Guide to Wedding Insurance

A wedding is not only the biggest day of your life but also the most expensive. Nuptials often take months of planning and preparation, and the costs usually run into the thousands of pounds. The average wedding costs between £5,000 and £13,000, which is why it is prudent to protect against disaster.

Only about 15% of weddings are insured, despite the myriad of potential problems they are subject to. The invitations may need reprinting, the reception venue may go bust, the cake, flowers or marquee could be accidentally damaged or the wedding gifts stolen.

The most common problems experienced by unlucky couples are damage to the bride’s dress, photos needing to be retaken, cancellation due to illness, accident or bereavement, non-appearance by the caterer and loss of wedding rings. Insurance companies regularly cover these difficulties and many more.

It is advisable to take out insurance cover for your marriage as soon as you make any bookings that require deposits – for the venue or DJ, for example. Cover is available from many sellers, be they general insurance companies like E&L (http://www.eandl.co.uk) and MRL (http://www.mrlinsurance.co.uk, high street retailers such as Confetti (http://www.confetti.co.uk), Marks & Spencer and Debenhams, or specialist wedding insurers.

There are dozens of firms that fall into the final category, as a quick search on Google will reveal, bringing up sellers such as Wedding Plan Insurance (http://www.weddingplaninsurance.com) and WedSafe (http://www.wedsafe.com).

Most sellers will allow you to apply online, and there are often tiers of benefits available for a one-off payment of as little as £45, which will cover you against all of the eventualities listed above and many more (up to a specified amount and often after a small excess of around £25). Payouts are on any expenses you fail to recover, and some firms even offer stress counselling for traumatised couples and their loved ones.

However, there are some circumstances that won’t be entitled to a payout, such as the bride and groom deciding not to go ahead with the day, damage to attire through cleaning, theft from unattended wedding vehicles, theft of cash and gift vouchers from the reception, damage to the cake by atmospheric conditions or vermin, and damage to the marquee during erection or dismantling.

You also won’t be able to make a claim if you cancel due to circumstances known to you at the time of taking out your policy, or because you decide that you can’t afford to pay for your nuptials.

Here’s to a happy and disaster-free wedding day!