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What is Wedding Insurance? How much Does it Cost?

By February 10, 2014February 23rd, 2021Homeowners Insurance, New Jersey Insurance

What is a wedding? One modern day educator asked this question and said “Well, Webster’s dictionary describes a wedding as: the process of removing weeds from one’s garden.” While Professor Homer J. Simpson does not provide an accurate answer we want to dig deeper and ask what is Wedding Insurance, what does it do, and how much does it cost?

Simply put, Wedding Insurance provides financial protection to a couple who are about to experience the most costly and busiest 3 to 5 hours of their lives.

It’s not uncommon for a couple to spend $15,000 or more for a wedding. You are orchestrating a complex event where multiple parties are involved to do one thing – make your day special and memorable. For example:

  • You hire a DJ or a band.
  • You rent a hall.
  • You hire a caterer.
  • You hire a photographer.
  • You hire someone to record a video.
  • You hire a limousine.
  • You rent a tuxedo.
  • You buy a wedding gown.
  • You hire a florist.
  • You hire a minister to conduct your ceremony.
  • You hire a musician to perform at your ceremony.
  • You buy rings to be exchanged .
  • You have a rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

 

So what could possibly go wrong? Here are some things we have seen couples experience:

  • A week before the event the catering hall has a fire and burns to the ground
  • A destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico was canceled due to a hurricane that hit the resort.
  • The day of the wedding the limo company does not show up
  • The caterer goes out of business and the deposit paid is gone
  • A guest at the wedding breaks a statue at the catering hall.
  • An intoxicated guest leaves the reception, gets behind the wheel of his car, and is involved in an auto accident. Weeks later the bride and groom receive a lawsuit from a person who was injured by this drunk driver because he drank at their wedding.
  • The priest has a heart attack the morning of the wedding.

A well crafted Wedding Insurance Policy can provide you with protection for certain expenses you incur from an event being canceled, postponed, or moved to another location. Also liability coverage, including host liquor liability, can be included to protect you from someone who is injured at your event.

You may be wondering why a couple should be concerned about liquor liability. Most likely the hall or restaurant has their own staff serving the liquor. Why would the couple be responsible? Ultimately they may not be responsible, but because it was their event, and they picked the hall or restaurant; they could still be named in a lawsuit and would have to hire a lawyer to defend themselves. The liquor liability coverage would pay for a lawyer to defend them.

The cost of insurance is small compared to the overall amount you have to spend on the event. To give you a “rough idea”, for a $25,000 event with 120 guests including liability and liquor liability coverage you will pay around $470. That’s about 1.9% of the total cost of the event.

Depending on the area of the United States where you are having your event or where you live, the premium and coverages provided may be different or not even available.

Also with any insurance policy there is the fine print. Some Wedding Insurance policies have sub-limits or restrictions of coverage. For example, a policy that offers $50,000 of coverage may have a restriction that if wedding rings are lost the most the policy will pay is $2,000. Some policies have deductibles, others do not.

If you are buying a policy online you should ask the company to give you information about restrictions and sub-limits so you know what you are buying. The best option is to get a copy of the actual policy language and read firsthand what kind of coverage is really provided.

Although we at Rue Insurance have a bias…you should call us and talk about this important piece of insurance. A website isn’t your neighbor, but we are. You may like us so much that you would want to invite us to your wedding.

Scott Harrigan

Scott started his career in insurance in 1988 and joined Rue Insurance in 2004 as a Marketing Specialist focusing on creating effective risk financing and risk transfer programs for companies and non-profit organizations. In addition to this he is a member of the Rue Insurance educational team that provides ongoing professional development in critical insurance concepts and programs to Rue employees. About Scott | More Posts by Scott

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