If you’re just embarking on your wedding planning journey, there’s one task you must tick off before any other! Here are 5 reasons why wedding insurance should be at the top of your planning list, courtesy of Claim Score…
What is the last thing you want to do after you got engaged? Probably start shopping for a wedding insurance policy, right? You might discount the idea all together. You might also be tempted to push it aside in favour of much nicer tasks like pinning wedding inspiration on a mood board, visiting venues or arranging food, wine and cake tastings. Here are 5 reasons why you should actually look at it right now:
EAT A FROG FOR BREAKFAST
The first reason is very obvious: It’s all about eating a frog for breakfast. It’s a famous quote from Mark Twain. What does it mean? If the first thing you do in the morning is eat a live frog, you can go through the rest of the day knowing the worst is behind you. Your frog (wedding insurance in this instance) is your worst task. Get it sorted first thing, then it’s done and dusted. Then you can spend the rest of your time on much nicer tasks. It’s not an insignificant task either: According to recent figures***, the average cost of a wedding insurance claim is £14,425.
TAKE YOUR TIME
Its takes a bit of time to review and compare the various options. Price is not everything. Actually, insurance is only as good as the cover and claims are dealt with rarely. Researching and comparing wedding insurance first thing will make sure you don’t rush into the wrong decision. Some policies offer more cover than others in terms of their coverage amount. Some give you different cover options proportionally to the amount you pay in. All of them will have exclusions. Get familiar with them now and save yourself from a potential nasty surprise if you were to claim. Here are the most common exclusions:
Exclusions to wedding insurance cover
- Theft of rings, flowers, cakes, dress – your wedding insurance covers you for loss and some accidental damage situations (with exclusions, see below)
- Accidental damage in a car park – not covered. So don’t leave your wedding flowers or cake (if you’re taking the DIY approach or a friend made it for you) in your boot, take it straight to the venue or keep them at home.
- Loss, damage or theft to your engagement ring
- Policy excess – goes without saying but it’s easy to forget.
- Pre-existing medical conditions – it can invalidate a claim for cancelling or rescheduling the wedding.
- Cancelling your wedding due to bad conditions if more than 50% of people could make it there
- Financial failure of suppliers due to bankruptcy less than 14 days after policy purchase date
- Wedding cancellations due to Redundancy less than 90 days after policy was bought
- Honeymoon – you’ll need travel insurance for this. A single trip policy will cover your honeymoon, however make sure you don’t make your decision just based on price. Take a little time to compare what’s included in the cover and also, the claim handling satisfaction is obviously really important. A website like Claimscore compares travel insurers just on claim ratings to help you make a more informed decision.
- Marquee wedding **
- Overseas wedding**
TWICE EFFICIENT
No need to spend time on boring insurance matters twice. Whilst you’re at it, decide whether you need to be insuring your engagement ring. Remember it’s not covered by your wedding insurance. What would happen if it get lost, damaged or stolen? The average spend on an engagement ring is £2,084* and up 17% in the last 3 years. If your ring is worth that much, and might also be a bespoke design, make sure you get it valued correctly before insuring it. Specialist jewellery insurer T.H. March explains that “A big stumbling block for claiming on insurance for personal jewellery is the lack of a properly carried out/documented valuation. Getting that first crucial bit of the jigsaw in place means that, going forward if there is a claim, the customer will end up with a very decent repair or replacement – usually from their own chosen jeweller.”
THE SOONER THE BETTER
Some aspects of your wedding insurance come with an initial exclusion period (we talked above about cancelling for cause of redundancy which carries a 90 days exclusion period, and supplier bankruptcy which comes with a 14 days exclusion period too). The sooner you buy your policy the sooner you’ll be covered. To put things in perspective for you, couples buy their wedding insurance policy 9.3 months ahead of their wedding day on average ***
PEACE OF MIND
Finally, your wedding day is a huge milestone event in your life. You want to make planning it as fun and enjoyable as possible. Knowing you have sorted out the practical elements like your wedding insurance (whether or not you decide to buy it in the end, but have looked at it carefully) can help you feel more in control and relaxed with the rest of your planning.
We hope these tips were useful. Wishing you a wonderful planning time for your big day!
NOTES:
*Source – hitched.co.uk
** can be added but not included as standard
***Source – compareweddinginsurance.org.uk – findings from a survey across 2500 wedding insurance policies taken between Nov 2016 and April 2017