Destination Wedding (uk) Liability Insurance ... with Animals!

I don't have any advice, but I did go to a Harry Potter themed wedding a few years ago that also had owls on site with a falconry expert. It was super neat, and I really hope this works out for you!

Ok, the owls at the Harry Potter wedding does sounds cool. I am freaked out at fireworks + falconry! Fireworks and animals don’t mix. And weddings tend to seem like stressful events for animals in general (even pets). Can you get insurance if you just stick with fireworks?

This is odd. The handler's insurance should cover any harm or damage caused by the animal. The venue should be covered by their own insurance and you as the customer shouldn't need any insurance. Have you talked to the handler?

View Quoted Comment

Thanks for the comments everyone!

@Samantha - the animal handlers do have their own insurance! The issue is that we have very few choices for main liability insurance we are trying to get (which is required by the venue), since we are an American couple getting married in the UK. Of these few choices, they don't want to supply liability insurance since animals are present for a part of the event.
- It's a bit odd - the venue is a Grade I English Heritage building (a castle) so I would assume it has its own insurance, but the contract requires us to have a certificate for our own liability insurance as well.

@Pirate - Don't worry, the fireworks would be late at night (9:30 pm) and the falconry would be during cocktail hour (~3 PM). I agree, would not be fair to the birds to have fireworks anywhere near them. The birds would be far-off the property by the time there are fireworks. (To clarify, we are very attached to the falconry display idea as it is more unique and "us" as a couple - the fireworks are a cool add on but not necessary).

Unfortunately the liability insurance companies - even wedding-based ones - seem to hate all those things - live animals, fireworks/sparkles, and bouncy houses. Which I find rather odd since sparkles and fireworks at least are rather common at weddings.

Follow up:
If anyone else has this issue, I finally managed to find liability insurance for US citizens going overseas! The key was to search "Foreign Event Insurance" instead of "destination wedding insurance" or "uk insurance" or "international wedding insurance" or anything like that.
I managed to find a place called Film Emporium that will insure (normally they do insurance for movie shoots and music events overseas). But our quote is 650$ - quite a steep price! However it's there, which is what I need. Hope this helps someone else out in the future!

View Quoted Comment You are my hero! My fiancée and I are also U.S. citizens having a London wedding. Our venue of choice also asked for PLI insurance and I have spent DAYs and DAYS scouring the internet for a company that can actually insure us. All this time I’ve been googling the wrong wording!
Seriously girl you’re a lifesaver!

Side note- how is it this hard to get this insurance?! We aren’t the first people to plan destination weddings!
Congrats on your nuptials!

Hi all! My name is Sydney. Im from Connecticut. I was happy to find this article about a month ago, as all summer I’ve been looking for Public Liability Insurance coverage for my UK wedding at Syon Park next July. It’s been devastating getting turned down by 30+ UK insurance vendors and 40+ US vendors.


When I found this forum, I looked up Foreign Event Insurance and found Film Emporium and Production Insurance, which both offered me $5,000,000 in General Liability for around $2,000. The venue requested £5,000,000 but said they’d accept $5,000,000 if need be. However now the brokers are telling me that only $1,000,000 of the general liability can be applied to public liability/property protection. So I’m back in the same boat.
I was wondering if either of you (or anyone reading this) knew of any other resources for my situation or had any other recommendations about venues requiring something in the ballpark of $5,000,000 PLI. My venue and wedding planner said they cannot apply on my behalf and neither of them have advice for me. I also can’t get my money back for either deposit.
Any response would be much appreciated. Thanks and good luck to everyone out there with the same issue!