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There’s nothing sweeter than the ringing of wedding bells announcing the successful union of a happy couple … but that ringing can quickly turn to alarm bells if something goes wrong on or just before the big day.
The good news is – there’s insurance for that! Wedding insurance is growing in popularity across Canada. Products like PAL Insurance Brokers’ Weddinguard provide coverage for various wedding-related coverages, such as bridal attire, rings, flowers, photographs, cake, gifts, and rented property.
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All sorts of things can go wrong on the big day. Liquor liability and cancellation are two of the most common sources of claims when it comes to weddings, according to Amber Morrison-Givens, marketing director, PAL Insurance Brokers Canada.
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“Wedding cancellation claims occur for many reasons. It usually happens if a close family member falls sick or has an accident, and, as a result, the wedding is cancelled,” Morrison-Givens told Insurance Business. “PAL’s Weddinguard package actually started out mostly as wedding cancellation insurance. We cover wedding and honeymoon cancellation for a variety of reasons – but not cold feet!
“We soon noticed there was a need in the market for an insurance product beyond just wedding cancellation, so we expanded Weddinguard to include coverage for things like bridal attire, flowers, gifts, the photos, the rings, host liquor liability and the rented property.”
Liquor liability is a key element of wedding insurance. One too many toasts to the happy couple could leads to accidents and – worst case scenario – costly liquor liability claims.
“Most wedding venues require the event host, whether it’s a wedding or not, to carry their own general liability for use of the premises along with host liquor liability insurance if serving alcohol,” said Morrison-Givens. “The venue should carry their own policy but we see more often that the venue’s insurance carrier will not extend to cover the host of the event if the host was named in a lawsuit. Pretty much any wedding venue requires hosts to have this, whether it’s a hotel, a community hall, and even available for your own back yard.
“A lot of people don’t realise they need liquor liability insurance until the very last minute when the venue springs it on them. This then leads to last minute scrambling for liquor liability insurance that most people have never heard of and don’t know where to find it.”
Insurance brokers can’t be expected to know every single venue that requires liquor liability insurance, but they can advise clients that it’s a must-have coverage, said Morrison-Givens. Insurance is not always top-of-mind when it comes to wedding planning, which is where the trusted advice of a broker can really come into play.
Learn what is liquor liability insurance and how to protect commercial clients that manufacture, serve or sell alcohol.
Another potentially underinsured element of weddings is the rented property, according to Morrison-Givens.
“A lot of people maybe don’t realise you can get rented property coverage for weddings,” she said. “Some event rental companies may require the rental property be insured for damages (either by an extension purchased from the rental company or elsewhere). These individuals may not know they may be held responsible for damages to these rental items if they do not carefully read their rental agreement and we do see most clients are unaware of this exposure.
“If your clients want extra protection and peace-of-mind about all the money they’re spending, I think additional rented property insurance would be a really good investment.”
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