Some insurance questions...

I would get the insurance before entering into any major financial arrangement, else you might find it's not covered, if the contract of agreement is dated before the policy is taken out.

Further question now - has anybody not taken out insurance? From looking at the policy documents it doesn't look like anything at all is covered! And OH's brother got married December 2010 on a day we happened to have a bucketload of snow, loads of things got cancelled or didn't arrive etc and they ended up getting absolutely nothing off the insurance - this puts me off slightly!

I got married in December last year and didn't take out any insurance on my wedding. I figured that the worst that would happen would be an act of god (the weather) So to me, there wasn't much point.

I havent bothered with insurance. Mainly cause we are going abroad and the accomodation is the venue. Seems to cause a load of hassle, and tbh, I just cant be bothered to phone brokers!

We didn't take out any insurance, mainly because we were doing our wedding on less than £3,000 all in, and we could afford to cover that money again should anything happen.

I'd have probably taken insurance had we been planning a more expensive wedding. It's all down to what you can afford to lose financially and have to pay for either to not receive it or to pay for twice should you need to.

We have insurance with dreamsaver and it covers deposits already paid, gold cover is £35, no excess

I just don't know what to do for the best really....

We're having a civil ceremony in the hotel we'll be having the reception at - the hotel is one of a big chain and we're using 3 rooms in different parts of the hotel so unless they have some MAJOR disaster that covers a fair amount of land i can't see the wedding being cancelled by them.

I've already got my dress as it was an ex-sample so i don't have to worry about a bridal shop going bankrupt and holding my dress hostage!

We're doing centrepieces and other decorations ourselves so don't have to worry about a company cancelling on us.

Our photographer is my uncle and he's doing it for free as a wedding present so an insurance company wouldn't cover that anyway.

We might not be having flowers.

We'll probably be doing the cake ourselves.

Overall i think the only problems we would have with companies etc cancelling would be our DJ but if it was in advance we could probably afford to book another and if it was seconds before i don't see how having insurance would help that really.

After writing it down i seem to be swaying towards not getting any but i don't know if i'm just being silly!

FWIW I worked with a team of registrars from your home town last week and they were truly excellent....

Regarding insurance, the cost can be quite low, so something may be better than nothing. I don't want to scare, so won't list any, although we have heard of any things "left field" that can go wrong, at least some financial redress might ease any problem that arises.

hth

Peter

Book it before booking other services and suppliers. But check the key features document which outlines what is and not covered. This document is usually doanloadable from the providers' website or get it emailed to you. They have to give you excess to one before you take out the insurance policy.

Also by Law, you also have a Right To Cancel policy within certain period (a;ways check with the provider).

Insurance companies cannot use the excuse 'Act of God'. They will have to prove there is or there is no God. How will do that?

Bob

We haven't bothered with insurance. What will be will be!

By definition of law in England and Wales, an "Act of God" is an unforeseeable natural phenomenon. Explained by Lord Hobhouse in the legal action between Transco PLC vs Stockport Metropolitan Council as describing events;

Which involve no human agency

Which is not realistically possible to guard against

Which is due directly and exclusively to natural causes and

Which could not have been prevented by any amount of foresight, plans, and care.

Not sure about the law in Scotland.....

Peter

I have heard very bad things about this company in general, not just wedding insurance but other types of cover too.

And my advice would be get insurance - why would you not spend £50 on insurance when you could lose thousands if you don't? Even if you can afford to cover the cost of your wedding five times over, why would you want to? I am always surprised when people don't bother with wedding insurance.

Who IS worth going with then? I've had a look online as much as i can and they all seem to have some bad reviews and some people who aren't happy that their claim was denied for whatever reason. Like i said OH's brother had his claim denied and they'd gone with John Lewis as far as i know so i don't think going for a more expensive one makes any difference.... I also don't see how John Lewis can charge triple what other companies do for the same level of cover???

Whether or not the company charges a lot can to some extent in the case of insurance companies be proportionate to their likelihood of accepting a claim and paying out - e and l have a history of not paying out (my father in law is a vet and says they never pay out on their pet ins policies which leaves pet owners in terrible situations - e and l stands for equine and livestock, they are primarily a pet/agricultural ins company). We went with Ecclesiastical - it cost is 75 quid, and I'd heard good reviews about it.

As I mentioned earlier, Act of God is not a legal exclusion in Insurance Companies' policies. Check out the link to Association of British Insurers below and see ection 10:

http://www.abi.org.uk/Media/Releases/2010/08 /Truth_and_fiction__top_insurance_tips_and_myths.aspx

Bob

Hmmm, just been chatting it through with my fiancee about this one too and we're n two minds but then for £35 (dreamsaver), it's peace of mind I guess.

I guess if it were a lot more we'd probably take the risk but £35 isn't a lot in the grand scale of things.

One question though. Is there anywhere which says we'd be covered for anything we've already paid a deposit for? We've already booked our venue and that's the biggest single expense so there's no point in taking this out if they wriggle out of paying the largest part on a technicality.

I have another question for you all - i'm a bit confused about the level of cover we will need. As "cancellation of wedding/ reception" is listed separately to "wedding attire"; "cake"; "photography" etc does that mean we only need cover to the amount being paid to the venue? - ie our venue is going to cost about £2500 so cancellation of up to £3000 would be enough?

We also haven't got any insurance either.

Any other opinions on this ladies and gents?

We're now thinking of going with Debenhams -has anybody had any good experiences? I know everyone hopes to not need their insurance but has anybody had the misfortune of needing to make a claim? If so where they helpful?