Speaking of weddings.....insurance, and am I missing something?

[aja8888]

The other wedding thread got me wound up.

We are marrying off DD in late April at a rented "wedding venue" facility nearby and expect to have about 75 guests. I have it set up for catering a Texas BBQ buffet, open bar with ONLY beer and wine, and the usual experienced photographer, licensed bartender, security guard, disc jockey, decorator, etc.

We are not planning on having a paid "wedding coordinator" as I see this as a straight forward event and have already hired the contractors and paid deposits. We made and sent out wedding invitations and ordered flowers, table centerpieces, etc, etc. Event coordination duties at the day of the wedding will be split between two family members who are not in the wedding party and are capable of this task. We don't see this as a huge task as all the contractors are very experienced in providing wedding services.

What I haven't done yet is evaluate "wedding insurance" as this product is suggested to be obtained by the Venue owner in their handouts. I'm leaning toward getting a policy due to the fact that we are serving alcohol and who knows what can happen there? Apparently, this coverage also covers other situations if contractors don't show up, personal items are damaged (wedding dress, etc), etc.

I have been shopping online insurance applications and they seem to be vague in the details of the coverage until after you buy the policy, which I have obviously not done yet. Not providing all the policy details may be OK, but never having bought this coverage, I am hesitant to pull the payment trigger.

Since you are all such an experienced and knowledgeable group , I am asking folks here what experiences they have in this area of liability and property damage insurance for weddings (and possibly other similar events).

Thanks for any comments/experiences you can share.

 

[pb4uski]

At one point when we were considering having the ceremony on a lakeside lawn near where the reception was being held the owner expressed a concern with liability and dd mentioned this. Since we decided on something different I never checked into it... had never even heard of it until then.

Does the subcontractor providing the open bar have insurance that protects you and them if they serve someone who is inebriated? Might check with your insurance agent too.

A mistake that I made was that I let that one fall through the cracks because the family of the groom offered to provide and pay for the open bar and they made all the arrangements, including hiring a bartender. As it turns out, some of the wedding party were totally blasted, but luckily none ended up driving so it all turned out ok.

 

[aja8888]

The bartending service contract only provides a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission licensed bartender. No liability insurance on their part and the client agrees to indemnify them in the event of an incident. That's pretty typical with the TACB. Although he bartenders have a responsibility to quit serving people that appear to have had their share.

 

[txtig]

The TACB Bartenders License you mention is really a Servers Certificate that can be obtained online with a few hours of training and passing a written test. I wouldn’t count on that ensuring that the server is responsible enough to cut off an overserved customer.

 

[aja8888]

The TACB Bartenders License you mention is really a Servers Certificate that can be obtained online with a few hours of training and passing a written test. I wouldn’t count on that ensuring that the server is responsible enough to cut off an overserved customer.

I'm not counting on that at all. But the venue facility requires that a bartender have a TACB license so we have hired one. My questions are really on experience with wedding insurance and any advice related to that.

 

[MooreBonds]

What I haven't done yet is evaluate "wedding insurance" as this product is suggested to be obtained by the Venue owner in their handouts. I'm leaning toward getting a policy due to the fact that we are serving alcohol and who knows what can happen there? Apparently, this coverage also covers other situations if contractors don't show up, personal items are damaged (wedding dress, etc), etc.

I have been shopping online insurance applications and they seem to be vague in the details of the coverage until after you buy the policy, which I have obviously not done yet. Not providing all the policy details may be OK, but never having bought this coverage, I am hesitant to pull the payment trigger.

Wedding insurance is no different than any other insurance product. The true goal of insurance is to buy coverage for replacement/repair of items that would be prohibitively expensive to replace out of pocket.

The first task is to put the insurer's feet to the fire and make them tell you exactly what it covers (including deductibles) before you purchase it. For them to hum and haw and not show everything is ridiculous - and sounds no different than a timeshare presentation of "if you buy this timeshare now, you can get great benefits in this owner's manual and exchange the property for points for other properties - but I won't let you see what amenities there are in the manual, or what exact other properties and times you can exchange this for, until AFTER you buy".

It sounds like the wedding is somewhat straightforward, without too many moving parts. What do you see as possible pitfalls? Bartenders not showing up? What would insurance do in that instance - would it be like American Express Travelers Cheques and bring an immediate replacement within 5 minutes? Nope. It's still up to you (and the inlaws) to scurry around and find a replacement at the 11th hour. Unless there is some network of people on standby to help you solve any and every problem regardless of the hour of the day or night.

Say the dress gets buggered up. What exactly would happen? Would you be willing to endure the wrath of looking at DD and saying "gee, honey, the insurance policy covers up to $X,000 for a wedding dress replacement. To have them air freight a replacement dress in from France and drive in the only seamstress that is available from 300 miles away will cost 4,000 more, and insurance won't cover that...so we'll have to go to Plan B"? Or would you still do reasonable measures (and spend more money) to ensure things still go smoothly, even if it costs more than what the insurance will cover?

With a one-time event like a wedding, would the insurance just provide some form of surety that someone doesn't walk off with your deposit and does a no-show? Some subjective things (the steak was supposed to be served medium, but was served rare) might be difficult to prove to be made whole by the insurer. And I'm sure the process of filing a claim would probably be even worse than trying to navigate through the hoops of filing claims for a long-term care policy for reimbursement.

 

[Scrapr]

With a one-time event like a wedding, would the insurance just provide some form of surety that someone doesn't walk off with your deposit and does a no-show? Some subjective things (the steak was supposed to be served medium, but was served rare) might be difficult to prove to be made whole by the insurer. And I'm sure the process of filing a claim would probably be even worse than trying to navigate through the hoops of filing claims for a long-term care policy for reimbursement.

LOL...and the portions were so small!

 

[aja8888]

Thanks MooreBonds.

Like all forms of insurance, this stuff is pushed hard to wedding planners and venues. I guess they get a cut if you buy a policy. I'm also shaking my brain about what could really go wrong at the wedding if all the planning is done properly. All the vendors we are using seem to have a good track record of showing up and doing their part.

My only concern is someone getting injured during the reception activities of the place catching fire. But those would be low probability events.

Maybe we don't need to get this event insurance. Tomorrow I am going to see if I can get my hands on some representative policies to read through coverages and exceptions.

 

[pb4uski]

In case you haven't seen this.

https://www.theknot.com/content/wedding-insurance-101

Sounds similar to travel insurance.

 

[aja8888]

In case you haven't seen this.

https://www.theknot.com/content/wedding-insurance-101

Sounds similar to travel insurance.

Thanks, had not seen that.

 

[Sunset]

I never have thought of this, to me the big issue would be liability, some guest trips getting to the dance floor and breaks a leg.

If the wedding dress gets spilled on, who cares as it's supposed to be used only once

 

[Teacher Terry]

I would have thought the venue would have insurance since it is their business. I have never been at a wedding with a security guard.

 

[Moemg]

On the Boglehead's there was a post about a couple having their wedding presents taken by the Mother of the bride to support her drug habit.

 

[aja8888]

I would have thought the venue would have insurance since it is their business. I have never been at a wedding with a security guard.

The guard is for handing unruly guests and he is a local sheriff working part time (many do). I would imagine that some weddings can get crazy if the guests are not well behaved. His charge to us is ~$300 and that's fine with us.

The venue suggests the renter (us) get insurance. Kind of like renter's insurance for your apartment.

I would suspect they (venue management) have a policy that covers their interests with liability and property damage coverage. A good bit of the time, the venue facility is not rented out and they have employees onsite. Their coverage does not extend to users such as wedding parties. That's why they recommend us get coverage.

My concern lies with bodily injuries to guests and to a lesser extent, property damage. So I guess for the $400 or so, we will buy a policy.

 

[aja8888]

On the Boglehead's there was a post about a couple having their wedding presents taken by the Mother of the bride to support her drug habit.

Thanks for the head's up on this!

 

[MichaelB]

I can't imagine a comprehensive insurance policy that realistically covers most of the expenses incurred by the wedding party. At best, some key contracted high-cost services, such as reception, photographer, etc. Even then, coverage may still be limited by cause.

DD's wedding was almost cancelled due to Hurricane Wilma. The storm hit 3 weeks before the big day, and 2 weeks later, there still was no power in all of South Florida. Most of the wedding was either paid for or contractually due, but there were all kinds of other expenses that would be beyond any insurance policy. In addition, most of the guests were flying in from out of town / out of the country, and this airfare was entirely non-refundable, and their collective loss would have been significant.

 

[Walt34]

The guard is for handing unruly guests and he is a local sheriff working part time (many do). I would imagine that some weddings can get crazy if the guests are not well behaved.

Oh that can and does happen! When I was in patrol we were called to several weddings, one I remember at a high-end country club where a couple of guests started duking it out in the men's room and it spilled out into the lobby. The look on the bride's face when she saw the police there was priceless.

Surly that one will be a wedding for the family to remember.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I have never been to a wedding with a brawl) The insurance makes sense then if theirs does not cover you and your guests.

 

[meierlde]

You might check with your homeowners agent, to see if you are covered there (including any umbrellas) and if still concerned ask about a short term event liability policy (covering events that occur say on the 2 or 3 days the wedding is happening.) Here is a website offering that sort of coverage except if you have over 12k guests. https://www.nationwide.com/general-liability-special-events-hb.jsp
In particular you then assume all the cancellation risks etc, but are covered by brawl, drunken individuals etc.

 

[aja8888]

You might check with your homeowners agent, to see if you are covered there (including any umbrellas) and if still concerned ask about a short term event liability policy (covering events that occur say on the 2 or 3 days the wedding is happening.) Here is a website offering that sort of coverage except if you have over 12k guests. https://www.nationwide.com/general-liability-special-events-hb.jsp
In particular you then assume all the cancellation risks etc, but are covered by brawl, drunken individuals etc.

The first person I checked with was my homeowner's agent. Since the affair is off the premises, no coverage applied. He pointed me to the wedding insurance websites.

 

[ncbill]

Umbrella insurance isn't restricted to liability only at one's home.

Does the OP have that?

 

[CoolRich59]

This is not my area, but it seems that there are two potential areas of concern.

First is "liability" stuff: someone tripping and falling, an over-served guest leaving and having a car accident, etc.

The second is the umpteen "planning" things that could go wrong: photographer fails to show, the wedding dress tailoring is botched, etc.

Buying insurance to cover the planning stuff seems like a waste of money to me.

However, the liability area would be a real concern to me. That being said, my next thought would be: Who is responsible for insuring this risk? I would say it is the venue owner. This is probably why they are trying to get you to buy a policy - so your policy can be primary in case of a loss and save them $$.

My next thought would be to have a call with your insurance agent. To the extent it is a good idea for you to provide any coverage, you may already have it if you have an umbrella policy. If your umbrella policy would not cover this event, you still may able to purchase a rider to cover the event for a nominal cost.

 

[Just_Steve]

I would have thought the venue would have insurance since it is their business. I have never been at a wedding with a security guard.

I went to one and the reception venue had metal detectors.
Back in the day I used to associate with some who lived life on, shall we say the fringes of society.

 

[Pilot2013]

DD is getting married in June. The only insurance required for us, is due to alcohol being served. We can get one time coverage through homeowners for less than $100...

 

[aja8888]

We have an Umbrella Policy. It does not cover offsite personal liability associated with a wedding reception. Our insurance rep suggested we buy the wedding insurance through another insurer.

We are only concerned about the liability issue (someone getting injured).

I will check with our insurance rep about a one time rider related to alcohol as piot2013 indicated he did. (Thanks!)