Wedding Insurance - a Good Idea or a Waste of Money?

You insure your car, your home, your health, and your life. Now you can insure your wedding too. Wedding insurance has been popular in Great Britain for several years. Now, a number of U.S. companies offer it as well.  The insurance is receiving much publicity, but do you really need it, or is it a waste of your limited wedding funds? The answer depends on your situation.

Most policies offer varying amounts of coverage for varying fees, with the most expensive policies costing around $400 for a U.S. wedding.  If you are planning a destination wedding to another country, the fee will be higher.

Most insurance policies will insure against:

• Unforeseen weather problems (Are you planning a wedding in Florida or the Bahamas during hurricane season?).  The weather issue must be a major problem that will prevent you from holding the wedding as scheduled or will prevent a majority of your guests from attending, not just an afternoon thunder storm.

• Cancellation or postponement of the wedding.  If the bride or groom is in the military and is called to active duty, the wedding may need to be postponed.  If the bride, groom or a close family member is seriously injured in an accident, develops a sudden serious illness, or even dies, necessitating a change in or cancellation of wedding plans, insurance covers lost deposits. Likewise, if you are planning a wedding in the Idaho mountains in summer, your event might be cancelled or postponed because of a forest fire. Again, insurance would cover lost deposits.

• Failure of merchants to perform their contracted services. This might include a caterer who goes bankrupt just before the wedding or an event center that closes just before your event. Or perhaps the florist takes your money, then skips the country (all these things have happened to unsuspecting clients in the Boise area in the last few years).  If you have paid a deposit or the full fee to such merchants, you can be reimbursed. Some policies will also cover the cost of legal fees to collect from errant merchants (assuming you can find them).

• Damage to the wedding attire. If the bridal salon catches fire or floods and your gown or your attendants’ gowns are ruined, or the airline sends your gown to Timbuktu, you can be reimbursed.  Self-inflicted damage, however, such as damaging the gown to get "trash the dress" photos, would not be covered.

• Photographs and video.  If the photographer fails to show up or her/his equipment is defective, or the video camera doesn’t work, you may be able to re-create the wedding photos at a later date and receive payment for the re-creation.

• Theft of the wedding gifts or the wedding rings. If you leave your gifts in another room while your ceremony is occurring and they are stolen, or someone breaks into the car in which the gifts are being transported, you may be reimbursed. You can also be reimbursed for loss or theft of the wedding rings, but not usually the bride’s engagement ring. (It may be covered by your homeowners or renters insurance policy.)

• Professional counseling.  Some policies will pay a limited amount toward counseling if you are left standing at the altar or another catestrophic incident occurs and you need therapy to work through it.

The one thing most policies will not cover is loss caused by the bride or groom getting cold feet and breaking the engagement shortly before the wedding, causing the loss of all or most of the money paid toward the wedding.
 

Before you purchase wedding insurance, check with the insurance company that writes your homeowner’s or renter’s policy and find out exactly what is covered.  Also check the liability insurance policy of the wedding venue.  Depending on your coverage, you may not need a separate insurance policy, or your current insurer may be able to add a rider to your existing policy to cover the wedding.

Whether wedding insurance is right for you will depend on your circumstances, but it may be worth the cost, particularly if you are planning a destination wedding or the bride or groom is in the military.