Why You Shouldn’t Skip Out on Wedding Insurance

Why Consider Purchasing Event Insurance?

Here’s a crazy statistic. The average U.S. wedding held in 2022, with both reception and ceremony, cost $30,000. Factors impacting price include the number of guests being invited, the activities offered, the venue, and outsourcing things like photography, music, and caterers. Weddings can exist on virtually any scale, but for those that choose to invest thousands of dollars, hours and hours of time, and plenty of effort into creating a beautiful day, it’s important that your wedding goes smoothly.

As with anything, things can happen. All events pose liability risks. Hiring anybody to carry out a specific task at your wedding – let’s say a photographer, for example – runs the risk of cancellation at the last minute. Additionally, some venues will require you to carry insurance as defined by the contract.

In short, weddings are expensive. Insurance can cover the costs of unexpected cancellations or unexpected liability claims.

What types of event insurance exist?

Depending on the insurer, wedding insurance can look very different. There may be two kinds of wedding insurance that insurers will offer. Both can protect you against unexpected events that could occur before or on the day of your wedding.

Wedding Cancellation or Postponement Insurance

As the name implies, this type of wedding insurance may offer protection for any nonrefundable expenses/lost deposits. Which would be if the wedding should need to be canceled as a result of an unexpected illness, extreme weather, military leave, or any other applicable serious situations.

Wedding Event Liability & Property Damage Insurance

This is often required of you by a vendor. It covers you if you are held financially liable for any bodily injury, property damage, or even alcohol-related accidents.

What Situations Will Be Covered?

Depending on the policy, it may cover various specific events. Ultimately, a wedding insurance policy should be tailored to provide financial protection and coverage for various unforeseen situations that could arise before or during your wedding – however, you plan your day to look.

Some examples of common situations it covers include:

• Staff no-show: If any of your vendors, photographers, or staff fail to show up, or even go out of business and leave you without their services, your wedding insurance may cover the cost of hiring a replacement in the meantime.
• Accessories or attire malfunction: If any wedding gowns, tuxedos, or other critical attire is damaged or lost, wedding insurance may be able to cover the cost of a repair or replacement.
• Weather issues causing cancellation: If a severe weather event forces you to postpone or even cancel your wedding, insurance may come in to help cover the costs associated with relocation or rescheduling.
• Illness/injury: If an important member of the wedding party, such as the bride, groom, maid of honor, or best man, should fall ill or become injured, resulting in cancellation or postponement, insurance can offer coverage for the incurred expenses.
• Damaged or lost wedding gifts: If wedding gifts end up being stolen, lost, or damaged, the right insurance can cover the repair or replacement costs.
• Non-performance: If a vendor fails to deliver the agreed-upon services/products, wedding insurance may cover the costs to find a replacement or resolve the issue.
• Liquor-related accidents: Some wedding policies come with add-on host liquor liability, which can cover you for any physical damage to the venue resulting from intoxicated guests, or from liability claims arising from injuries to or by intoxicated guests.

Again, specific coverage, exclusions, coverage limits, or covered by wedding insurance will vary between policies. We highly advise you to carefully review the terms and conditions of your wedding insurance policy before you purchase it to thoroughly understand what situations may be covered and what exclusions or limitations could possibly apply.

What does wedding event insurance cost?

We’re going to give you some actual examples of policies that have been issued in the past 90 days.

Example 1. 

We have a wonderful couple getting married in the month of June. They will have 130 guests in attendance. They have chosen $1,000,000 per occurrence liability limits with a $2,000,000 aggregate limit of coverage, which also includes Host Liquor Liability coverage. Their total cost of coverage is $127.

Example 2

Another wonderful couple has a wedding planned in September; they will be hosting 300 guests. The couple has hired a 3^rd party company to serve and supply any and all alcohol and will provide their own liquor liability coverage.  This couple has purchased $1,000,000 per occurrence liability limits with a $2,000,000 aggregate. Their total insurance cost is $169.

Example 3

A couple with 2 large families is having a large wedding event. They are planning on having 500 people at the event. They will be utilizing golf carts to shuttle guests from the parking area to the ballroom. The liability endorsement for the golf care use costs an additional $59. The facility also requires that they purchase a primary and non-contributory endorsement which was included for $68. Due to the couple’s investment in the wedding, they have also selected to purchase wedding cancellation insurance. They have decided to insure $50,000 for the cost of their wedding should something really serious occur that would cause the wedding to be canceled. This has a cost of $562. They have chosen $2,000,000 per occurrence liability limits due to the large event and does include host liquor liability coverage. The total cost of the policy is $812.

Avoiding Financial Loss with Hitchings Insurance

In summary, skipping out on this coverage just isn’t a good idea for anyone who’s invested any amount of money, time, and effort into their big day. Plus, it limits your venue options if you decide to forgo insurance, since many venues will make it a requirement to carry insurance before you can host.

Hitchings Insurance wants your big day to go off without a problem, which is why we’re proud to now be writing insurance for events – including weddings. Give us a call or get a free quote with us by clicking on the link below.