To Insure or Not to Insure

That is most certainly the question. Is it just another expense to heave on to the top of your rapidly mounting other wedding expenses or is it £50 well spent?

It's certainly worth considering in our opinion. Think about all the things you have to pay for even when just putting down a deposit…..The photographer, the vicar, the organist, the choir, the wedding breakfast, the evening buffet, the caterers, the venue, the rings, the flowers, the wedding dress, bridesmaids dresses, groom and best man's attire, live band or DJ, fireworks, champagne, free bar, wedding cars/horse and carriage……The list seems horrifyingly never-ending for a half-empty wallet.

Basically, saving for you wedding and honeymoon can take all of your spare cash plus more and on top of all this, you might also be buying a new home.

So if anything goes wrong with your wedding arrangements, you're unlikely to have much in the way of spare cash to fall back on and the nearer to the event these things happen, the worse it can become for your pocket.

I was lucky when I got married - the wedding cars turned up half an hour late, the DJ got lost on the way to the reception and was 2 hours late, the videographer fell over twice in the church, swearing loudly on both occasions, neither of which were edited from the video itself, and the organist fell ill leaving the vicar's wife to stand in who played like Les Dawson on a bad day. All quite relaxing really, not a disaster and the video's sound effects are a scream!

Not everything's so harmless though. The following are true examples of things going wrong, sometimes causing cancellation/postponement of the wedding and losing all of your deposit money. You then have to pay them again for a re-arranged date:-

The bride or groom is involved in an accident
Your caterers go bankrupt just before your wedding.
The church is maliciously damaged, burnt or flooded out.
The photographer has double booked
You're made redundant or lose your job and can't afford to pay the rest of your bills.
A very close relative dies just before your wedding
You lose the wedding rings just before the big day
Your wedding presents are stolen from the reception venue or from a relative's car

The average wedding is a very expensive business and you can spend anything between £4,000 to £14,000. Wedding insurance generally starts covering you from around £3,000 upwards at a premium of around £50.00. A comprehensive package should cover you for the things mentioned above and include wedding cancellation, re-arrangements/loss of deposits, loss/damage to wedding attire, wedding gifts, rings, attendants gifts, the cars/transport, photographer, videographer and liability cover.

£60.00 is a small price to pay as it could potentially save you £'000s. All in all, it is recommended that you do bother purchasing insurance and you should do so as soon as you are looking to pay your first deposit or make your first booking.

There are a selection of insurance products around, some better than others; you need to compare policy limits as well as price.