The Compareaholic’s Guide to Wedding Insurance

Let’s see what this guide covers -

Sections at a glance:

• Do I need wedding insurance – the big question
• What to look for in a policy – our top tips
• Comparison table – everything laid bare
• UK wedding insurers – a rundown of the companies
• Faqs

Do I Need Wedding Insurance?

No. You are not legally required to insure you wedding in the same way that you legally need car insurance to drive your car. However, not having insurance for your wedding could see you forking out considerable costs should something go wrong (suppliers cancel, go bankrupt, problems with the venue etc).

There are some instanced in which you may already have some level of cover that you’re not aware of. Please be aware that this coverage typically isn’t as comprehensive as a typical wedding insurance policy. However, if you think you may already have some level of cover, it’s worth contacting the relevant insurer to see how they compare against the cover available from a standard wedding insurance policy.

For example:

1. Your credit card company will cover you

   If a wedding supplier provides goods or a service which is not up to the standard agreed in your contract, you may be able to claim the money back through section 75 of the consumer credit act. This applies to goods or services priced between £100 and £30,000. You will need to go through a formal claims process with your credit card company to reclaim this money. Even if you do decide to take out wedding insurance, it’s still good practice to purchase items using a credit card rather than a debit card or cash to increase your level of protection.

   Please note, your credit card company will not be able to cover you for purchases you have not made yourself such as wedding gifts. It will also not be able to offer cover for personal accident or public liability.

2. You’re already covered by your home insurance policy

   According to Which?, some home insurance companies increase the level of cover within your home insurance policy in the month before and month after your wedding day. This is to provide cover for the increase value of contents within your home (wedding gifts and items bought for the wedding), which can increase by several thousand pounds during this time and won’t be registered with your contents insurer.

3. We’re doing this on a budget, there’s not much to insure

   While the average cost of a UK wedding is close to £20,000, many get married for much less. Even if you’re getting married on a budget, there will be costs – however cheap they may be – that will pop up. In fact, most people getting married on a budget are doing so because they cannot afford any more than their set budget, and so definitely couldn’t afford to pay out if something went wrong.

   Thankfully there are a few budget insurance policies which are suited to those getting married on the cheap. Wedding Plan Insurance’s ‘Essentials’ cover is an example of this. More can be seen by looking through the companies individually.

What to look for when buying

Getting married – and the wedding day itself – is no small undertaking. These days the cost of the average UK wedding is enough to buy a new car or put down a deposit on a house.

When you’re putting this much money into anything, be it a wedding or a house, you want to make sure that you’re covered should anything go wrong. And unfortunately, things do go wrong. Suppliers go bust, venues cancel – not all the time, but enough to get even the average bride (and groom) stressed out.

We’ve made things easy for you by putting together a list of features to look for in a policy. We’ve then gone and put all of the suppliers that offer this into a comparison table with ticks and crosses next to each company making it easy to see who offers what. And if that’s not enough we’ve put together an overview of each company and have asked the Compareaholic community to give their reviews and feedback of each supplier. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

Without insurance, you’re unfortunately left without any cover should the venue cancel, a supplier go bust or the wedding gifts go missing. However, the policies we’ve listed can cover you against all of these possibilities – it’s just knowing what to look for. Thankfully we’ve made that easy with our top policy features list below and our comparison table of policies below that again.

Top things to look for in your policy:

What to look for when comparing insurers -

• Cancellation: Sometimes things go wrong and you have to unexpectedly cancel the wedding. It’s not nice, and there are plenty of reasons this could happen – illness, venue problems, an accident are just some examples. Cancellation cover is there to cover the costs associated with cancellation should this happen to you.
• Re-arrangement: Like cancellation, re-arrangement can bring about a number of additional costs such as the cost of arranging a new venue or supplier. Please be aware: cancellation and re-arrangement aren’t always the same and may have different cover levels.
• Attire: Should anything happen to your wedding dress (and/or groom’s clothing for attire) this typically covers the costs of repair or replacement. Most policies cover you in the months coming up to the wedding and on the big day as well.
• Gifts: Typically covers the gifts against theft or damage on the wedding day.
• Photos: Typically covers costs associated with damaged or missing photos as well as photographers not showing.
• Rings: Typically covers the costs of replacing lost, stolen or damaged rings.
• Flowers: Typically covers the cost of replacing lost or spoiled flowers or the florist failure to supply.
• Cake: As with flowers typically covers the costs of replacing a lost or spoiled cake or the cake suppliers failure to supply.
• Stationery: Typically covers costs for lost or damaged stationery.
• Cars/Transport: Typically covers failure of transport, non-appearance of transport and costs associated with accident.
• Supplier Failure: If your supplier goes bankrupt or is unable to fulfil the order, breaching the contract.
• Public Liability: Legal liability to a third party who incurs damages or costs as a result of your wedding event.
• Wedding Documents: Loss or damage to the wedding documents

These are the main and most common parts of a wedding insurance policy. Please note, not all suppliers offer the same level of cover for each feature. Always read the small print and use the comparison table to carefully compare what each company offers. It’s also worth taking a look at the reviews section to see what other previous and current customers are saying.

The Comparison Table

Easily compare the best policies using our compareaholic’s comparison table -

Showing 16 of 33 available policies.

See the full COMPARISORT comparison table

Wedding Insurers – An Overview

A guide to the different providers -

Faqs

1. Am I covered simply for having a change of heart/cold feet?

   The policies mentioned are typically designed to cover you in case something unpredictable and uncontrollable happens (the bride or groom get ill/or have an accident, there’s a death in the immediate family etc). Cold feet or changing your mind isn’t usually covered.

2. Are the cover levels the same for weddings overseas as at home?

   In terms of cover for the event and the reception itself, the cover is the same. The only exception is E&L, which offer a policy specifically for overseas weddings which also includes cover for delayed travel.

3. Is Marquee hire covered?

   Marquee cover is nearly always an additional cost, and usually carries its own specific excess with it.

4. Can you recommend some policies for military personnel

   If you are in the military, there is always the possibility that you will need to cancel your big day due to a military calling. Dreamsaver offer specific cover for military personnel, so they would be the best company to contact initially.

5. Which policies are suitable for Asian weddings?

   While all policies are suitable for insuring wedding events, Dreamsaver now offer their own specific ‘Asian Wedding Insurance’ package.

6. Which wedding insurance quote is the cheapest?

   Several companies such as E&L, Weddingplan and Covermywedding offer cheap cover for low-budget weddings. These are suitable if you’re not spending a lot on the wedding itself, however don’t simply go for the cheapest as you will be under-insuring your wedding.

7. Which policy is the best?

   Best is a very relative term. If you are looking for the cheapest then E&L are probably the way to go. If you’re looking for the policy that offers the most cover (if you’re having a big wedding) then Debenhams offer up to £70,000 cancellation cover on their diamond plus policy.

   It’s also worth reading the reviews for each policy which are left by our readers and those that have taken out policies with each of these companies. This will give you an idea as to how good each company is and how straight forward the claims process is.