Wedding Public Liability Insurance

Public liability insurance can cover you if you're found responsible for injuring another person or causing damage to their property as a result of an accident at your wedding.

It's included with many wedding insurance policies, either as standard or as an optional extra. Some venues will require a minimum amount of cover, so it's worth checking what's needed before choosing your policy.

Do I need public liability insurance for my wedding?

Public liability insurance isn't always required for a wedding, but an increasing number of wedding venues are now insisting that couples have it. If your venue requires cover, they'll usually tell you the minimum amount you need.

This is often £2 million of cover, although some venues require £5 million or more. Before buying a policy, check the level of cover your venue requires and whether this needs to cover just the bride and groom, or your guests as well. Cover for the bride and groom is sometimes referred to in policy documents as 'personal liability'.

Public liability cover can be bought separately, but it is also available as part of most wedding insurance policies. Basic cover is usually included as standard, with options to increase the level of cover and extend it to include liability for guests for an additional premium.

If your venue has asked for a particular level of cover, our comparison table shows the cover available with each wedding insurance policy, including which policies offer £5 million cover as standard and which offer it as an optional extra.

What does wedding public liability insurance cover?

Public liability insurance might cover situations such as:

• Accidental damage to the wedding venue, for example a guest spilling red wine over an expensive carpet or rug.
• A guest getting injured, perhaps having slipped on a wet floor.
• Negligence by one of your guests, for example if a guest spills hot coffee over another guest.
• Someone dropping a cigarette and accidentally setting fire to part of the venue. Deliberate acts of arson would almost certainly not be covered though.

Public Liability vs Personal Liability

Exactly who is covered depends on the policy. Many wedding insurance policies include cover for 'personal liability' as standard, although not all do so make sure to check policies carefully. You may need to add it as a policy extra.

Where included, it usually only covers the Bride and Groom. You'll sometimes see it referred to as 'Public Liability cover for the Bride and Groom'.

As a policy add-on, for an additional premium, you can usually extend this cover to include incidents of accidental damage or injuries which your invited wedding guests are legally liable for too.

Finally, you can purchase a further add-on to increase the public liability cover limits, usually up to something around £5 million. Some venues will require you to have higher levels of cover than you might get as standard, so it's important to check exactly how much cover your venue needs.

As with all insurance products, you should always read the small print carefully to check specifically what the policy does and doesn't include.

Whether you need £2 million or £5 million of public liability cover, or want to extend cover to include your guests, there are a number of options available. Take a look at our comparison table to see how the cover and prices compare.