really appreciate the sentiment.

Big Jim, the Minister and the wedding coordinator are husband/wife so, they both own the business. I'm assuming that since, I am paying them quite a sum of money , that it's not necessary to tip them? I appreciate your replies very much.

I used to work for a wedding coordinator and sometimes people tipped, sometimes they didn't. To be honest, I always felt funny when people tipped me!

So what would be a standard tip for this? Also, do you tip the photographer and minister too?

I didn't tip our photographer and I would NEVER tip a vendor like the photographer or the videographer or the florist. Their prices are outrageous enough as it is!!

mongo - I'm not sure what is the standard amount to tip... 15% is my guess. As far as I'm cncerned you tip a minister if they provided their services for free. Other than that - if a vendor is the owner of the company then no tip, if they are an employee, it's nice to tip. I don't think there are any hard and fast rules.