 
          F I N A N C I A L P L A N N I N G & I N S U R A N C E
        
        
          C H I C A G O W E D D I N G & P A R T Y R E S O U R C E
        
        
        
          
            66
          
        
        
          No matter how many hours you spend plot-
        
        
          ting, planning and rehearsing your wedding,
        
        
          there still are some things that are out of
        
        
          your control.
        
        
          ENTER WEDDING
        
        
          INSURANCE.
        
        
          Now, obviously, this isn’t the most glamor-
        
        
          ous wedding topic — no one likes to think
        
        
          something could go wrong on their big day.
        
        
          But wedding insurance can ultimately mean
        
        
          the difference between a smooth, stress-free
        
        
          time and a big, chaotic mess.
        
        
          When you think abut a wedding being a
        
        
          real financial and emotional investment, it
        
        
          gives couples peace of mind that if some-
        
        
          thing goes wrong, the insurance company is
        
        
          there to make things easier—at least finan-
        
        
          cially.
        
        
          The concept behind wedding insurance is
        
        
          simple enough: You will likely spend more
        
        
          money on your wedding day than on any
        
        
          other day of your life, and with so many
        
        
          moving parts, there’s a reasonable enough
        
        
          chance that something could go wrong, so
        
        
          why not take out an insurance policy to pro-
        
        
          tect the investment in the day?
        
        
          There are two basic types of wedding in-
        
        
          surance: liability coverage and event-cancel-
        
        
          ation coverage.
        
        
          Liability coverage often is a requirement
        
        
          of certain venues — particularly non-tradi-
        
        
          tional venues — and protects the holder and
        
        
          venue against lawsuits related to the wedding
        
        
          day. Event cancelation coverage, meanwhile,
        
        
          tends to cover everything else, from a weath-
        
        
          er- or illness-forced postponement to deposit
        
        
          reimbursements should a venue or vendor go
        
        
          out of business, even the cost of re-shooting
        
        
          your wedding photos in the event of a pho-
        
        
          tographer mishap.
        
        
          We can’t stop the tornado from coming,
        
        
          we can’t stop the snowstorm or the hurri-
        
        
          cane, but we can help in the one way, and
        
        
          that is the financial loss. And really, that’s the
        
        
          purpose of all insurance.
        
        
          The premium for event coverage is typ-
        
        
          ically based upon the overall cost of your
        
        
          wedding, generally in the $200 to $300
        
        
          range for an average wedding. Check with
        
        
          your insurance provider as to the specifics
        
        
          of what your plan will and will not cover.
        
        
          It’s relatively inexpensive, and wedding
        
        
          planning can be stressful enough. Wed-
        
        
          ding insurance can just provide a little bit of
        
        
          peace of mind, so one less thing to stress out
        
        
          about.
        
        
          The trend of purchasing wedding insur-
        
        
          ance has taken hold in recent years, with
        
        
          Travelers reporting an increase in policy-
        
        
          holders every year since they launched their
        
        
          coverage in 2007. Both Travelers and Aon
        
        
          say the primary purchasers of wedding in-
        
        
          surance tend to be the parents of the bride
        
        
          and groom, who are often helping pay for
        
        
          the wedding and a bit more risk averse.
        
        
          Of course, there are still a few things that
        
        
          wedding insurance will not cover:
        
        
          Change of heart, as they say, is not cov-
        
        
          ered by most wedding insurance program.
        
        
          But the things that are outside of your con-
        
        
          trol are covered.
        
        
          Copyright © CTW Features
        
        
          Insuring Your
        
        
          ‘I Dos’
        
        
          If your day has some hiccups,
        
        
          wedding insurance can make sure
        
        
          you’re not stuck with the bill
        
        
          By Ben Larrison, CTW Features
        
        
          Robin Falk Photography