Thursday, October 29, 2009

Wedding Insurance: Is it on Your Wedding Checklist?


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 maybe it should be. Insurance covers the unforeseen and unexpected events and weddings are events where things can and do go wrong. Some thief walks off with your entire gift table? Wedding insurance covers it. Your bridesmaid steps on your dress at a fitting and you hear a big rip as you walk toward the mirror to admire it? Wedding insurance covers 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 have an ill-effect on your wedding. It covers any money you’ve spent or a loss you incur from the unknown circumstances that can happen leading up to and during the wedding.

The best way to illustrate how wedding insurance can work to your advantage is with examples of things that can and do happen.

• You’re flying off to your destination wedding in Aruba. Your husband-to-be checks his tuxedo in his suitcase. 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.

• 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. Wedding insurance covers the loss of the deposit money you’ve paid to this venue and covers the cost of finding a new one.

• 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.

This is simply a sample of some of the realistic disasters that can cause a financial loss. These are but a few of the scenarios 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, wedding rings (not engagement), photos, videos and attire. 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’ll pay in the neighborhood of $185 for a $1,000,000 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.

The What, When and Where of Wedding Insurance


There are some restrictions and limitations with wedding insurance and there is typically a deductible. Some of what is covered by wedding insurance is the venue, 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. Some of the items that may not be covered include wedding cancellation by the bride or groom, jewelry and the engagement ring.

Policy Riders

There are riders you can add as supplements to your base insurance policy. These riders provide added coverage for specific circumstances that may arise. Coverage types include gifts, photography, videography, attire, personal liability, medical and 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—if you can. Check with the wedding insurance provider to see how far in advance it requires you to obtain a policy. Then you’ll have added peace of mind that you’re covered if something goes wrong.

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