A Guide to Gratuity & Our Tip Payment Portal
We do everything possible to make your wedding weekend smooth and stress-free, including gratuity.
Just like at a restaurant, gratuity is an important part of hospitality workers’ earnings. To make things easy, you do not need to prepare envelopes of cash or decide which team members should receive what amount. Our gratuity portal allows you to submit gratuity by credit card, and our payroll system uses a detailed allocation formula to distribute it fairly among eligible team members based on their role, seniority, and the hours they worked supporting your celebration.
Who Receives Gratuity?
At Blenheim, gratuity is shared among the team members who help bring your wedding to life—from the people who prepare the property and lodging before your arrival, to the bartenders, servers, cooks, managers, groundskeepers, and event staff who work throughout your wedding weekend.
Owners, partners, and team members who work exclusively off-site do not participate in gratuity distributions.
How Much Should We Tip?
Most couples choose a gratuity between 7.5% and 12% of their total spending, with 10% being our recommended gratuity level.
The gratuity portal includes convenient pre-calculated options based on your total spending, making it easy to choose the amount that feels appropriate for your celebration.
When Should We Tip?
Most couples and their families submit gratuity a few days before the wedding.
Because gratuity is distributed through payroll, submitting it before the wedding helps ensure it reaches the team in a timely manner. It also allows you to check one more item off your planning list so you can fully enjoy your wedding weekend.
While our team will always give every celebration their absolute best effort, gratuity is an important part of hospitality workers’ earnings. Knowing it has already been taken care of is highly motivating to the many people who will be preparing for, supporting, and working throughout your wedding weekend. For that reason, we recommend completing gratuity before the wedding weekend begins, and no later than the evening of your reception.
How Do We Calculate Total Spending?
Gratuity is based on your Total Spending with our organization.
Total Spending includes your venue contract, lodging, rehearsal dinner, brunch, afterparty, additional guests, upgrades, enhancements, bonfires, and any other purchases made through our venue and planning process.
To determine your Total Spending, visit the Supporting Documents folder within your Couple Portal. There you will find your contract as well as receipts for any additional purchases made through the Roadmap.
As an example:
Contract Value: $42,000
Additional Purchases & Upgrades: $5,700
Total Spending: $47,700
In this example, a 10% gratuity would be approximately $4,770. Most couples simply select the closest available option within the gratuity portal.
Why Is Gratuity Based on Total Spending?
Unlike a restaurant, where operating costs are built into food and beverage pricing, wedding venues and event operations often separate venue, lodging, food, beverage, staffing, rentals, and enhancements into different categories.
Basing gratuity on Total Spending helps ensure the gratuity appropriately reflects the overall scope of your celebration and the number of people whose work contributes to its success.
As guest counts, event duration, lodging occupancy, and enhancements increase, additional team members are hired and more labor is required behind the scenes. Gratuity helps recognize the collective effort that goes into producing a successful wedding weekend.
A Final Thought About Gratuity
A wedding requires the effort of dozens of people working across many days, and often weeks, before your celebration even begins.
From preparing guest accommodations and maintaining the property to cooking, serving, bartending, coordinating, cleaning, and supporting your events behind the scenes, gratuity plays an important role in recognizing the people whose work helps make your wedding weekend memorable.
Weddings are physically demanding work to produce. At Blenheim, where celebrations often span multiple indoor and outdoor event spaces across hundreds of acres, that effort is amplified. Long days, late nights, heavy lifting, constant attention to detail, and an unwavering commitment to guest experience are all part of what it takes to execute a successful wedding. While much of that work happens behind the scenes, it is the reason your celebration feels stress-free and effortless.
Thank you for supporting the amazing people who help make your wedding at Blenheim a reality.