Wedding Insurance: What Do to If Disaster Strikes Your Wedding Day

What if the worst happens on your wedding day? Some events cannot be helped, no matter how much you plan, such as a hurricane, or if a member of the bridal party gets very ill and the wedding needs to be postponed. What if your caterer or reception hall goes out of business just before the big day? Fire, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc can all prevent guests from attending or perhaps water and electricity would not be fully restored by your wedding. Especially during hurricane season on the East Coast, you can get beautiful weather one day and a natural disaster the next. A common tactic on sitcoms to make a wedding outlandish or memorable, these disasters are not so amusing in real life. These are things you cannot plan around, so this is where wedding insurance comes in.

With all the money you spend on your wedding, and for all the things that can go wrong and can't be corrected on "the big day" wedding insurance just makes sense. Certain items sort of already have insurance - such as your caterer should be insured in case of food poisoning, and your photographer, florist, and cake baker should have back up plans - so ask about what happens in an emergency or if they are unable to fulfill their wedding duties on your big day. Some will have a partner or associate take over their duties for the day; others do not have a backup plan but have a clause in the contract discussing what happens in the event that they cannot fulfill their duties. Make sure you are comfortable with their back up plan and that you see the work of anyone who might take their place in an emergency.

But for other events - natural disaster, fire, earthquakes, etc., wedding insurance comes in. Websites like Wedsafe.com will charge a few hundred dollars to insure your wedding in case of need to postpone. Since most vendors require and keep deposits, wedding insurance is a good idea to make sure you can still afford to have a wedding in case something happens on your big day.

If someone in the bridal party gets too sick for the wedding to take place, wedding insurance will cover the postponement of an event. Some wedding insurance policies only cover emergencies or new illnesses, and not pre-existing issues such as a sickly or elderly relative that it is reasonable to presume they would be unlikely to attend the wedding anyway. Some policies just address the bride and groom and no other bridal party members are considered "vital". But this varies by policy, so if this is an important feature you

Sometimes if you rent a historic site or community room for your reception, they require you carry insurance in case of fire or damage to the property. This is generally a nominal expense, but needs to be considered within your wedding budget.