Is Wedding Insurance Necessary?

I've heard about wedding insurance. Is it really necessary?


It can’t hurt! The purpose of wedding insurance is to protect the investment you’re making in your wedding day—should something go wrong. Say, for example, you’ve planned for a £15,000 or £20,000 wedding, and the day before, you come down with strep throat. Instead of struggling through the ceremony and celebration, you could postpone your wedding and your costs would be covered.

Or let’s say your caterer skips town with your deposit check, or your wedding gown is lost in transit when it’s sent to the tropical island where you’re getting married. Insurance will reimburse you for the deposit in the first case and for the cost of the gown up to the amount insured in the second. In the case of one couple, there was a fire at the reception hall days before the wedding. The vendor returned the deposit, making that a nonissue, but insurance paid £1,000 for the cost of invitations notifying guests of the new reception site.

When taking out a policy, be sure you understand what is and isn’t covered. Usually coverage includes postponing the wedding due to the illness of a principal wedding-party member, extreme weather conditions or if the bride or groom serves in the military and is suddenly deployed. Other items may include wedding attire, photography, wedding bands, gifts and loss of deposits from vendors. You may even be reimbursed if the wedding must be postponed due to unexpected job loss. (Getting cold feet and calling the whole thing off does not qualify for coverage!)

One-time costs for wedding insurance run from about £55 for £7,500 of coverage to £85 for a £50,000 policy—that’s pretty good for the bundle it could save you, not to mention your all-important peace of mind.