Wedding Insurance - advice please

Insurance is one of those things that if everything goes to plan, it was a waste of money - but when something invariably does go wrong, you'll be glad you had it (or regret not buying it).

We used the Ecclesiastical one from Hitched, just over £50, and I don't know what your overall budget is but when you're looking at £10,000 to £30,000 (or more) it almost seems silly not to have that little expense for a bit of extra security "just in case".

You'll probably find that any insurance on your credit card has an excess and upper limit per item, so given that you're likely spending thousands on your venue booking, maybe £1000 on a photographer and similar on a dress, you may well find that most of your big day wouldn't be covered on your credit card anyway.

The credit card may well cover you against a supplier going bust, but probably not your cat making a comfy nest out of your dress...

Will a credit card cover cancellation due to illness etc?

We went with Ecclesiastical as well, mainly because of their pick and mix facility. That might suit you as you can reduce your cover/payment for things you know your credit card will cover e.g. purchases, but increase it for things not covered e.g. liability, legal fees, illness etc

That's another thought I'd forgotten - your credit card probably won't cover you for public liability insurance which apparently you need in case a guest decides to sue you for something.

Unfortunately as the country becomes more like america, this sort of thing is becoming more and more necessary.

I'm also pretty unconvienced about wedding insurance.

Basically assuming that all the people you are emplying, caterers, band, photographer are true professionals they'll have their own insurance, against any damages or injuries they may cause and also if they fail to turn up or are ill, not only should their insurance cover it, but I'd also expect them to be professional enough to have backup plans.

Feel free to check that with the people you are emlpoying and ask to see their certificates if neccesary.

The Venue should also have their own insurance against any problems.

And very importantly a lot of the things that people think they will be insursed against such as recieving bad photos isn't covered. Nor are things such as the weather etc.

So as long as you are not employing mickey mouse people, then I think you are fine, with one exception -

If your venue suddenly goes bankrupt, closes and disappers, then you will find yourself possibly fighting to get the money from the recievers. But asides from senerios like that, I think wedding insurance is insurance for insurance sake.

And as AJ said andother awful step towards America.

We got out wedding insurance from greenbee and it came in at £86. We got it for that peace of mind aspect. It does cover things a credit card won't and I wanted the safety - £86 is nothing in comparison to the cost of our wedding!

We got ours from debenhams, it was £53 and covers for upto 9k i believe. although our weddings costing more, thats the majority

theres different packages with them for more or less cover i think

i just thought the amount its costing for my wedding, id rather pay out an extra £50 and get peace of mind and not worry

We didn't have any - I didn't see the point.

We've gone for Ecclesiastical, the second tier at £56 and are planning to increase the cover as we put down more deposits, although I imagine that this might be enough cover (you'd have to be pretty unlucky to have all your suppliers go bust hehe!).

I've gone for insurance as I'm a natural worrier, and having this is peace of mind and gives me one less thing to worry about. It was especially important to me as my parents have very kindly helped us out with the deposit for the venue. Losing our money I could deal with, but losing theirs I couldn't.

Personally I'd suggest getting some. Credit cards are fantastic protection for certain things but won't cover you if you have to cancel for illness or similar.

Ours is from Voyager and cost £33.

We have booked it incase of cancellation / date alteration if OH can't get the time off work moreso than suppliers going bust.

It terms of what would be covered by insurance but not a credit card: If they didn't supply the goods on the day (credit cards wouldn't cover you for this I dont think, wheras our insurance would cover us for say the costs involved in re-taking photos if the TOG didn't show up - car hire, suit hire, new flowers etc).

We've also found a few of our suppliers either don't take credit cards and require payment by cheque (or suit supplier, some florist, our cake lady who is self employed from home) or in cash or some that charge a % on top for processing fee.

I'd have a read of a summary document of insurance and see what is covered - stuff like canclelation if you get ill, or a close member does so that you have to cancel the wedding (touch wood obviously that it didnt happen)

I think the basic Voyager insurance is £22.50 and at that price, there wasn't a chance we were going to take it out.

I would absolutely get insurance, for the sake of £20-£30, I would recommend E&L. Its just like travel insurance - would you take the risk and holiday without it.

Its likely that not all suppliers will have the facility for you to pay by credit card so the insurance will cover you - think about things like your florist having a car crash and not getting your flowers, or your DJ being broken into the night before and his equipment being stolen, or the shop that your dress is in having a fire..... the wedding insurance will give you security against these kind of things.

Be careful with E&L - they are cheap but they are cheap for a reason. Unfortunately I know too much about the company!

I got some and am glad I paid out for it as H got made redundant 10 months before the wedding. Had we needed to cancel we would have got our deposits back and that was a big reassurance at a time that was stressful anyway.

Panda - what's wrong with E&L? I've used them a few times and haven't had any problems.

They don't pay up. I know 6 different people who have had to make claims through them for various different things & they fight tooth & nail to avoid paying out on what should be extremely clear cut claims. One of my good friends was left literally thousands of pounds out of pocket. Admittedly it was for other types of insurance than wedding insurance but the company as a whole has a dreadful reputation. Personally I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.