This story was originally published on March 5, 2020, and last updated on June 6, 2023.
What is wedding event insurance and do you and your partner even need it as you plan your wedding? Here’s my advice as a professional wedding planner.
What is event insurance?
Event insurance is, as advertised, insurance for an event. More specifically, it’s an insurance policy you take out to cover your wedding. It’s also called “event liability” insurance, “special event insurance,” and, sometimes, “wedding insurance.”
It comes in a lot of different flavors (hit the article link at the end of this article for even more details) but most often, when my clients are required to get event insurance it’s a one-day policy for the day of their wedding at a specific venue.
Want a professional to gut check your wedding planning? Here’s what people have to say about renting my Virgo wedding planner brain for an hour.
Do I even need it?
It depends. I’ve never had a client buy event insurance when their venue didn’t require it. (Most people had never even heard of it before the venue mentioned it during a tour or they saw it in their venue’s contract.)
Can you get it even if it’s not required? Sure, people will always take your money. Plus, some people enjoy the peace of mind having an insurance policy provides. If you’re like 99.9 percent of my clients, though, event insurance is just one more expense during an already expensive time so they only get it when it’s required.
How many venues do require event insurance?
I’d say about half of the venues I work. Anecdotally, I’ve noticed more popular venues (i.e. the ones who do a higher volume of weddings) usually are more likely to require a couple buy event insurance, which, you know, makes sense. They do a lot of weddings. They see a lot of things.
How much does it cost?
Usually $100 to $175.
What about alcohol?
Sometimes your venue will ask that you add “liquor liability” to an event insurance policy.
Often, if you’ve hired a caterer who is also serving the alcohol, they will carry this type of insurance and you will not need to buy it. However, if you have not hired a caterer to serve the alcohol and instead arranged licensed bartenders, you may need to buy it. Ask whomever is serving. When in doubt, check with the venue.
When liquor liability is added, it seems to increase the overall price of the insurance. The highest quote I’ve ever seen for event insurance including liquor liability was $301.29. That seemed really high to me but the client told me it was the cheapest option that she had found for her particular situation.
When do I need to get it by?
Usually, a venue doesn’t need proof of event insurance until you give them their final payment (so, often two to four weeks before the wedding). The “proof” will be the PDF of the policy; it’s typically one to two pages and sent to you by the insurance company once you purchase the policy.
Where do I buy it?
OK, this is the good news: You can buy it online.
The Event Helper, WedSafe, and Travelers Insurance are the most common recommendations I see from venues but I suggest you start with your regular insurance agent (sometimes you get a better rate).
When you do buy the policy, be sure to check your contract with the venue.
Often, the venue will include specific details that you need for the policy including the liability coverage insurance limit ($1 million is common), what the policy needs to cover (often, bodily injury and property damage), and who needs to be listed as the insured (typically, the name of the venue but sometimes also a specific person who owns or works at the venue).
Will anybody need to see the proof of insurance?
Usually, just your venue needs to see the proof of insurance. As a wedding coordinator, I also ask for it so I can have a copy on file just in case (as of this writing, no one has ever asked to see the proof of insurance at a wedding but I believe in back-ups).
Every once and awhile, I’ll see a note in a vendor’s contract asking that they also be named on an event insurance policy. Usually they only ask for this if the event insurance is required elsewhere (i.e. a vendor won’t ask you to get an event insurance policy just for them). I’ve seen this maybe one or two times so I wouldn’t consider it standard practice.
I always offer to review my client’s contracts with vendors and venues as part of my work with them but you can also totally do this yourself.
Does this insure my wedding if we cancel?
No. That’s a different type of insurance (fun!) or an add-on you can add to this policy, which, again, specifically covers things that happen at the venue on the specific day of your wedding and nothing that happens to your wedding before that date.
The COVID-19 pandemic made this different type of insurance popular because of the high rate of postponements and cancellations. If you’re interested in this type of insurance, look for the words “postponement” and “cancellation” in the policy.