The cost of a wedding can soon mount up as you carefully plan every detail for your special day. With the exception of buying a house, your wedding is a huge investment, but insurance is something that is often overlooked. Having insurance is essential because it can offer an effective safeguard if something goes wrong.

There are so many things that could happen which could result in the cancellation or postponement of your wedding. Your wedding venue could get into financial difficulty, a family member may fall ill or something unforeseen may happen that means your wedding has to be moved to another date. If you don’t have wedding insurance in place you may lose all of the money you have spent on arrangements so far. Even if you have paid on a credit card, all of your expenses won’t be covered.

So what exactly does wedding insurance cover? The majority of insurers cover you for cancellation or rearrangement if:

• The venue has been damaged through flood, fire or a disaster.
• The groom, bride or civil partner becomes ill, sustains an injury or passes away.
• Suppliers who have been booked do not turn up on the day.
• Clothing for your wedding day becomes damaged and unusable.
• You are made redundant (usually there is a period of at least eight weeks) after taking out your insurance policy.
• The registrar or person officiating the wedding doesn’t turn up
• Adverse weather prevents guests from attending the wedding

Now that we have established what wedding insurance can cover, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why insurance is beneficial:

Cancellation
As we have briefly outlined above, your insurance policy will cover you if you have to cancel or rearrange your wedding for any of the reasons outlined above. If you do decide to take out insurance it is important to take out cover that is sufficient for the cost of your wedding arrangements.

Bad Weather
If you have a winter wedding booked and the venue is snowed in or it’s the height of summer and the venue is hit by a summer storm, resulting in major disruption you may need to rearrange.

Costs for rearranging
If you’ve already paid for your wedding but something happens and the venue can’t host the wedding, your day will need to be rearranged, perhaps for an alternative date and/or venue. Cancellation cover will protect you if you need to rearrange your wedding.

A good wedding insurance policy will provide adequate cover for your reception and the ceremony itself. More couples are realising the benefits of wedding insurance as it offers greater peace of mind, covering many eventualities.