Ah, weddings, a day of celebrations ”¦ and cancellations and missing gowns and gift thefts and other untoward circumstances.
Who doesn”™t have a wedding story? You can laugh about those unpleasantries today, but back on the “big day” there was little to chuckle about.
To help cope with the unfortunate events, Travelers”™ Insurance this year began offering The Wedding Protector Plan that provides coverage, with no deductible, for a number of those occurrences.
The top wedding claims and problems, according to Travelers, include damage to wedding attire, mishaps with photography, cancellation due to illness or death and no-shows by vendors.
William Cooper Colwell suggests engaged couples add the insurance to their wedding day punch lists.
“It will be the smartest investment that can be made to insure that the perfectly planned big day is perfect,” said Colwell of H.E. Colwell & Sons, a New Rochelle-based insurance agency that just began offering the plan.
The insurance plan can cover events in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Bermuda, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, the Caribbean Islands ”“ excluding Cuba and Haiti ”“ and cruise ships leaving from a port within those territories.
Travelers offers 10 levels of coverage. The price of the coverage varies according to the costs of the wedding. A high-end wedding, say $175,000, would cost about $1,025, Colwell said. Coverage can be obtained as early as two years before a wedding and as late as 14 days prior.
Weddings are costly, averaging $38,000 in the New York metro region and slightly lower as you head up the Hudson Valley. Spending that amount of money is similar to buying an expensive vehicle. “No one buys a car without insurance,” Colwell said.
If, say, weather prevents the bride or groom from making it to the wedding, then the costs associated with a postponement are covered, as are the travel expenses of the parents of the bride and groom if a transportation shutdown prevents any one of them from arriving at the wedding, on time.
If a drunken guest should do the Macarena into a table filled with wedding gifts, the damaged presents are covered, too.
Other items or services covered include wedding photos damaged by either the photographer or the photo lab, a sudden illness by the bride, groom, or parents, or a call to active military duty.
Same-sex weddings and commitment ceremonies are also covered by the Wedding Protector Plan.
Fireman”™s Fund Insurance also has a similar policy called Private Event, which covers weddings, anniversary parties, bar mitzvahs and other celebrations. Another is WedSafe.com.
For information, go to protectmywedding.com and firemansfund.com.
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