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Protecting the wedding
No matter how many hours you spend plotting, planning and rehearsing your wedding, there still are some things that are out of your control.
Enter wedding insurance.
Now, this isn’t the most glamorous wedding topic — no one likes to think something could go wrong on his or her big day. But wedding insurance can ultimately mean the difference between a smooth, stress-free time and a big, chaotic mess.
“When you think about a wedding being a real financial and emotional investment, it gives couples peace of mind that if something goes wrong, the insurance company is there to make things easier—at least financially,” says Ed Charlebois, vice president of personal insurance for Travelers, which offers a Wedding Protector insurance plan.
The concept behind wedding insurance is that you will likely spend more money on your wedding day than on any other day of your life. There’s a reasonable enough chance that something could go wrong with so many moving parts, so why not take out an insurance policy to protect the investment in the day?
There are two basic types of wedding insurance: liability coverage and event-cancelation coverage.
Liability coverage often is a requirement of certain venues — particularly non-traditional venues — and protects the holder and venue against lawsuits related to the wedding day. Event cancelation coverage, meanwhile, tends to cover everything else, from a weather- or illness-forced postponement to deposit reimbursements should a venue or vendor go out of business, even the cost of re-shooting your wedding photos in the event of a photographer mishap.
“We can’t stop the tornado from coming; we can’t stop the snowstorm or the hurricane, but we can help in the one way, and that is the financial loss,” says Steve Lauro, vice president of Aon Affinity, the company behind WedSafe wedding insurance. “And really, that’s the purpose of all insurance.”
The premium for event coverage is typically based upon the overall cost of your wedding, generally in the $200 to $300 range for an average wedding. Check with your insurance provider as to the specifics of what your plan will and will not cover.
“It’s relatively inexpensive, and my philosophy on it is the wedding and wedding planning can be stressful enough,” says Camille McLamb, founder and lead coordinator of Camille Victoria Weddings in Chicago. “Wedding insurance can just provide a little bit of peace of mind, so one less thing to stress out about.”
The trend of purchasing wedding insurance has taken hold in recent years, with Travelers reporting an increase in policyholders every year since they launched their coverage in 2007. Both Travelers and Aon say the primary purchasers of wedding insurance tend to be the parents of the bride and groom, who are often helping pay for the wedding and “a bit more risk-averse,” says Lauro.
Of course, there are still a few things that wedding insurance will not cover.
“If a couple just decides not to get married, we do not cover that,” says Charlebois. “Change of heart, as they say, is not covered by our wedding insurance program. But the things that are outside of your control are covered.”