Many people imagine an immaculate wedding when planning to get married. The bride, the groom, the “I do’s”, the vows, dancing, food, champagne, the cake, and of course that first dance as a married couple.
But life is full of risks. Considering the average cost of a wedding is about $35,000 in the United States, a wedding is a big investment. It’s a very smart idea to protect that investment with Wedding Insurance.
With the current situation of Covid-19, wedding insurance is a smarter choice than ever before with all of the event postponements, reschedules, and cancellations we’re seeing across the United States right now.
What is Wedding Insurance?
Similar to other forms of insurance in that it’s smart to have and something you hope you’ll never have to use. There are two distinct varieties of wedding insurance protection:
- Liability: should your wedding get too rowdy, wedding liability insurance protects against injury and/or property damage to your guests, staff, and the venue. Many wedding venues will require liability insurance (especially if alcohol will be served).
- Cancellation: this will protect your investment against non-refundable fees should the wedding need to be canceled, postponed, or a vendor doesn’t show up; for a reason covered by the cancellation policy. During the global pandemic, this is a very smart idea as many wedding venues face uncertainty as to if the wedding can happen at all, and if it does happen what it will look like (number of people, dancing or not, etc).
Historically, the majority of couples planning a wedding purchase wedding liability coverage but skip the cancellation portion. This is because many people don’t go into the wedding thinking they’ll need to cancel and most wedding venues only require liability insurance. It is more common for people to get injured at a wedding then the wedding be called off entirely, so having liability insurance is smart (even where not required).
There is also no discrimination from wedding insurers regarding the type of honorees and wedding you’ll be having (same-sex, non-traditional, etc.).
Typical wedding insurance plans start at roughly $100/month and go upwards from their depending on the costs of the wedding venue, the add-ons, and other options selected in the wedding package. Some insurance policies will allow you to add related events like wedding showers, rehearsals, brunches, engagement parties, and more. You can even add insurance on expensive items like attire, jewelry, wedding gifts, wedding photos/videos, wedding rings, etc.
The global pandemic has caused many couples and wedding venues to move the ceremony to a later date. With all the uncertainty surrounding large events during Covid-19, wedding insurance is a must.
What Does Wedding Insurance Cost?
A basic wedding insurance policy usually runs between $150 and $600, depending on the amount of coverage you decide to go with. For general liability accident reimbursement up to $1,000,000 the costs are typically between $180 and $200 a month. Different wedding insurance providers have different fee structures and may consider things like the cost of the venue, the location (city), how many people are coming, if alcohol is being served and more. Be sure to shop around and get more than a few quotes because different companies can have far different costs for the same level of coverage.
Do We Really Need to Buy Wedding Insurance?
Usually the answer will be yes whenever alcohol is served as even responsible people can have accidents like slips or breaking something at the venue. Talk to the vendors you’re hiring for the wedding, how well are they covered with their own insurance policies? This way you can make sure you’re not paying for overlapping coverage so ask your vendors to see a copy of their insurance policy. Then if you’re not fully covered you should definitely buy wedding insurance.
Some venues also don’t have their own insurance so in this case it is a must to buy at least wedding liability insurance. Considering the costs of weddings, it could be a real financial nightmare to pay for the wedding to then have to pay for any accidents or damage after the party.
What is Covered by Wedding Insurance?
Let’s take a look at what is covered when you buy a wedding insurance policy.
- Site protection: if the venue has no insurance of its own, you’ll want to make sure you have wedding insurance. Wedding insurance will cover costs arising from unavoidable events that lead to a cancellation – like fire, flood, power loss, etc.
- Weather conditions: this won’t cover rain but if there is weather which causes the wedding to be cancelled, wedding insurance covers rescheduling and all of the details down to flowers, tents, and food + drink.
- Injury or Sickness: some wedding insurance companies may have an injury or sickness clause for the bride, groom, or other essential members to the wedding. These are usually add-on.
- Vendor no-show: what if the caterer doesn’t show? What about the florist? These are impossible to fix the day of the wedding so if a vendor doesn’t show up, the wedding insurance will cover costs of rescheduling or cancellation due to a vendor no-show.
- Military deployment: when duty calls military personnel must travel, often without warning. This means if one of the people getting married will miss their own wedding due to a deployment, the wedding insurance covers costs of rescheduling or cancelling the event.
What is Not Covered by Wedding Insurance?
- Cold feet: a change of heart is not covered by wedding insurance. You cannot file an insurance claim if one of the people getting married doesn’t show and the wedding is called off. Though some policies have an additional clause you can add for this (typically not a good sign to begin with if you feel you need “cold feet” wedding insurance add-on).
- Engagement rings: policies often cover the wedding ring, but the engagement ring could be another story so be sure to read the policy carefully before purchasing.
Buying Wedding Insurance During Covid-19
Many wedding insurers are no longer offering new wedding insurance policies because of the high costs associated with so many cancelled weddings that they’ve already paid out for. Considering most insurance policies will never be used, insurance companies are not typically prepared for claims on a huge number of the policies they’ve sold. For this reason, you may have a harder time purchasing a new wedding insurance policy right now because of the uncertainty surround Covid-19.
You should still be looking around though as buying wedding insurance is more important than ever before.