You’ve been planning your wedding for a year (or even longer), and there is no possible way to predict an emergency. From California wildfires to pandemics, canceling a wedding or event is not an easy decision, especially since you’ve put so much time and money into this one day. There are two things that can help make an emergency easier to cope with, 1. Remember this is a day of love, no matter what happens you will always have each other, and 2. SPECIAL. EVENT. INSURANCE. We can not stress this enough.

What is special event insurance?  

Special event insurance is one-day event insurance coverage that can protect you from traumatic financial loss in case of emergency or cancelations. Variations of coverage can cover things from property damage and injuries, to emergency cancelations, or even smaller things like your cake and wedding attire for situations that are out of your control.

Should I purchase insurance for my wedding?

Almost all reputable venues will require you to have general liability insurance for your wedding or special event. However, you are highly encouraged to purchase additional insurances: cancelation insurance, loss of deposits, liquor liability, or special coverage. With the help of WedSure.com, we break down the differences and add-ons they offer and why you should invest in it all.

General Liability Insurance – Base Price $125.00

This is going to be the most important insurance you can have, and often required by your venue. General liability protects you and the venue in case someone gets injured or the venue’s property gets damaged. When you gather a large group of family and friends together, who might be drinking a lot, there’s no way of knowing when accidents might happen. Even something as small as a guest tripping over a step and injuring their knee can cause a whole mess of lawsuits.

When you purchase general liability though WedSure, you can add up to $10,000 to cover the costs of an injured person’s medical bills, regardless of who is at fault. You can also customize your property damage deductible, up to $10,000. 

Additional Cancelation / Postponement Coverage

This coverage is the most sought after additional coverage and can cover things like natural disasters, bad weather, if the bride or groom gets extremely sick, or other reasons beyond your control. Remember, this is an additional cover to liability and does not cover your wedding costs if you get cold feet.

Cancelation coverage is a customizable amount that covers the expenses incurred when your wedding must be canceled or postponed for reasons beyond your control. This line is extremely important when understanding if your coverage covers events such as the Coronavirus. For the current Coronavirus, it simply means that expenses are covered ONLY if your wedding is forced to cancel because it meets the local or state mandated requirements: cancel non-essential events of 250 people or more and coverage was purchased before the start of the virus. Unfortunately, this coverage will NOT cover your event if you choose to cancel or postpone the wedding due to fear or because guests choose not to fly. 

For $10,000 worth of cancelation cover and the minimum deductible of $25, you’re looking at an additional cost $160 to your plan. In case of a necessary event cancelation, you could be out a lot more than that if you don’t have it!

WedSure’s Other Additional Wedding Insurance Coverages:

Loss of Deposits Coverage

The first option to add to your coverage is loss of deposits. This covers your loss in a situation where you hired someone to provide goods or services, but they go out of business prior to your event. While we hope that the reputable vendors you have hired never have this tragedy occur, it’s a very real situation that could cost you!

Photograph & Video Coverage

This optional coverage pays out if you need to retake photographs or video recordings if the photographer/videographer fails to appear or disappears after the event without delivering your pictures. When hiring Dee and Kris, you can be assured, per your contract, that two photographers will photograph your event in its entirety. However, if you choose to hire a friend photographer/videographer, or someone who doesn’t provide you with confidence in their contract, you should consider this add-on. We recommend checking with all your vendors to confirm they have their own liability insurance.

Special Attire Coverage

This coverage covers the cost to repair or replace the special attire for your wedding day, including: The bride’s gown, groom’s suite, and bridal party attire in the event that it is lost, stolen, or damaged.

Jewelry Coverage

Please note, your jewelry is NOT covered under special attire coverage. You will need to insure each piece of jewelry. I don’t find this one as important as some of the other add-ons, only because you should already have any valuable pieces of jewelry insured under its own policy for everyday life. Especially your engagement ring. Check your homeowners policy to see if you can add your valuables to it. 

Gift Insurance

This one is very straight forward, basically it covers you if any of your wedding gifts are lost or damaged on the day of your wedding coverage. 

Rented Party Supplies

You’ll probably be required to have this if you choose to rent items such as tents, marquees, tabled, chairs or even portable toilets. It will cover you if anything gets damaged. 

Professional Counseling

After all my research on wedding coverage, I was most surprised by this additional option. This coverage covers expenses for professional counseling prescribed by a medical doctor due to trauma from a covered cancelation. 

Do you research! Every wedding is different, at the very least we highly encourage you to purchase the required amount of coverage AND cancelation coverage in case of an emergency you simply can not control. After looking through multiple sources, Wedsure seems to have the most customizable options and the most coverage. However, there are tons of options, such as Event Helper. We also suggest checking with the insurance company you use for your home and cars. Places like Progressive partner with Event Helper and offer a 5% discount when you add a single day event coverage to an existing Progressive account.

I’m sure you remember our highly publicized Fire Wedding. Fortunately for this couple, who had a DIY wedding on the bride’s family property, their wedding day insurance covered a brunt of the cost of additional expenses when they were forced to evacuate and relocate their wedding. Plus, they were covered for the damage the fire caused to their rentals. 

For even more information regarding wedding insurance and wedding credit cards, CLICK HERE.