There are two basic types of wedding insurance, Wedding Cancellation / Postponement Insurance and Wedding Liability Insurance. These are separate policies with most insurance companies and can be purchased individually or together. Most insurance companies will recommend that you purchase both policies (don’t they always?). However, you may only really need one type or even neither.

Wedding Cancellation / Postponement Insurance typically covers losses for wedding expenses from things such as severe weather, key people being unable to attend, withdrawn military leave, photos/video not coming out, special event gifts, special attire, special jewelry, loss of deposits. You need to read the specific policy you’re looking to purchase carefully to see what items are covered and under what circumstances. Not everything is covered and the things that are may not be covered under all circumstances. This type of wedding insurance is useful if your cost of rescheduling the wedding will be very high. If your wedding budget is only two thousand dollars this is probably not something you should consider.

Wedding Liability Insurance is similar to automotive liability insurance. This will help protect you in case someone is injured during the wedding. It may also cover damage done to the wedding site by your guests or possibly even your vendors (florists, photographers etc). Alcohol-related accidents may also be covered. If you are having a large wedding with many guests, guests you know can be “unruly” on occasion, are serving alcohol, or having the event at an expensive location (the furniture/fixtures of the location not what you paid to use it) then you may want to consider this type of insurance. Nothing can ruin your big day like being sued because uncle bill the alcoholic caused $30k worth of damage to the reception hall or worse yet injured someone driving drunk after your big event.

Now that you know a little bit about wedding insurance and what it could cover I encourage you to get at least 3 quotes from different carriers for your wedding plans. Make sure you read the details of what is covered and under what circumstances. Make sure you compare apples to apples with the different companies. Above all, have a joyous and safe wedding!