What is Wedding Insurance and Do You Really Need It?

As your wedding day approaches, you have probably experienced much-deserved satisfaction crossing things off on your to-do checklist, dotting your i's, crossing your t's, writing checks, and securing all of your plans for the big day. You can plan your little heart out, but disasters can strike. Problems can arise. The unexpected can become the unavoidable.

This isn't meant to scare you, but as they say, the best offense is a good defense. Or is it offense sells tickets, defense wins games? IDK. What I do know is that unexpected situations emerge alarmingly often, and on a day when you have invested much of your energy, time and money, those unexpected events can be devastating. But they don't have to be. You may have heard of a newcomer to the wedding industry and it's been saving wedding days since its arrival: wedding insurance.

So what is wedding insurance, you may ask. Wedding insurance is the rope you hold on to for dear life if something goes wrong on your wedding day. It's the difference between an incident being minor or major. The term itself is rather explanatory: it's insurance for unavoidable events on your wedding day, and experts agree that it's a small price to pay to protect your considerably large investment.

Well, I'm not going to lecture you on the “good defense, best offense” strategy to saving your wedding day. However, I feel that it's my duty to inform you about all of the situations or scenarios that wedding insurance could protect you from.

• Inclement weather conditions: this is one of the main reasons people buy insurance. It does not matter if your events are held indoors. Whether it's snow, a tornado or a tsunami, if the conditions prevent a primary wedding guest (important relative, bride, groom) or the majority of guests from coming, insurance will cover the cost of rescheduling the wedding.

• Illness or injury: if the bride, groom or someone with a large part in the wedding gets sick or hurt, insurance will take care of the rescheduling costs.

• Vendor failure: if an important vendor such as the catering company does not show up on your big day or goes out of business, a policy will typically cover these costs or even the rescheduling of the wedding.

• A problem with your ceremony/reception site: sometimes these venues have their own insurance. If not, wedding insurance will take financial responsibility of canceling because of an issue with the site. Issues include flooding, fires, etc.

• Deployment: should you or your significant other be called to active military duty, the postponement of the wedding will be covered under your policy.

• Damage to the wedding attire: from a tear in the wedding dress to lost wedding rings, your plan will most likely cover the damage.

There are several additional miscellaneous events or situations that are covered by wedding insurance policies. It is important to note that it does not cover the costs in the event of the bride or groom backing out of the wedding. WedSure has recently introduced a new policy called the “Change of Heart” policy that does cover the expenses if the bride or groom gets cold feet—if it happens at least 365 days prior to the wedding day.

The point is, cover your bases. You wouldn't dream of purchasing a $30,000 vehicle without car insurance. With weddings costing between $10,000-$30,000, the same rules and precaution should be used here to protect your once-in-a-lifetime event.