Seems a little odd...

At my final walkthrough, my venue recommended we give a 15-20% gratuity of our total bill in cash a few days PRIOR to our wedding date so they can "distribute it to the wait staff and for us not to worry about envelopes the day of."  

Here are my concerns:

-  15% gratuity will be close to $4,000
-  I have a wedding planner handling pretty much everything
-  There are 12 waiters working that day, maybe a couple bartenders, one bridal attendant and a maitre d.

Can someone please tell me, is this a normal request?  I understand tipping is standard but at what cost?  And why ahead of time?

How are all you brides handling the tipping process? This seems a bit excessive...

RE:Seems a little odd...

Our venue recommended $3-$5 per guest as a tip for the maitre d, which he would then split amongst the wait/bar staff, and an addition $100-$150 for the bridal attendant. That was around 5% of our venue bill, and we thought that was reasonable (our maitre d and bridal attendant were AMAZING on the day of...) However, we gave all of our tips out the day of, to the individuals, with sincere thanks. For what it's worth, I wouldn't have been comfortable handing in an envelope of cash to the venue before the event. But maybe that's just me....

RE:Seems a little odd...

Thank you for your response. It was very helpful. I’d love to hear from other brides too...  how are you handling the tipping process?