What insurance does your event actually need?

Insurance is the least interesting part of planning and occasionally the most important. Most venues require some form of it, most couples buy the cheapest option available, and very few read what it covers.

The three kinds

Public liability covers injury to a guest or damage to the venue. This is the one venues require, commonly at $10 or $20 million, and many will not let you through the door without a certificate.

Check whether your suppliers carry their own. Most professional suppliers do, and a reputable one will provide a certificate on request. A supplier without public liability is a meaningful warning sign.

Event cancellation covers your costs if the event cannot proceed — illness, a venue closing, a supplier failing, extreme weather. This is the one worth reading carefully, because exclusions vary enormously.

Property and equipment covers loss or damage to hired items, gifts, attire and rings. Often bundled, often capped low.

Read the exclusions, not the inclusions

The inclusion list is marketing. The exclusion list is the policy. Things routinely excluded:

• Change of heart, for any reason
• Weather, unless it makes the venue physically unusable
• Supplier insolvency, unless specifically named
• Anything already known about when you bought the policy
• Cash and gifts above a modest cap

That last one surprises people. Gift envelopes at a wedding can hold a significant sum, and a standard policy may cap the cover far below it.

Buy it early

Cancellation cover only works for things not yet known. Buying a policy after a supplier has started wobbling, or after a forecast has turned, excludes exactly the thing you are worried about. The right time is when the first large deposit is paid.

Ask your suppliers for certificates

Request a certificate of currency from every supplier and keep them in one place. The venue may ask for them. More usefully, it tells you who is operating professionally.

A note on deposits

Insurance is not a substitute for paying carefully. Credit card payments carry chargeback rights that bank transfers do not. For large deposits to a supplier you have not worked with, that protection is worth more than the card fee.

None of this is exciting. It is also about an hour of work, once, and it is the difference between an expensive problem and a catastrophic one.