Resources & Insights

Tying the Knot? Special Event Insurance for Your Special Day

June 11, 2019

Emily Desmarias
Account Manager

Did you know the typical American wedding includes about 140 guests and costs over $35,000?

That price tag, it should be noted, includes the cost of wedding bands, but not a honeymoon.

Few weddings are canceled by weather, let alone cold feet, but with an outlay that large, brides and grooms (and their families) should consider one more shopping-list item beyond caterers, florists and photographers:

Special event insurance.

Special event insurance protects the wedding party should hurricanes, tornadoes or some other natural disaster strike.

It’s good not only for weddings, but corporate parties, fundraising dinners, big anniversary parties, Sweet 16s, really any occasion that requires a significant cash outlay to pull off.

Most special event policies also provide coverage for cancellation due to the death, illness or serious injury of a key participant in the event, such as the groom or a member of the immediate family.

Also, if an officiant (such as a minister or rabbi), or a key vendor (like the caterer, florist or photographer) fails to show up, special event insurance allows you to recover some of the costs.

Special event insurance also might cover you:

  • in the event the bride or groom is in the military or active reserves and is suddenly called to duty;
  • if your bridal salon goes out of business, or if the clothing is damaged;
  • in case gifts are damaged or stolen, assuming they’re not covered by your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policies;
  • if you need to cancel your honeymoon due to illness, bad weather or other circumstances;
  • to cover treatment of severe emotional stress due to the cancellation or postponement of the event (a doctor’s note will be needed).
  • to provide liability coverage if your event is planned at home and someone gets too wild on the dance floor and gets hurt. Critically, this includes what’s known as host liquor liability coverage, so that if you’re covered if you’re serving adult beverages.

It’s a good idea to purchase special event insurance as soon as you start making deposits or purchases for your event. Coverage can often be acquired no later than two weeks before your event but no sooner than two years in advance.

One more thing: some special event insurance policies will also cover lost wedding rings but none will cover bachelor or bachelorette parties. Of course, if things get that “epic” at those parties, the wedding might be canceled for reasons that no insurance policy will cover.

Emily Desmarais is a CCIG personal lines account manager. Reach her at Emily.Desmarais@thinkccig.com or 720-330-7937.

CCIG is a Denver-area insurance brokerage with personal and business insurance clients nationwide. We do more than make sure you have the right policy. We also help you lower your long-term cost of insurance with our risk and claims management expertise and a commitment to service excellence.

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