A Maine wedding is sponsored by the couple and poured under the caterer's license.

You sponsor it and a licensee serves it. Maine's off-premises catering license is held by a licensed club, restaurant, hotel or similar business, and the statute names a private gathering sponsored by an individual person among the events it can cover. The licensee files with the bureau at least 24 hours ahead and the municipality approves the location. Your event policy covers the host side, including host liquor, and Maine's liability act reaches negligent service to a visibly intoxicated guest.

No, and the contract says so. The venue's policy protects the venue, and a Maine venue agreement usually asks for two things from you: your own general liability limit, and the venue named as an additional insured on it. The second clause moves the venue's exposure at your event onto your policy. A guest hurt on the dance floor, a damaged wall or a claim over a drunk guest is presented to your certificate first, and the venue's insurer expects to find it there.

Yes, in principle. Maine's Liquor Liability Act, 28-A M.R.S. § 2501 and following, covers negligent service to a minor or a visibly intoxicated person and any reckless service, it reaches a non-licensee host too (§ 2505), and a claimant who misses the 180-day written notice risks dismissal (§ 2513). The claim runs first at whoever held the license and poured, and a host who supplied the alcohol or ran the bar can be joined, which is what the host liquor line on an event policy exists to answer.

Maine liquor liability insurance

Only for the caterer. In Maine the permit for a wedding bar belongs to a business that already holds a license, and that business's liquor policy answers claims made against it, not claims made against you. If a guest sues the host, or the venue looks to the host under its contract, the caterer's insurer has no reason to respond. Ask the caterer for a certificate anyway, because a caterer without liquor coverage is a caterer whose claims land on the nearest solvent party, which at a wedding is the couple.

Yes, and most events do. Single-event coverage is written for the dates of the event, usually including set-up and tear-down, and it is issued quickly enough to satisfy a venue asking on short notice. If you run more than three or four events a year, an annual policy is generally cheaper and means the certificate exists before it is asked for.

Almost always three things, and only the first is a number: a limit, usually one or two million per occurrence; their entity named as additional insured by endorsement rather than typed on the certificate; and often a waiver of subrogation. Send us the contract rather than the number: the wording is what gets certificates rejected, and it is the part people summarize.

No, and they are constantly confused. Event liability pays when somebody else is injured or their property is damaged. Cancellation coverage pays YOU back for money you have already committed when the event cannot happen. Venues require the first; the second is the one that saves your own budget, and most organizers buy only the one they were asked for.

What cancellation coverage pays for

Host liquor is commonly included where you are not in the business of selling it: a wedding with a hosted bar, a company party. The moment there is a cash bar, a license, or alcohol as a revenue line, it is liquor liability proper and it is a separate coverage that the base form excludes by name.

When host liquor stops being enough