If you’re planning a wedding abroad, and you don’t yet have a wedding insurance abroad policy, make sure you’re sitting down before you read this.

In fact, make sure you’re completely calm, and in a peaceful state of mind. For Rita and Carl, the weeks leading up to their Caribbean wedding were mostly like this. The image of Paradise filled their dreams, with everything in place well in advance, the deposits paid, their flights booked, and their bags almost entirely packed.

The day they were to fly to the warm and sunny paradise dawned. Their flight was delayed twelve hours due to snow. Somehow you don’t think of snow in the Caribbean do you?

The snow was in fact over much of the north of England, and their flight was not looking promising. You can probably imagine the pacing, the fretting and the frantic worrying which took place over those twelve hours, not knowing whether they’d make it or not.

Finally, the flight was cleared for takeoff – they boarded, and they breathed a sigh of relief as the ground slipped away beneath them, and the promise of that balmy destination seemed real again.

For Rita and Carl, Mother Nature really wasn’t on their side. A hurricane during the night had blown the roof off the venue, and crushed the wedding limousine under one of the palm trees which was supposed to be part of the Paradise image they had in mind.

Still, at least those little problems helped to put into perspective the problem with the Registrar who had food poisoning. Unfortunately, the fact that the wedding planner had somehow managed to misspell Carl’s name on the official paperwork did mean that he’d either have to very quickly change his name by Deed Poll or accept a further delay.

Sometimes Paradise can seem awfully close to Hell. Now, about your wedding – have you sorted out your wedding insurance abroad policy yet?