Is it on your planning checklist? Let me tell you why it should be!
You insure your home and you insure your car. Should you also insure your wedding? It’s not a common line item you’ll find on a wedding checklist or in your wedding planner, but it is always recommended and is a necessity in my eyes. Insurance covers the unforeseen and unexpected events -- and weddings are events where things can and do go wrong. Just imagine....
Some thief walks off with the contents of your entire gift table?
Your bridesmaid steps on your dress at a fitting and you hear a big rip as you walk toward the mirror to admire it?
Global pandemic restrictions hit and your venue backs out?
Guest breaks it down too hard on the dance floor and breaks a bone?
Proper wedding insurance can cover it! Before you dismiss wedding insurance from your wedding planning needs, here’s what you need to know to make an educated decision on whether or not it’s for you:
Wedding Insurance 101
Wedding insurance protects you from unforeseen circumstances that can wreak havoc on your wedding. It can cover any money you’ve spent on the wedding or certain types of losses you suffer from those “unknown circumstances” that can popup during the wedding planning and on the wedding day.
The best way you can see how wedding insurance can work for you is with a couple of real-world examples. (The names of the afflicted have been changed in these stories to “you” and “your.”) So, here it goes…
Disaster #1 You’re flying off to your destination wedding in Aruba. Your husband-to-be checks his tuxedo in his suitcase. All is good.
You arrive in Aruba and when the baggage belt for your flight stops, your groom’s luggage is nowhere to be found. That’s right. His suitcase is lost and his wedding tuxedo is lost right along with it.
Wedding insurance covers the replacement cost of the lost tuxedo and covers the expense of finding a new outfit for the groom in Aruba. Disaster #2
You have booked your dream wedding venue for your reception. After nine months of planning, your wedding day is three short months away. Your mom comes into town for a visit and you decide to go by the venue to show her around.
When you stroll up to the front door and pull on it, it’s locked. That’s when you notice a huge “Gone out of Business” sign on the front door. Cue panic.
Wedding insurance covers the loss of the deposit money you’ve paid to this venue and covers the cost of finding a new place to hold your reception. Disaster #3
On the way to the reception venue, the van delivering your wedding cake gets rear-ended in a traffic accident. Needless to say, your cake is smashed to smithereens. The sugary creation took three days for the bakery to make and assemble.
A substitute dessert can be supplied, but what about the $750 you spent on the cake? Wedding insurance covers it.
These are a few examples of some of the realistic disasters that can cause a financial loss (not to mention a stressful loss). Fortunately, these are but a few of the scenarios also covered when you have wedding insurance.
The Cost of Wedding Insurance Wedding insurance works similar to other types of insurance you carry. There is a basic wedding insurance policy, which typically covers vendor deposits, presents, photos, videos and attire (not engagement/wedding rings (you will want to insure this separately for the life of the rings)). This basic policy can cost anywhere from $150 to $550 — varying according to the amount of coverage you choose.
As is the case with almost any policy, the higher your amount of coverage, the more the policy costs and vice versa. For accidental coverage, also known as general liability insurance, you can expect to pay in the neighborhood of $185 for a $1,000,000 policy (usually even cheaper depending on the length of your policy!). Considering that a wedding typically costs tens of thousands of dollars, this seems like a small price to pay for coverage and peace of mind on one of the biggest days of your life.
How to Know if You Need Wedding Insurance Most wedding venues and vendors carry insurance, so do your homework before you buy wedding insurance and ask each of your wedding vendors if they carry insurance and how much it covers. It is within your right to ask for a copy of their policy so you have in writing precisely what it covers rather than go by what the vendor says.
Having this information helps you see what is already covered and what may not be covered. Rather than buy a wedding insurance policy that overlaps with what is already covered by your vendors, you only need to consider wedding insurance for what isn’t covered (for the gap in coverage). But with that being said, do not rely on your vendors and venues to carry the insurance you need to be protected.
Many venues can and will require that you purchase your own insurance policies outside of their insurance policy and many vendors have policies that only cover themselves and what they are working on/providing. If an accident or disaster happens and it's not at the fault of your vendor(s) or venue, guess who is responsible for the costs associated? You are. Even when your vendors and venues have sufficient coverage, the investment in your own policy is a peace of mind you cannot replicate.
The What, When, and Where of Wedding Insurance (aka the “fine print”) Wedding insurance has its own set of restrictions and limitations and there is typically a deductible.
Some of what is covered by wedding insurance is:
The venue
Inclement weather conditions
Vendors that don’t show up or provide the product or service you paid for
An illness or injury to the bride or groom
Postponement because of military duty or corporate employment relocation
Rescheduling due to a global pandemic
Some of the items that may not be covered include:
Wedding cancellation by the bride or groom
Jewelry
The engagement ring
Policy Riders Riders are supplements you can add to the base insurance policy. These riders provide added coverage for specific circumstances that may arise. Coverage types include:
Gifts
Photography
Videography
Attire
Personal liability
Medical
The honeymoon
Getting wedding insurance when disaster has struck is too late. It’s the same as trying to obtain a hurricane insurance policy after your house has been destroyed by a hurricane. It’s not going to happen.
Obtain your wedding insurance policy in the beginning stages of planning or as soon as you possibly can if your wedding is mostly planned. Most will offer day-of or week-of policies that fit your budget and don't hesitate to ask your wedding planner about their recommendations! Then you can have added peace of mind that you’re covered if something goes wrong.
Xoxo,
Maggie