Insurance

[paulr5604]

Looking for some advice please.

I have been asked to do a wedding in October and was just wondering whether I should be taking any insurance cover out for the event. Public Liability and/or Professional Indemnity If I should can anyone recommend a company to use.

Thanks in advance
Paul

[BobSapey]

Re: Insurance

When I got married (1980) my boss offered to do the photos. He used 3 films but none of them came out. Never thought of claiming damages:)

[paulr5604]

Re: Insurance

Yeah but my thoughts at the moment are we now live in a claim it society.

[CountDavid]

Re: Insurance

Yeah but my thoughts at the moment are we now live in a claim it society.

I guess you may have answered your first question

David

[paul linton]

Re: Insurance

Not sure if you need it or not? But expect to pay around £90-£100 for cover.

Paul

Sorry here's some company's that do this type of cover- Ashburnham Insurance - Simply Business

[Bhuna]

Re: Insurance

First of all, I am not and do not claim to be an expert in this matter. I suppose questions to ask are:

Are you getting paid for this or just doing it for friends?
If paid, consider ensuring some form of contract is drawn up about what they are getting and limiting your liability to just the amount they have paid and then also consider insurance.

Google for a template to use.

[bobowen]

Re: Insurance

Paul

Firstly you need to clear on the difference between Public Liability & Professional Indemnity. I've tried to tailor the definitions for your proposed wedding photography.

Public liability insurance covers you against legal costs and compensation payments resulting from injuries or property damage to your client or members of the public which was caused by you.

Professional indemnity insurance covers legal costs and expenses incurred in your defence, as well as any costs that may be awarded, if you are alleged to have provided inadequate advice or service that cause your client to lose money.

The next question is 'are you being paid for your services and is there a contract between you and your client? If the answer is yes then you will need both Public Liability & Professional Indemnity. My advice would be to firstly speak to your own Home Insurer or an Insurance Broker.

If 'no' then I assume this is an informal agreement between friends and providing this is understood and agreed by both sides then it does become simpler. Your own Home Insurance policy will give you the Public Liability cover (as this is not your normal profession and there is no financial gain), but speak to them to check. As far as Professional Indemnity is concerned there should be no need but it would be prudent to check that your client/friend has taken out Wedding Insurance which should cover photos being retaken if there is a problem (although this may only apply to photos taken by professional photographers).

All this advice is given on my understanding of the covers available but I've have been retired for a few years now and things do change!

Bob
(Chartered Insurer)

[paulr5604]

Re: Insurance

They would be paying me about £160 for the day basically to cover the cost of a faster lens and an ETTL flashgun. If I have to pay for the insurance then as a one off event I don't think it would be of financial gain to me (it may well be a gain in terms of experience) but at this point in time I just don't have the spare cash to shell out for either insurance or equipment.

Thanks for the replies I may have to sit down with the couple and discuss things further to clarify what they are wanting etc

[Nathaniel]

Re: Insurance

As you are not being paid the market rate to cover the wedding, I don't think the wedding party can complain if the photos don't come out OK. On that basis I will not bother with any insurance cover. However, I would draw up a simple contract with some words like "to the best of my ability" somewhere in the blurb.

P.S Now that you have raised this subject I am wondering whether I should do something like this, every time I am requested to take photographs for the Cathedral. These are one off events and I do not get a second chance to put things right. I cover eventualities by taking two camera bodies with two sets of lenses just in case I hit some problem or the other. I also take the precaution of going to the venue and taking some trial photos (in the same lighting conditions) to make sure that everything is OK.

[bobowen]

Re: Insurance

Nat

I think your volunteer status would suffice. Be wary of drawing up any contract, you might be making things difficult for everyone concerned.
Your Public Liabiltiy would be covered under your Home policy.

Taking back up equipment is just a wise precaution!

Bob

[bobowen]

Re: Insurance

They would be paying me about £160 for the day basically to cover the cost of a faster lens and an ETTL flashgun. If I have to pay for the insurance then as a one off event I don't think it would be of financial gain to me (it may well be a gain in terms of experience) but at this point in time I just don't have the spare cash to shell out for either insurance or equipment.

Thanks for the replies I may have to sit down with the couple and discuss things further to clarify what they are wanting etc

Paul,

Get them to buy you what you want as a gift - keep it separate from the actual wedding.

Personally I think you are brave in agreeing to do something as important as a wedding. Rather you than me!

Bob

[Nathaniel]

Re: Insurance

Thanks Bob. Thats all I wish to know and I will not usurp Paul5604's thread.

[paulr5604]

Re: Insurance

Thanks for the replies I am feeling a lot happier about it now I will be arranging to meet them at the venue prior to the day to do some pre wedding shots to go through the poses for the day so that it keeps things as short on the day as possible to give me time to get the group shots in.

I will probably be borrowing my dads 400D as a backup. Okay its not as good as my 40D but as a backup it will be okay incase the 40D goes wrong.

[Paulstw]

Re: Insurance

I did a wedding for someone I didn't know. It was a favour to someone I did know. Their photographer jumped ship a week before the wedding. I charged them £250. I didn't have insurance. I made sure I kept my gear close, bag closed and never left where anyone could trip on it. My good lady was with me too and she held it all the time. The fact you're doing a wedding can be overwhelming, but don't treat it like that.

Do what you do best, take the pictures they want taken, everything else is a bonus. Honestly, throughout the course of the day, the nerves will settle and before you know it, you'll be getting creative with the shots. In the downtime I had the kids all running by me with balloons and jumping in the air and all that. I even had them blowing bubbles at the camera.

I didn't have a back up camera or anything. Granted it was a bit wreckless in hindsight.

[S_J_P]

Re: Insurance

Paul, picking up on your backup-camera comment and Paul's "...getting creative" line, you could set-up the backup camera at the ceremony location either facing the congregation with a wide-lens or a medium telephoto towards the B&G and then using a cheap (£12 or so) Intervalometer fire the camera periodically throughout the service (make sure it's far enough away to not detract from the proceedings), you can get some nice emotional candids this way (and you can even get some self-portraits )

If you insure your gear (as opposed to the liability insurance already discussed) check the small print. Some policies I've seen stipulate reduced-cover/increased-excess/no cover in certain "public places" - I'm not really sure whether this might apply to a wedding venue.