We recently had a meeting with a prospective couple, and they had some questions for us. Most were “run of the mill” type questions that we are used to. The bride then asked, directly from her notes “Do you carry liability insurance?”Easy to answer. “Yes, we do”. Then she made a nervous giggle and said “I really don't even know why I'm asking you that, I just read it from a list of questions I printed out.”

She had no idea just how important that question is, and you, the reader, have no idea how often a prospective client asks us that. Almost never.

Liability insurance is, in our opinion, a cost of doing business. It is not required. But carrying it says how serious we are about Photo and Video by Joe Goldsberry. This is our full-time business, full-time job, and our bread and butter. We can not imagine skimping on something as important as liability insurance. Sure, we hope we never need it. But come the day that we do need it, our client will be oh so elated that they choose to hire a company for their wedding that cared enough to treat their business like a, well, like a real business.

The company we happen to use, R.F. D'Agostino Insurance, helped us come up with a policy that covers what insurance was meant to cover - the unexpected. We are taking tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment from our studio to various churches, venues and reception halls. Depending on the job, we could have cords, electrical components, cameras unattended on tripods and many other situations which could lead to liability on our part. As careful as we are, (knock on wood), we don't own a crystal ball, and we can't predict the future.

We welcome questions during client meetings about our liability insurance, our coverage, and the company we use. We can produce a certificate for any venue that requires vendors to carry their own insurance. We wish more people would ask about it, and we want to get the word out about just how important this aspect of choosing your vendors is. This is truly something that sets apart the serious, full-time photographers and videographers who care about their company from the weekend warriors who charge a cut-rate price for a mediocre product. It even sets us apart from other full-time companies who just don't care enough to protect themselves and their clients.

Oh, and we can even keep this post more “wedding friendly” than you think. After Mark D'Agostino became our insurance agent, he and his fiance, Meredith, became our clients!

And the wedding...