Ok, so you are in the middle of planning your wedding and your best friend, who is getting married before you, just had her florist go out of business and she lost her entire deposit. She is completely distraught and you are now thinking could something like this happen to me and how do I protect myself?
There is a simple and affordable solution that every bride should take advantage of – Wedding Insurance! Wedding insurance has been around for a number of years and is becoming very popular as more wedding couples learn about the advantages of protecting their investment in their wedding with wedding insurance.
Let’s start with the basics – there are two types of wedding insurance – Cancellation & Postponement insurance and Liability insurance.
Cancellation insurance covers you against lost deposits if you need to cancel or postpone your wedding due to injury or illness of a family member, extreme weather, unscheduled military deployment or other reasons beyond your control. It also pays you for lost deposits if a vendor does not show up or goes out of business, as well as covering costs for items like a lost, stolen or damaged wedding ring, gifts or your wedding gown.
Cancellation insurance comes in different levels, typically $7,500 up to $100,000 and is purchased based on the overall budget for your wedding.
Liability insurance will pay for damage to the venue caused by you or a guest. It can also pay for medical expenses if someone is injured at your wedding. A good liability policy will also include liquor liability insurance, which will protect you if you are sued for damages caused by a drunken guest. Liability insurance is being required by more and more venues these days as a standard part of their contract. It’s also a great way for you to protect yourself if you are held liable for damage or an injury.
Liability insurance is most often purchased as a $1,000,000 per occurrence, $2,000,000 aggregate policy. This what is typically required by wedding venues.
It’s also good to know what wedding cancellation insurance does not cover: cold feet or change of heart, a rainy day vs. extreme weather or switching vendors just because you decided you do not like the original vendor. There are also typical exclusions from coverage: fireworks, carnival games and live animals.
Next question is when should you buy Wedding Insurance? That’s pretty simple, as soon as you start writing checks, you should purchase insurance. Don’t worry, if you are already in the middle of planning your wedding, wedding insurance will cover any deposit previously paid to a vendor as long as there are no known issues with that vendor. What if it’s three days before your wedding and you find out your venue is requiring liability insurance? Don’t fret, most companies can issue a liability policy instantly on-line for you and your venue. The only caveat is when cancellation and postponement insurance is purchased less than 14 days before the wedding, extreme weather cancellations are not covered.
So you like what you are hearing so far and think wedding insurance could be a really good idea. Naturally you want to know – how much does it cost? This is where the real bargain lies. Full wedding insurance – cancellation and liability typically only costs about 1% of your wedding budget. A $35,000 cancellation policy is $220 from eWed Insurance and a $1,000,000 liability policy is only $119 from eWed Insurance. That’s just $339 to insure a $35,000 wedding. Not a bad deal at all considering what you could lose if something goes wrong.
Ok so you have decided to buy wedding insurance, who is the best company out there? After looking at the leading companies offering wedding insurance, there is an easy favorite. The top companies are eWed Insurance, WedSafe, WedSure, and Travelers Wedding Protector Plan.
eWed is our favorite for a few reasons. First, eWed is the least expense of all the companies and provides the most comprehensive insurance coverage available. eWed provides three full days of coverage (rehearsal dinner, wedding ceremony & reception, and farewell brunch). eWed’s cancellation policy has zero deductibles, something no other company offers. eWed’s liability policy includes liquor liability at no additional cost.
When it comes to ease of use and buying insurance, eWed is also the clear winner. They are the only company with a fully optimized site and application for mobile devices. Also the application process with eWed is quick and easy, unlike other ten page insurance applications.
Finally, if you have a question about insurance, eWed is the only company offering 24/7 live concierge customer service for policy holders.
Here are links to the top Wedding Insurance sites:
Great article and very informative.
Thx