Do I Need Wedding Insurance?
I am sitting here at home planning my wedding and started thinking; do I need wedding insurance?
There is nothing that stipulates you must take out wedding insurance, but it is something worth considering if you want to protect your big day from unforeseen circumstances and seek peace of mind. Wedding insurance does not need to cost too much and many insurance providers have multiple plans to suite all wedding budgets. Wedding insurance can be taken out up to two years before your wedding to protect your deposits etc. So, do you need wedding insurance? Let’s find out.
Let’s look into this in more detail and see why you should always consider taking out wedding insurance and why.
Wedding insurance, what is it and why do I need it?
Essentially wedding insurance is no different from car or home insurance. It is something you hope you will never need but is there should the unforeseen happen. You are probably thinking, you understand why you need car insurance, but wedding insurance, what could possibly go wrong?
It’s a good question and upon further research as to what couples-to-be and newlyweds are claiming on their insurance gave me an insight as what is typically going wrong both during the planning stage and the wedding itself.
Here’s what I found to be the top reasons people claim on their wedding insurance.
Wedding Insurance Claims
- 27% Claim for supplier deposit at venue or catering.
- 21% Claim for wedding cancellation or rearrangement.
- 8% Claim for wedding attire.
- 7% Claim for wedding photos or video costs.
- 7% Claim for accidental damage.
By looking at what people are claiming for and how often, gives some idea as to the kind of issues that can occur leading up to and during the wedding and why it may be prudent to at least consider taking out a policy to protect your big day.
A good wedding insurance policy will cover anything from your wedding cake, wedding attire to the venue and wedding dress. You may need some optional extras for example, a wedding marquee or ceremonial sword.
Remember how bad the weather has been last winter? I can remember seeing several cases on the news of brides or guests unable to attend the wedding due to snow days and poor weather. The need to cancel the wedding due to this type of unforeseen event would be covered by a good insurance policy.
Many insurers will also cover you for serious ill health or a broken leg for example. This cover will allow you to postpone the event, meaning your dream wedding has only been put on hold as opposed to completely shattered.
So in summary wedding insurance is not compulsory and by no means are you forced to take out a policy, it is however something I would advise you look into and come to a joint decision as to whether or not you feel it is something that will benefit you and your big day.
With the average wedding costing around £25,000 you must be wondering just how much is wedding insurance going to cost. You may be pleasantly surprised at just how little a wedding insurance policy can cost. With this in mind, it may help to make a decision as whether or not you actually take out a policy or not (see below).
Remember, there are no policies that will insure you against a change of heart on either side, just though I would mention!
How much does wedding insurance cost?
As you will know, weddings can cost anything from a few thousand pounds to hundreds of thousands of pounds with the average current average wedding at £25,000 in the UK. So there is no single fixed cost for insurance and most insurance providers will have multiple tiers to cover most types and size of wedding. I will be looking at the different providers later in this article. I will also show you how to choose the correct policy for your wedding once you have chosen a provider, you don’t need to pay more than required to get full cover.
You may be surprised to know that a wedding insurance policy can cost as little as £20, this came as a bit of a shock to me! This level will cover the cancellation of a wedding up to £2,500. WeddingPlan have a “Bronze “ policy costing £19.44 and will cover the cancellation of a wedding up to £2,500, failure of suppliers up to £1,000, wedding gifts and transport up to £750, wedding attire, cakes and flowers individually £1,000, personal liability to £1million – more details of this WeddingPlan policy can be found here.
If we take the average wedding costing £25,000 and look at several wedding insurance providers and just how much it would cost to fully cover this wedding.
John Lewis wedding insurance:
Level 3
Cancellation or rearrangement cover £30,000
Policy Cover Cost: £156
Debenhams Wedding Insurance:
PLATINUM
Cancellation or rearrangement cover £25,000
Policy Cover Cost: £102
Debenhams Wedding Insurance:
PLATINUM +
Cancellation or rearrangement cover £27,000
Policy Cover Cost: £89.40
Naturally, bigger weddings will need more cover.
As you can see to in order to cover the average size wedding in the UK the cost will be between £89.40 and £156 depending on the provider you use.
So covering your wedding does not need to cost the earth!
How long before my wedding should I take out wedding insurance?
I was always under the opinion you should take out wedding insurance a couple of weeks before the wedding. How wrong I was! Upon further research, I found that most insurance providers, well at least the big four, would allow you to take out the cover up to two years before the big wedding day, yes two years before.
Why would you need to take out the cover so early I hear you say, well to cover any deposits you may have left for venues, flowers etc. Therefore, the advice most providers will give as to when the best time is to take out cover is, as soon as you are planning to leave a deposit for any part of the wedding, get covered. This will avoid any issues of trying to claim for a deposit that was handed over before taking out the policy cover.
So remember, don’t leave it too late! I know there is so much to do with the planning etc. but if you have decided to get covered for the wedding do it sooner rather than later.
Finding the best wedding insurance provider?
I had no idea how many companies offered wedding cover. On further investigation, I found there are around 10 wedding insurance providers in the UK and unlike car and home insurance none of the big comparison sites like Confused and Compare the Market offer wedding insurance as a choice to compare. That’s why I have created a table for you to see the provider, the level of cover, the cost and any excess. This can be seen on my front page here – https://icompareweddinginsurance.co.uk/
There are other providers out there and doing a google search will bring the results you are looking for. I have focused on four of the providers and given a full review as to why I feel these are my choice for best wedding insurance providers.
Below is a list of the most popular wedding insurance provider in the UK.
| John Lewis | Weddingsure |
| Debenhams | Dreamsaver |
| WeddingPlan | E&l Insurance |
| InsureForWeddings | Emerald Life |
Choosing the best policy to cover my wedding?
The great thing about most insurance providers is they offer different levels of cover to suit all budgets. I would suggest that the main consideration would be the ability to cover the cost of the wedding should it need to be cancelled of rearranged. Once you have this worked out you could then look at the cover offered for other items like the wedding rings, wedding attire photography etc. and compare the cover offered by the other providers.
What about the excess?
All providers will have an excess (the amount you will pay when making a claim), this ranges from £25 to £50.
The table below shows the current John Lewis Wedding plan cover levels (this can be seen on their website here – https://icompareweddinginsurance.co.uk/JohnLewis). We have labelled the table to show what the information is referring to.
As you can see the top row shows the 6 levels of covered offered ie. Level 1 then below that the cost of the cover policy is shown. This is the amount you pay to cover your wedding. So for example if you wedding was costing the UK average (£25,000) you would opt for Level 4 cover as this would protect the cancellation or rearrangement of the entire wedding up to the value of £30,000. The cost for this policy would be £156 (as of September 2018).
On the left hand side you will find a summary of the areas covered such as wedding rings, loss or damage etc. The amounts in the middle of the table show the amount of cover for each level against each area of cover.
All policy providers will have a similar table showing the same detail as the John Lewis table of cover.
Full policy details are also found on these pages that go into greater detail of any exceptions and it’s always good advice to read these carefully to ensure they meet all you requirements.
Wedding Insurance Video – Top 5 Tips how to avoid a wedding day disaster
Wedding Fairs
A great place to get more information on the best wedding insurance and how it can benefit you is to attend a wedding fair. Click the link below to see the latest wedding fairs this month here in the UK.
Conclusion.
I hope this article has given you the information you need to make an informed decision about the pros and cons of wedding insurance. Getting married should be an amazing and memorable period in your life. You wouldn’t go on holiday abroad without insurance, so why would you not cover your wedding. As you can see from above it does not have to cost the earth to get the peace of mind to simply enjoy your big day.
Of course, you don’t want to think about mishaps and issues on your wedding day, but you will feel more comfortable knowing that you are covered should the unthinkable happen.
So now it’s over to you… Please comment and share your experience of your wedding and anytime you have need to call upon your wedding insurance. Please let us know about the good and not so good of any wedding insurance providers you have used or just anything advice to help anyone planning for their big day.
