Wedding Insurance and Public Liability

An increasing number of wedding venues are now insisting that couples take out some form of public liability insurance themselves - often £2 million of cover, sometimes £5 million or even more. This might be bought as a standalone insurance product or part of a more comprehensive wedding insurance policy.

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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.

Fortunately though, public liability cover can easily be purchased as part of a wedding insurance package. Some wedding insurance providers include public liability cover as a standard feature of their policies, whereas other insurers will add cover for just a small additional premium, usually around the £20 mark.

Public Liability vs Personal Liability

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. National Trust properties, for example, will require you to have cover limits at higher amounts than you might get as standard.

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're looking for personal liability cover or public liability, wedding insurance is a great way of providing financial peace of mind for your special day. There are a number of companies that provide wedding insurance in the UK and many of them are listed on our comparison table. You can see at a glance the products that they offer and can order them by premium and amount of cancellation cover provided.