Insuring your wedding can be cheap – but it can prove priceless. Personal finance editor

Adam Aiken reports

Insuring your wedding can be cheap – but it can prove priceless. Personal finance editor Adam Aiken reports

In some ways, you can’t win with insurance. If you don’t claim, it can feel like a waste of money. If you do need to claim, it means something has gone wrong.But what insurance can do for you is give you piece of mind – and when it comes to getting married, such peace of mind can prove priceless.Whether you intend to get married during next year’s spring sunshine or are planning to tie the knot before then, consider taking out insurance at a very early stage. The run-up to a wedding is often stressful, not helped with the fear that something might go wrong. Wedding insurance can’t prevent mishaps, but it can help put them right.“As weddings become more expensive events, more couples are looking to take out insurance,” said Katri Link, a spokesman for insurance group Ecclesiastical.“People are getting married later in life, so they are prepared to spend more on the event.”Typically, wedding insurance policies cover most aspects of the celebration. They provide cover for rings, cakes, flowers, suppliers, damage to dresses and outfits, photographs, videos, cancellation and curtailment, public liability and loss of documents. Cover can also be taken out for marquees.Policies can cost as little as �30 or up to several hundred pounds. The more comprehensive the cover, the higher the premiums – as is the case with all insurance.“Some weddings can be particularly elaborate so some insurance polices have added extra levels and types of cover,” said Ms Link.“The cheapest policies won’t necessarily cover your needs so it’s important to check what you get for your money.”Ecclesiastical said the top three types of claims last year were supplier failure, cancellation and redundancy – a clear indicator of the economic times we are in.Manpreet Chahal, a spokesman for Greenbee, the personal finance arm of the John Lewis Partnership, said: “The average time to plan for a wedding is 12-18 months. During that time, a lot can happen that you can’t prepare for.“A wedding is a huge financial commitment and take a great deal of planning, but there are some things that might happen unexpectedly which can either prevent the wedding from going ahead or cause additional stress and even financial loss.”She added: “We understand that organising weddings can be stressful – not only dealing with the planning but dealing with your own family politics, in-laws and trying to keep everyone happy – so we offer a stress-counselling service for our customers so they can offload their problems to a friendly person over the phone.”Nicki Parry, a spokesman for Moneysupermarket.com, said: “With the average wedding cost reported to have reached the dizzy heights of �20,000 last summer, it really does make sense to pay a relatively small amount to get adequate cover for your big day.“If anything were to go wrong, although it would not make you feel better, it would be some comfort to know that you could make a claim to recover some of the money that you’d spent to create the perfect day.”

COVER STORY

As the level of cover goes up, so do the premiums, but it can worth paying a little extra rather than simply opting for the cheapest available, said Nicki Parry, of Moneysupermarket.com. Should you be unfortunate enough to have to make a claim on your policy, it is important all your losses are covered. Don’t leave it until the last minute before you take out a policy. It would be a shame to delay taking out cover only to find that your venue is damaged by flooding or fire before the policy comes into force. Most things associated with weddings are listed as standard in insurance policies, but it is still vital to read through to ensure that you are covered for all aspects of your wedding. Marquee cover is often excluded from standard polices but is usually available as an add-on. And should you have anything quirky, such as particularly expensive artwork, contact your insurer to see if it is covered as standard.