Wedding Insurance Articles

One of the Caribbean’s unspoilt gems, Antigua is a romantic island getaway offering huge expanses of golden sandy beaches, miles of beautiful coral reefs, sparkling turquoise oceans and delightfully warm and sunny weather. Discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493, Antigua originally developed to become a major sugar cane producer. Many of the original sugar mills and factories remain to this day, however tourism is now the main industry on the island.

Things to do:

Boating festivals – in late April or early May, Sailing week is a world class regatta. A few weeks before this there is also Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta which also attracts huge international crowds.

Carnival – Antigua hosts a 10 day carnival during the summer months, filling the island with costumes, calypso and steel drum music, decorated floats and a Caribbean carnival atmosphere.

Jazz Festival – Antigua Jazz festival is held in October, celebrating Afro and Caribbean music

Tennis – Tennis week is held in the second week of May, with a professional tournament and exhibition games.

Beaches – at Long Bay, on the east coast, you will find water so shallow that you can actually walk out to the beautiful coral reefs. It is said that Antigua has a beach for every day of the year, so you will be spoilt for choice.

Island nightlife includes casinos at Grand Bay, sports bars, and it is rumoured that you can do a bit of celebrity spotting (if you can tear your eyes away from the breathtaking harbour views) at the live music venue Shirley Heights.

Other attractions include Nelson’s Dockyard National Park and Sugar Mills, Harmony Art Gallery and the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda.

Places to stay:

Antigua is famous for its luxury resorts, and most hotels on Antigua will offer wedding and honeymoon packages. The main beaches on the island lie on the protected Caribbean side of the island. The Northwest coast offers many beach resorts for honeymooners, while the East coast is more geared up for family outings. You can even stay in Jumby Bay, an exclusive private island eight minutes by boat from the main island.

As always, don’t forget your travel or honeymoon insurance. Your honeymoon is likely to cost you a few thousand pounds and you certainly wouldn’t want to be adding to that should something go wrong!

You might be forgiven in thinking that the current economic climate would dampen people’s ardour especially as it applies to getting married. Of course, getting married these days is as much an economic binding as well as physical or otherwise. That is because people planning to get married have to take into account that this will be one of their largest financial outlays after the home and their vehicle. Whilst the average cost of a traditional wedding has actually fallen for the first time in years due to the economic downturn, it still stands at an eye watering £15,000 which represents a huge financial risk for most people. That is why more and more couples are becoming aware of wedding insurance, although as it stands there are still only about a quarter of weddings currently covered by wedding insurance, so we have a long way to go.

One of the common problems is that most people do not know enough about wedding insurance costs and how they compare or the level of cover that is adequate, unlike car and home insurance where most people have become accustomed to the requirements and costs involved.

It is also another reason why people will look for packages that are all encompassing and will cover all the main activities, events and possible disasters in a modern wedding. We have called it ‘no frills’ in our headline, but really we should call it basic cover in accordance with good insurance practice.

So, where would you find a good basic or cheap wedding insurance cover? Well the best place to start is by checking out the main protagonists either by a Google search or a comparison website. We can tell that a basic wedding policy today will still only cost you around £20 for cover in respect of complete cancellation of about £5,000. That will cover the main areas such as the venue, the service providers like cars, florist, catering and cover for loss or damage to rings and attire. Of course you can sometimes tailor your own policy by stating the levels of cover you require for each category and we strongly advise that you sit down before you spend a single penny and work out the actual costs involved. You may be surprised at the total you arrive at.

You should certainly make sure you are adequately insured though so don’t just go and buy the cheapest wedding insurance policy you can find without checking out the various levels of cover first. You may end up finding yourself under insured and if the worst should happen and you do have to make a claim, you may not get as much back as you thought.

Insurers can be fickle beings. I know because I used to be an insurance underwriter for the largest insurance company in the world. When I say fickle, I mean they can appear to be pedantic slaves to the policy wordings and legalese. However, in their defence, this has come about due to the ever present danger of people trying to take advantage and make fraudulent claims, hence the reams of wordings on the back of policy documents.

With this in mind, we are talking today about a very narrow piece of insurance cover, i.e. military weddings.

Military weddings are not necessarily those you may envisage, for example those using full military uniforms or ceremonial swords and the like. Often, they are just one member of the armed forces marrying somebody who is not a member of the armed services, however, there are similarities in the types of wedding insurance cover required for these events to be properly protected by insurance.

Do not forget that a wedding involving a member of the armed forces is basically the same as a normal `civvy` wedding especially in that any of the problems associated with a wedding apply equally to the two events. So, let us take a look at military weddings and see what we need to do insurance-wise.

Deployment

First off, let us consider a wedding where only one of the parties is in the forces. One of the main risks here is that the member of the forces can be drafted into active service at any time. This would obviously cause severe problems involving cancellation of the wedding and financial implications that would involve. There is sometimes a grey area here with standard wedding insurance policies, so you should make sure that your policy will cover cancellation where the reason is by way of one of the parties being deployed at the last minute. One thing to bear in mind here, which is very important, is that most policies will not provide cover if the party knew in advance that he or she was likely to be called up.

Ceremonial Swords

The second type of military wedding is one where the participants and probably most of the guests will be in full military uniform. Inevitably, this will involve the use of ceremonial items such as swords. Insurers are very twitchy about such items as there is a propensity for some kind of disaster to happen when these items are in the hands of people who are not used to handling them! If you are going to be having a wedding of this type, you would be well advised to check out a specialist policy with a relevant add-on. Some of these swords and the like will need to be insured up to £20,000, so do not skimp this type of insurance, always check with your insurer or advisor if you are not sure.

Mauritius is a tropical paradise island just off the coast of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean. Its beautiful turquoise coastline surrounded by coral reefs. With a unique blend of French, Indian, Chinese and Creole cultures, and a huge range of activities and experiences on offer, Mauritius is an ideal honeymoon location. The island hosts many world-class luxury resorts and fine-dining restaurants, alongside breathtaking natural scenery, sandy beaches, extinct volcanoes and coral reefs. The temperatures on the coast range from 22C in winter to 34C in summer, with sea temperatures in between 22-27C.

Things to do

Water sports feature highly in any Mauritius experience, including snorkelling among the beautiful coral reefs, surfing, scuba diving, fishing, water skiing and swimming with dolphins.

Inland, you can choose to take a half day hike up Lion Mountain, or a visit to see the 100m high waterfalls among colourful volcanic rock formations at Chamarel falls. Also a popular tourist attraction, Casela Nature and Leisure Park boasts a huge variety of tropical birds, giant tortoises, monkeys, lions and tigers and also offers quad biking and walking with lions. Black River Gorge National Park offers stunning scenery, travelling either on foot or bus. Mountain biking enthusiasts can experience some great riding, for example through the tropical fruit trees of The Labourdonnais Orchards.

Beaches for the sun lovers include miles of white sandy beaches at Belle Mare, Blue Bay for water sports enthusiasts and Le Morne & Tamarin for swimmers.

Venturing out to sea, the waters around Mauritius are a paradise for deep sea fishing, with species ranging from the blue or black marlin to yellow tuna and sharks.

Places to stay

Grand Baie is the main, cosmopolitan town with a selection of restaurants and bars. Pereybère beach is popular for its shopping facilities, restaurants and pubs. On the eastern side of Mauritius, hotels are mainly full board and self contained. Hotels range from large chains such as Movenpick and Sofitel through to hotels run by the local population. Practically every hotel on the island will offer wedding and honeymoon packages.

As always, don’t forget your travel or honeymoon insurance. Your honeymoon is likely to cost you a few thousand pounds and you certainly wouldn’t want to be adding to that should something go wrong!

A romantic getaway to the sun, Barbados offers a huge variety of accommodation and resorts to suit all budgets. Known as the ‘Little England’ of the Caribbean, it embraces its British Colonial roots – afternoon tea is still a tradition and cricket is the national sport. Golden sandy beaches, calm and tranquil waters, luxury honeymoon resorts, lush tropical greenery and a vibrant night life – what more would you ask for a perfect luxury honeymoon?

Things to do

Of course, any Caribbean holiday must feature beaches high on the agenda. Barbados has a huge variety to choose from, ranging from Barclays Park for a romantic picnic, to Mullins beach, where a whole host of water sports are on offer. Water sports are, of course, hugely popular – expect to see diving, sailing, surfing and snorkelling with the indigenous sea turtles in the beautiful turquoise waters.

However, the Caribbean does not need to be all about the beaches. Barbados offers a huge range of alternative excursions, for example you can explore the grandeur of the spectacular Harrison’s Cave or take a visit to St Nicholas’ Abbey. You will discover several zoos and wildlife reserves, safaris, helicopter tours and guided hikes through the forest. Bursting with Caribbean flora and fauna, Barabados’ many parks and plantation gardens are an ideal opportunity for a romantic stroll.

If you love rum, take a tour around the Malibu Visitors Center in St. Michael. You will see how the sweet rum is made and relax by the beach to sample a glass. Also open for visitors is the Mount Gay Rum factory.

The nightlife in Barbados is lively, with the fun continuing into the small hours. The island’s many hotels and bars offer live music, cabaret and traditional dancing.

Places to stay

As a general rule, the sheltered west coast (also known as the Gold Coast) is considered to have the most luxurious accommodation available, with flat and calm water unless there is an adverse weather system. The more affordable south coast has good moderate waves for surfers and a wide selection of restaurants and shopping. The Atlantic coast has less hotels and restaurants and the surf is rough and occasionally it is not possible to swim.

As with any holiday abroad, you should give serious consideration to some form of travel or honeymoon insurance policy. It covers things like delayed baggage, cancellation or getting you home if you have an accident. Why leave things to chance on what is probably going to be the holiday of a lifetime!

Don’t forget your wedding insurance policy too – vital if you’re having a wedding abroad and just as essential if your wedding is in the UK.

In earlier articles about wedding insurance, we have made mention about the cover afforded by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and how it can often cover things that you are seeking to cover under a wedding insurance policy. For that reason, we are devoting a whole article on what is covered by this clause, what is not covered and how it applies.

The first thing to understand about this clause is that it only applies to credit cards and store cards. It does NOT apply to debit cards, cash transactions or charge cards. It is important that you understand this, as there have been many cases of people using their debit cards and then finding that Section 75 does not apply!

Having got that out of the way, let us consider what is covered in the context of wedding insurance and where there are overlaps. Basically it puts the creditor, i.e. the credit card company, in the same position as the supplier. They are considered jointly responsible. Therefore, if you paid for your venue using your credit card, and the company went bust, you can claim the refund from your credit card company as if they were the venue company. It is worth understanding that this law was made back in 1974 to protect people taking goods and services under a credit agreement, who then found that the said service or goods were not supplied or were faulty. It prevented them having to repay for something they never had.

Deposits

One area of confusion occurs where a person pays only the deposit for an item or service. For section 75 to apply, your payment needs to be over £100. Therefore, if you pay a deposit of £100 or more, if that items or service fails, you can still claim the whole loss. For example, if you bought a car for £10,000 and paid the deposit originally on your credit card, if the company went bust and you did not get your car, you can still claim the whole £10,000 under the section 75 law. One thing that you need to understand also is that the law clearly states that there must be a direct relationship between you and the person/company you are purchasing from. For example, a lot of people these days use an intermediary payment service like Paypal or Moneybookers. This instantly removes the direct legal contact between you and the supplier, so the law will not apply in these cases.

Chargebacks

One final area in our brief overview of this subject is what happens if your payment is under £100? Well there can still be a remedy here also, using your credit card. There is a system called a `chargeback`, where the credit card company will suspend the payment to the supplier, or even retrieve the payment until the dispute is resolved. It is not as reliable as the Section 75 law, but the credit card companies are pretty good at resolving these types of disputes in favour of their customers.

So Why Do I Need Wedding Insurance?

If payments could be covered by either the Consumer Credit Act or a chargeback, why on earth would you bother with wedding insurance then? The answer is simple, wedding insurance covers you for so much more! As well as the obvious like public liability claims, marquee cover or claims relating to death or injury, wedding insurance would also cover you for related costs. If, as in the example we used earlier your venue went bust and you had to re-arrange the day, you might be able to claim for this under Section 75 if you paid using your credit card. However, the credit card company would only be equally liable for THAT transaction and wouldn’t cover you for the related costs of perhaps having to re-arrange your photographer, your florist, the caterers etc.

Wedding insurance certainly makes sense then and with premiums starting from around just £20, it seems daft not to take out a policy. Take a look at our comparison table to compare policies from a number of providers.

References:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

Specialist wedding insurer, Weddingplan, have recently released the results of their 2011 customer survey and they make for very interesting reading.

Weddingplan received over 500 responses to the survey in which they asked their customers about numerous aspects of their weddings including how long it took to plan, how much it cost, their themes and first dance songs.

Wedding Spend

The average spend on a wedding, according to the Weddingplan survey, is broadly similar to that reported by us earlier in the year in our own study – £15,909 in 2011.

Weddingplan also report that the majority of a couple’s budget is spent on the venue, followed by the honeymoon.

Whilst the vast majority (80%) of couples are taking 6 months to 2 years to plan their weddings, 5% of couples are taking just 1 to 3 months to plan the big day!

Wedding Themes

The most popular wedding theme was Winter/Christmas with flowers, vintage, butterflies and beach also proving popular.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, first dance songs tend to mirror popular music of the previous year with Take That’s ‘Rule The World’ being the most popular choice in 2010 and Adele’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’ in 2011. Songs by Aerosmith, Snow Patrol and Michael Bublé are also still popular.

Wedding Insurance

The majority of respondents purchased their wedding insurance 6-12 months before the big day with nearly 20% leaving it as late as three months before! We always recommend wedding insurance be taken out as soon as you possibly can as that way you’ll make sure your deposits are covered as soon as you start paying them.

Nearly half of all respondents were most concerned about the cancellation of their wedding due to unforeseen circumstances. Failure of suppliers was the next biggest pre-wedding fear and quite rightly so as this accounts for four of the top 10 most common wedding insurance claims.

Some couples even expressed a concern about the Best Man being responsible for getting the wedding dress to the venue – understandably so!

All nine levels of wedding insurance cover available from Weddingplan can be found on our comparison table along with policies from a range of other wedding insurers.

Of course the theme of this article is about wedding insurance, but it is also about some of the excuses made by participants in weddings that have gone drastically wrong, with dire consequences.

We are all conditioned to protect large financial risks in our lives from taking advice from our parents, grandparents and older relatives who have trodden the path before us. This is how we have made decisions about mortgages, house insurance and insuring our vehicles. Unfortunately, our parents did not have the facilities to take out wedding insurance, because there wasn’t anybody offering it. So it seems that the natural progression of passing on wisdom has failed in this instance, which is a shame, because weddings are usually our third biggest financial investment throughout our lives.

Even in these times of so-called austerity, we can still expect to stump up around £15,000 for a traditional wedding. This may seem a large amount and there will be some of you pondering, “mine never cost that much!” But the likelihood is that if your wedding was a good few years ago you probably never got involved with planning or financing our weddings in any case. Our parents did all that, especially as traditionally, they paid the bill!

These days, it is more likely that the bride and groom will pay for their own wedding and make their own arrangements, so it is interesting that there are still about three quarters of all weddings going ahead without any form of wedding insurance protection whatsoever. It is even more surprising when people today consider themselves more aware financially than their forefathers. Another surprising fact to come out of recent statistics about weddings and insurance is that it is more likely to be the man who arranges wedding insurance rather than the woman.

What is certain with all of this, is that wedding planners, whether they be the parents, the bride and groom to be, or anybody else who is planning a wedding, they should get with the times and consider a wedding insurance policy.

So, no more lame excuses. Get on the phone or the internet now and sort it out as a priority.

“No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, *they* observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of our empire over this world. Yet across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us.”

You will excuse the dramatic use of the above opening lines from one of my favourite novels – War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells in making the case for wedding insurance! However, what this did do was to set out the stratagem for the whole story; that of the unknown seemingly planning against your every move in anticipation. Sometimes it feels that way when things go wrong at special events like weddings. There sometimes seems to be an inevitable force of events that are unstoppable and are destined to happen whatever you do to prevent them, like a set of dominoes falling over.

What has this got to do with wedding insurance?

So, how does this analogy fit in with the concept of wedding insurance? Well it is because we need to plan, not just for the expected and accepted, but also for the unexpected, however bizarre and unlikely. If you are planning a wedding, and these days, it is usually the participants that are doing the planning; you also need to draw your plans in advance of the event. In fact, you need to draw them the minute you start to make your first arrangements; because that is the time your risks start.

It is likely that you will have to pay deposits to people like the venue owners, the car hire company and the caterers, in advance of the event. Sometimes this can be as much as two years ahead of the event, so you will be at risk of something going wrong for all of that time. The venue owner can go bust or the car hire firm disappears. In these days of financial meltdown, this is happening more and more, so beware.

You should be one of the sensible 25% of people planning weddings who take out the protection of wedding insurance from the start and can then get on with making the arrangements without fear of losing everything because of a failure of one of the main service providers. Bearing in mind the cost of protecting your other main investments in life, i.e. your home and car will cost you hundreds of pounds to insure, a wedding insurance policy starts from as little as £20. So, plan ahead and enjoy your big day unless of course we are invaded by aliens from Mars!

You may be reading that headline and wondering what on earth is an ambulance chaser. You may also be wondering what it has to do with wedding insurance.

Ambulance chasers

Well, dealing with the first question, ‘ambulance chasers’ is a term given to the myriad of solicitors and claims handling firms that have sprung up since the prohibition on advertising by solicitors and legal firms for business like accident claims were lifted. That meant that we were subjected to the same types of advertising that had been prevalent in the United States for years and led to a boom in litigation and accident claims. Whilst this might have been great for solicitors and lawyers, it was bad news for insurance companies and those of us who have to pay insurance premiums. Without any doubt, it has led to massive increases in insurance premiums for us all. It has also led to some pretty spurious claims for accidents and injuries. Any junior medic will tell you that it is virtually impossible to actually diagnose whiplash injuries because they do now show up on any type of scan. That means it is basically a situation where the so-called sufferer explains the degree of discomfort and the doctor will generally agree and diagnose whiplash. In consequence, that has led to spiralling claims for whiplash in even the most minor accidents and bumps.

What does this have to do with wedding insurance?

This leads us nicely to the point of this article. Namely, what does all this have to do with wedding insurance? Well, one of the component parts of a typical wedding insurance policy is the public liability section. This is probably the most unread and misunderstood part of the policy document. Public liability insurance will protect the policyholder from claims made against them for accident and injury and associated losses and losses to property and belongings of claimants. Do not think for a minute that this does not happen very often, because it is probably one of the fastest growing claims in the policy.

I have personally witnessed lifelong friendships ripped apart because of accident and injury claims made whilst someone was attending the other’s wedding reception. This is because we now have what is known as a ‘claims culture’. You only have to watch daytime television for any length of time to realise that every other advertisement is related to accident and injury claims. It is big business and the lawyers are making a killing out of it. Unfortunately, people’s greed will sometimes outweigh their sense of decency and loyalty to a friendship, so never assume that those mates or even relatives will not make a claim if they can, because they will be led by some money grabbing lawyer trying to make a few quid at your demise.

The system will not change unless the law is changed, so the only way to protect yourself is to make sure that you have adequate wedding insurance cover for your big day and that it has adequate public liability cover.