Hiring a bartender or mobile bar: the insurance and permits checklist

1. The certificate of insurance (COI)

A professional bartender or mobile bar business should be able to email you a COI within a day. When it arrives, check:

• The name on it matches the business you're signing with.
• It lists general liability and liquor liability. If liquor liability isn't on it, ask why.
• The policy dates include your event date.
• The limits match what your venue asked for.
• Your venue, and you if the venue asks, are listed as additional insured or certificate holder, exactly as the venue wrote it.

A vendor's certificate is about the vendor's business. If your venue also asks you for your own certificate, see one-day event insurance, explained.

2. Alcohol server training

Responsible-service courses teach bartenders to check IDs, spot intoxication and refuse service. Ask which one your bartenders hold and when it expires. Common ones include TIPS and state programs. In New York, for example, the State Liquor Authority's Alcohol Training Awareness Program (ATAP) is recommended for anyone who serves or sells alcohol, and the SLA keeps a list of certified schools. Some states require server training and others only recommend it, so check your state's alcohol beverage control agency.

3. Who buys the alcohol, and is anything sold?

This is where private events get into legal trouble. In many states, a bartender without a liquor license or permit can serve alcohol you bought, but can't sell alcohol to you or to your guests. The rules vary a lot, so ask:

• Will I buy the alcohol, or will you? If you, under what license?
• Will anything be sold to guests: a cash bar, drink tickets, or a tip jar that works like payment? Who holds the license or permit for that?
• Does my venue allow outside alcohol and outside bartenders?

If anything will be sold, check with your state's alcohol beverage control agency (in New York, the State Liquor Authority) before the event, not after.

4. Questions that tell you if they're a pro

• How many bartenders do you staff for my guest count and bar style? About one per 50 guests is typical for a full bar.
• How do you check IDs, and what do you do with a guest who's had too much?
• Will you stop serving shots, or close the bar early, if the venue or I ask?
• What do you bring: tools, ice, cups, garnish, mixers? What do I supply?
• Can you send me a shopping list? Or check mine. The wedding bar calculator makes one.
• What's in the contract about overtime, cancellation and breakage?

Red flags

• They can't or won't send a COI, or it doesn't mention liquor liability.
• They suggest selling drinks to your guests without saying under whose license.
• They brush off ID checks ("it's a wedding, nobody cards").
• No written contract.

Hosting the bar yourself instead? Start with host liquor liability.