I have a really short speel I go through when meeting Brides who ask about these things during the consultation. It lasts about 20 seconds and gets all this stuff out of the way. I tell them we have public liability, professional indemnity, backup cameras, backup lighting (in case it's raining and we have to shoot everything inside), backup vehicles (no one can 100% guarantee their car will start on a winter morning right?), more memory cards and batteries than we've ever used and of course lots of backup and archive capacity.
Our contract also recommends they take out wedding insurance to cover instances where we would not be contractually liable for non performance (e.g. circumstances beyond our control, fire, flood etc).
If you don't have insurance - you shouldn't be shooting weddings. Period. End of story. No Excuses.
I do.... but not as one of my selling points. It usually comes up somewhere at the end of the meeting, when we are going over the technicalities. 50% of the time, they bring it up... either because they've read that they should ask about back-ups and insurance... or because their venue requires all vendors to provide proof of insurance.
Venues are increasingly asking to see their photographers insurance because if sh!t hits the fan often everyone is sued, including the venue. A local hotel which is part of a large international chain requires proof of liability insurance before offering any commercial work.
But in 120 weddings just one couple has asked me if I had insurance so it's not too high on most couples list.
I know for a fact that I'm the ONLY photography liability insurance client at my local agency, which is one of the largest in the city. This is in a city that has over 40 wedding photographers.
The quickest way to kill a conversation among photographers is ask where they are insured .. or ask how much their municipal licences and taxes were last year. Dead silence
