Let’s face it; no one ever really wants to think about insurance, especially as it relates to what is likely to be the most joyous day of your entire life. But, wedding insurance is a growing industry, and there must be a reason for that. Simply put, whether it’s your wedding, home, job, health or whatever, disasters can and will happen on occasion. Sure, you might be lucky enough to go your entire life without ever experiencing true out of-the-blue disaster, but to rely on this is akin to gambling. Thus, insurance can offer piece of mind by allowing you to manage your risk instead of gamble with it.
That said, the decision on whether or not to purchase wedding insurance is a highly personal one, as it clearly has pros and cons. So, I thought I would dig a little deeper and research the main types of wedding insurance claims that have been brought about recently to see what real people are using this for.
An analysis by Travelers Insurance showed that 3 categories of claims accounted for more than 50% of all claims in 2012. They are, in order: vendor problems (24%), injury and/or illness (19%), and bad weather (14%). The latter two are self-explanatory, but the vendor category is interesting enough to warrant further analysis.
Of all vendor-related claims in 2012, a whopping 58% had to do with the wedding photographer! Apparently it’s relatively common for the photographer to simply not show up! This is unfortunate, as the cost of wedding pictures is clearly one of the larger expenses of any wedding, averaging in the $3,000-$4,000 range. Bad catering and/or bad caterer behavior is the second-most common vendor problem, accounting for 21% of the total. Bad DJs accounted for 11% of all claims, while shoddy wedding planners accounted for roughly 5% of all wedding insurance claims.
So given all these possibilities for losing money and gaining stress, the cost of wedding insurance doesn’t seem too bad after all. Of course, all companies tend to charge different prices, but in general $30,000 worth of wedding insurance coverage will probably run you in the neighborhood of $250. Obviously you could probably pay less if you shop around, raise the deductible, and/or eliminate some of the lower-priority coverage options.
The bottom line is that all vendors are not created equally, so if you are a bride or groom it probably makes sense to at least weigh the pros and cons of wedding insurance. Another thought is that if you’re the mother of the bride, this might be something nice to contribute to your daughter’s wedding. Either way, the analysis summarized in this post really underscores the importance of choosing your wedding vendors wisely. Always – and I mean always – ask for and call references, ask lots of questions, analyze vendor samples (if applicable), and conduct online due diligence. In the final analysis, if you’re confident that you can choose your vendors wisely, and that you’ll stay healthy, then it would probably make sense to skip the added expense of getting insurance. But of course, that’s a BIG “if.” Good luck!
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