A lavish country hotel… a barefoot ceremony on a beach… a quiet gathering in a familiar garden. Everyone’s dream wedding is different – but no less precious or deserving of protection. Wedding Insurance will help safeguard your special day and remove some of the stress that comes with planning such an important occasion.
Providing cover for a variety of scenarios – illness or accident, for example – Wedding Insurance will protect you from financial losses both on the day itself and in the lead-up to the event.
Do I Really Need Wedding Insurance? The average cost of a wedding is around £20,000: a significant amount of money, which represents a great deal of thought and planning. However, no matter how hard the bride-and-groom-to-be work to prepare for their special day, circumstances can – and do – arise that are beyond their control. Wedding Insurance helps to protect against financial losses in such a scenario, and will typically cover the ceremony and the wedding reception.
‘What if my wedding is small?’, you may be asking. If your wedding is very intimate and taking place in a home setting (though you may need to boost your home insurance and purchase additional cover), you may not need a typical wedding insurance policy. However, we’d still recommend purchasing at least basic cover.
No matter the scale of the event, do take the time to speak to a specialist to ensure that, should the worst happen, you will be protected. Cherry Godfrey’s expert team would be happy to schedule a no-obligation, friendly discussion about your options.
When Can I Take Out Wedding Insurance?
In recent years, the gap between an engagement and a wedding day has increased, with couples spending a substantial amount of time planning and preparing for their special day. The good news is that you can take your policy out in advance – up to two years before the wedding.
It’s advisable that you arrange cover before you start paying for any wedding-related deposits, though your policy will cover you for deposits already paid.
Generally, your policy cover ceases 24 hours following your wedding or wedding reception (whichever is the later); however some covers are in force at different times during the course of your wedding (so do check your policy wording for the full details).
What Does Wedding Insurance Cover?
Your policy should cover both the ceremony and reception, and should extend to the majority of worldwide destinations (except the USA and Canada). The following should be covered as standard:
· Cancellation of the wedding and/or reception. If the reception or ceremony was cancelled for unavoidable reasons (for example, the couple fell ill, or the venue was damaged by some disaster, like a flood), this means that any deposits or up-front payments would be covered.
· Rearrangement of the wedding and/or reception. As mentioned above, the cover also extends to situations in which the wedding venue is damaged. However, what if that damage was irreversible and the couple had to change venue – but the new venue was more expensive? Thankfully, provided the claim was valid, the couple’s Wedding Insurance policy would cover not only the amount they paid for their original wedding venue (the cancellation cover), but also the cost of moving to the more expensive venue (rearrangement cover).
· Financial failure of wedding service suppliers. This covers you in the event that suppliers go out of business and are unable to provide the contracted services.
In addition, the following should be covered as standard:
· Ceremonial attire.
· Wedding gifts.
· Wedding ring(s), flowers, attendants’ gifts and the wedding cake.
· Wedding cars and transport.
· Photography and video.
· Personal accident.
· Professional counselling.
· Essential document indemnity.
· Legal Expenses.
· Public liability for the marrying couple.
Additional Extras
You may wish to add the following optional covers to your policy:
· Public liability extension for the wedding guests; increase in public liability cover for the marrying couple and wedding guests. This is a form of public liability which typically covers accidental injury to third parties, as well as accidental damage to/accidental loss
of third-party property. It’s worth bearing in mind that certain venues will not agree to a wedding booking without the couple having a policy that includes public liability cover of a substantial amount (often upwards of £2 million) – so do check this with your wedding venue and insurers before booking/taking out cover.
· Marquee & mobile W.C. unit and event equipment extension.
· Ceremonial swords cover.
· Increase in cancellation cover.
· Cancellation & rearrangement to include coronavirus cover (more below).
Coronavirus Cover
One of the many unfortunate results of the recent pandemic was the cancellation of major events – such as weddings.
As such, even though the disease is now more controllable, we’d recommend considering coronavirus cover for your wedding. If this additional cover is purchased, you would be covered for cancellation (due to the death or sickness of you or your future spouse/a relative, in the event that they or you contract coronavirus within 10 days of the wedding date, and provided you’re all fully vaccinated). You would also be covered for rearrangement costs (subject to the conditions mentioned above). In order to validate your claim, you/your partner or relative would need to provide a positive, official test result from a recognised testing authority – but the insurers will reimburse the cost of the test (subject to a valid claim). Are you planning your dream wedding and would like some advice? Don’t hesitate to contact Cherry Godfrey today. We’re here to make sure your special day goes off without a hitch – so you can enjoy
