Do you tip the wedding DJ?

if a limo driver - or any service provider - said that to me, i'd take the money back and tell him to go fuck himself. later i'd call his employer to complain, write a letter to his supervisor to complain and write a letter to the local BBB or whatever authority (chamber of commerce, etc.) and complain about the poor service and rudeness of employees.

i'm actually a very generous tipper but i tip based on quality of service. i have no problem giving a lower tip if the service sucked.

by the way, we tipped our wedding DJ. i think we gave him $100 and it was up to him to tip out his assistant. we didn't know he was bringing an assistant. our wedding DJ was under strict instructions not to say a single word other than what was scripted - just a few things like the first couple of dances and such. he followed the instructions to the letter. in fact it was in our contract with the DJ company that the DJ would strictly adhere to the wedding party's requests as to how much we wanted him to talk.

 

George: So let me ask you a question about the tip jar. I had a little thing with the calzone guy this week. I go to drop a buck in the tip jar and just as I am about to drop it in he looks the other way. And then when I am leaving he gives me this look, like, "Thanks for nothing." I mean, if they don't notice it what's the point?

Jerry: So you don't make it a habit of giving to the blind?

George: Not bills.

 

Another nice thing to do is let the DJ or other service provider know that you can be used as a reference for prospective customers.

 

I was best man at a wedding about 10 years ago and as the best man, the father of the bride handed me $100 to tip the limo driver.

Then, he showed up 30 minutes late to pick up the groom and the groomsmen...
Then, the limo wasn't clean...
Then, he was rude to the mother of the bride...
Then, he refused to make a requested stop on the way to the reception. (The bride and groom wanted a photo at a specific place, which would have taken five minutes)...
Then, when my best friend graciously thanked the driver (why I have no idea...) the driver turned to me and said, "That asshole didn't tip me..."

Magically, the envelope with the $100 in it wound up in the birdcage with the rest of the bridal purse... When I told the father of the bride what I did, he hugged me...

 

At my best friend's wedding last September, the limo driver didn't pick us up. We had to hightail it to the ceremony ourselves. Needless to say, the driver wasn't tipped and he didn't pay the company any more than the deposit he had already given them.

They never called to ask for the rest of it either.

BTW, I see what you're saying about the DJ having the ability to ruin the reception with poor song selections, but you even said you provided him a playlist for yours. If all a guy has to do is look at a playlist and then play said songs, I don't see how that earns him a tip.

I like what shockey said about tipping a guy who works for a company and not tipping a guy who you're paying directly anyway. For a self-employed DJ, there's very little overhead once he has all the equipment and CDs (and for many of them, they got into by themselves and had most of it before they realized they could make money doing it). It's all profit for him anyway.

For the kid working for a company for $12/hr, I'd be more inclined to give something extra.

The point stands, though, I think it's ridiculous how much we tip people in this country just for doing their jobs -- especially ones which take little to no effort. Frankly, I'd rather tip the garbage man than a wedding DJ.

 

The guy we hired worked for a big company, but we asked beforehand who our DJ was going to be so we could meet with him...

We were both pretty worried that her brother was going to request some Cypress Hill or Dr. Dre and that my idiot uncle was going to try to Bogart the dance floor for line dancing and he assured us that he wouldn't let that happen.

He did everything right. He turned away a $20 from my uncle and to my knowledge my brother-in-law was on his best behavior just a month after having "Insane in the Brain" played at another wedding...

Not having to worry about that kind of crap on your wedding day is more than worth $100.

 

I agree with the company vs. self-employed argument. No need to stiff the poor schlub who's working for The Man® for $7 an hour to support his weed habit.

That said, I got married last month and the DJ cost me $335 for three hours. That was one of the cheaper ones around, and they did a good job. Outdoor reception, lots of soft, smooth jazz in the background. But when I'm already paying over $100 an hour for something, my tipping instinct gives way to common sense. Fuck the tip. We're already paying out the ass for it.

 

Funny. When my wife and I met with our DJ, she told him not to take any requests from my mother, who always wants to show off her line dancing skills. Me, I didn't care one way or the other. She's my mom, if she wants to line dance for four minutes, knock yourself out. But you know the odd things that can create stress between mother-in-laws and wives, so my wife wanted no part of a line dance at our wedding.

We've been married five years this weekend. And I am reminded, on a nearly weekly basis, of how the DJ still played a line dancing song for my mom and how my mom and sister were the only people on the dance floor.

 

A DJ? Why?



All you need.

 

Thanks for everyone's advice and rants. I've also done a little research on my own. Here's what some Web sites say if anyone is interested.

This site says to tip DJ's $50-100
http://www.theweddingzone.com/tipping.htm

This site says to tip $25-50
http://www.weddinghowto.com/tipping.htm

This site says not to tip the DJ owner, but his employees $50-100
http://www.frugalbride.com/tipping.html

This site says $25-100
http://www.tipping.org/tips/wedding.html