Insurance, liability and who carries the risk
Published
Insurance is dull until the week a supplier fails or a guest is injured, at which point it is the only part of the planning anyone cares about.
This page describes how the risk is structured and what to ask. It is not advice on your own affairs: policies differ enormously in what they cover, and the only document that matters is the wording of the one you are offered. Read it, or have someone read it for you.
The three separate risks
They get conflated and they are not the same thing.
Cancellation and postponement. The wedding does not happen, or happens later, and money already spent is lost. This is the risk with the largest financial number attached, because deposits accumulate for a year before anyone attends anything.
Supplier failure. A supplier takes a deposit and then goes out of business, or simply fails to arrive. You pay twice, at short notice, at a premium.
Public liability. A guest is injured, or property is damaged, and someone is responsible. This is the risk with the smallest probability and the largest tail, and it is the one a venue contract is most likely to place on you.
Public liability is the one to check first
Read the venue contract for the words that transfer liability. Many venue agreements make the hirer responsible for the conduct of their guests and for damage to the property, and some require the hirer to hold public liability cover as a condition of the booking.
Ask directly: is public liability cover required, at what level, and who must hold it? Then ask the same of every supplier who brings equipment or structures. A marquee company, a lighting supplier, a caterer running gas burners and a mobile bar all carry their own exposure and should carry their own cover. Ask for the certificate rather than the assurance — see marquees, anchoring and the wind question, where a temporary structure makes this concrete.
Municipal permission for a public space frequently comes with its own liability requirement, which is one of the items in beach ceremonies and municipal permission.
What cancellation cover typically does and does not do
Broad patterns, not promises. Verify every one against the actual wording.
Commonly covered: supplier insolvency or failure, damage to the venue that makes it unusable, illness or injury preventing the wedding going ahead, loss or damage to attire and rings, failure of transport in defined circumstances.
Commonly excluded or restricted: simply changing your mind; the couple separating; weather, which is the exclusion that surprises people most; anything already foreseeable when the policy was taken out; and events arising from circumstances the insurer has specifically carved out.
The weather point deserves emphasis. Most policies do not pay because it rained on your outdoor wedding. Some cover the extreme case where conditions make a venue physically inaccessible. Assume rain is your problem, and solve it with a wet weather plan rather than a policy.
Load shedding is not an insured event
Worth saying explicitly, because couples ask. A scheduled power outage is a known, published, ordinary feature of operating in South Africa. It is not an unforeseen event and it is not what a policy is for.
The mitigation is a venue with a generator that actually runs the kitchen, and confirmation of that in writing before you sign. Load shedding, generators and water is the whole conversation, and it is worth more to you than any policy.
Buy it early or do not bother
Insurance covers unforeseen events. A policy taken out after the problem is visible covers nothing.
The correct moment is when the first substantial deposit is paid, which is usually the venue. Every month you wait is a month of accumulated deposits sitting uninsured, and the premium does not fall for waiting.
Read the venue's own cancellation schedule as the primary document
Before insurance, understand what the venue itself will do. The schedule is usually a staircase: a proportion retained at one point, more later, all of it inside a certain window.
Ask what it is, ask what happens if you postpone rather than cancel, and ask whether a postponement within the same season is treated differently from a cancellation. The answers vary widely, and a venue that will move a date once without penalty is materially less risky than one that will not — a point that matters especially where family negotiation sets the date, as in a customary marriage.
The same applies to each supplier. Their cancellation terms are the exposure that insurance is being asked to cover, so read those first and you will know what you are actually insuring.
Deposits, and how you pay them
Two habits that reduce risk more than any policy.
Pay in a way that leaves a trace. Bank transfer to a business account named in the contract, with an invoice. A supplier who wants cash and provides no invoice is a supplier who cannot be pursued.
Check that the account details in an emailed invoice are the ones you were given originally. Invoice interception is a real and common fraud, and wedding suppliers are a frequent target because the amounts are large and the payers are distracted. Confirm changed banking details by telephone, on a number you already had, never on a number in the email that announced the change.
If you are paying from abroad, the mechanics and the exchange exposure are covered in budgeting across a currency.
Security and valuables on the day
At a rural venue, ask who is on site overnight, whether the gate is attended, whether there is a place to lock gifts and equipment, and who has keys. Suppliers frequently leave expensive equipment set up the night before, and where responsibility for it sits should be established rather than assumed.
Ask it as part of the twenty questions, and get the answer by email like everything else.