Best Wedding Insurance

On average, couples in the U.S. spent $30,000 to tie the knot in 2022 — without considering additional expenses such as honeymoons and bridal showers.

If something goes wrong on the big day, then, the financial losses can be high should something go wrong on the big day. In addition, many wedding venues require couples to take out liability insurance in case wedding guests cause property damage or bodily injury at or after the event.

All of which makes wedding insurance a useful bet to protect couples financially. Policies are typically issued by specialty wedding insurance companies, and may cover both losses should the event be canceled for various reasons and liability for the actions of guests.

We reviewed the best wedding insurance companies. Here are our picks, with the specific distinction and pros and cons of each.

Our Top Picks for Best Wedding Insurance

Best Wedding Insurance Reviews

Why we chose it: Markel offers some of the most favorable combinations of the two major types of wedding insurance – liability and cancellation.

Markel’s coverage of both perils is comprehensive and affordable. Liability insurance premiums begin at $75 for up to $500,000 in coverage, and cancellation policies start at $130.

If you want to bundle both policies, you can add $5,000 in cancellation coverage to your liability policy for only $50. Alternatively, you can buy the two policies together and receive a 15% discount on the total cost. Cancellation policies can be purchased up to 14 days before the event, but you can buy liability policies one day before the event.

Why we chose it: A number of other wedding insurance companies let you purchase your liability policy up to one day in advance, but WedSafe goes even further. It allows you to purchase your policy on your wedding day itself.

Like some other providers, Markel is able to move quickly, close to the wedding, through sending a digital certificate of liability directly to your venue and/or vendors via email immediately after your purchase.

The company’s average premium costs between $75 and $200 (to see the exact prices, you must apply for a quote). Also, WedSafe’s coverage limit of $5 million in liability is one of the highest in the industry.

Why we chose it: The company that invented wedding insurance — according to WedSure’s website — is also the best we found when it comes to customized policies. Via its award-winning website, you’ll be able to manage and tailor your policy from anywhere and at any time.

In addition, WedSure is among the few companies that will insure you against your own shifting whims about the event. Its “change of heart" coverage allows to recoup costs if the groom and/or bride change the date of their wedding or decide not to get married at all.

Starting at $125, WedSure’s liability policies allow you to add or remove coverable locations and services depending on the specifics of your event. The company offers up to $5 million in liability coverage and features cancellation policies starting at $95.

Why we chose it: USAA offers its members (military personnel, reservists, veterans, and eligible family members) affordable wedding liability/cancellation policies specifically tailored to the realities of military life.

Both its liability and cancellation policies cover events in the US and its territories, Canada and all cruise ships leaving ports in these locations. Cancellation policies also cover destination weddings and events held in the United Kingdom, Bahamas, Bermuda, the Caribbean and Mexico.

The company’s policies can be purchased up to 1 day before the event and will cover postponement if a guest of honor is deployed as a member of the police force, active military or fire department.

Guide to Wedding Insurance

What is wedding insurance?

Wedding insurance is designed to cover certain wedding-related events and services in case anything goes wrong. Coverage can extend to the ceremony, rehearsals, receptions, vendors, clothing, jewelry, catering, DJs, deposits, gifts and even honeymoons.

A wedding insurance policy can make you whole financially on everything from the cost of outright cancellation to the cost of a lawsuit should a guest be injured, or cause injury or damage themselves.

Unlike home or life insurance, wedding insurance is “special event” coverage that requires only a one-time payment. In other words: the quoted price is all you have to pay, although, as with most insurance policies, a deductible may apply.

Types of wedding insurance

The wedding insurance industry offers two main types of policies: cancellation and liability. Most insurers will let you either purchase them separately or bundle them together, depending on your needs.

Cancellation insurance

Cancellation policies typically insure you for anywhere between $5,000 and $200,000 — depending on the company and specific policy — to cover the costs of the wedding being postponed, canceled or rescheduled.

Accepted reasons are confined to unforeseen circumstances that are beyond your control, such as:

• Severe weather
• Sudden illnesses
• Military deployments
• Vendor bankruptcy

Wedding cancellation policies usually have no deductible. Most policies do not cover the insured in case of “change of heart” cancellations, in which the groom and/or bride changes the date or decides not to get married at all.

Liability insurance

The other policy type is liability insurance, which covers the financial costs of any losses or accidents before or during the wedding event. This is the most common type of wedding insurance coverage, mainly because many wedding venues require proof of liability to let you contract with them.

Typical coverage for a liability policy ranges between $500,000 and $2 million in damages, minus any deductibles, if applicable.

Deductibles for liability policies range from zero to $1,000. Some companies let you customize the amount.

As with other forms of insurance, lower deductibles generally mean a higher premium. Still, for a low-cost wedding, a zero-deductible policy may be the best way to go.

What is covered in wedding insurance

Here are the perils wedding insurance may cover. Note, however, that not every insurer or policy necessarily covers all of these. Check policy provisions to ensure you know what is and isn’t within scope.

• Financial loss: Covers most of the costs of a wedding, including deposits and wedding-related purchases.

• Postponement insurance: Provides coverage if you're forced to postpone your wedding for a covered reason. Postponement coverage reasons generally include weather issues, a death in the family and venue problems.

• Venue issues: If the venue is unable to serve as the location for your wedding event, you’ll be covered for any losses and/or costs related to moving to an alternative venue.

• Property damage: Protects you from damage to the venue’s physical property (its structure, windows, or sound system, for instance) that may occur during the event.

• Problems with vendors: Protects in case service providers — such as musicians, decorators, photographers, caterers, parking attendants, and the like — are unable to provide their services, and you incur additional costs to engage replacements.

• Postponement due to a medical emergency: Covers costs should the wedding be delayed due to an unforeseen injury or illness to an essential member of the wedding party – usually defined as the bride, groom, best man, maid of honor and officiator.

• Extreme weather: As long as it’s considered “unforeseeable,” you’ll be covered from any losses related to extreme weather – usually defined as severe enough to prevent either most guests or one or more of the wedding party to attend. Coverage must be bought before a weather event is imminent; it’s too late to get coverage if a named hurricane or tropical storm already threatens your wedding.

• Military deployment: Covers costs in the case of cancellation or postponement because an essential member of the wedding party is called to serve in the military.

• Special attire: While this coverage varies significantly depending on the company, it usually takes care of any costs related to damage, loss and/or theft of wedding attire, excluding jewelry other than the wedding bands.

What is excluded from wedding insurance

Here, too, not every one of these will be omitted by every insurer or from every policy. But every policy has exclusions, and you review what they are before you purchase a plan.

• Changes of heart: Most wedding policies will not cover the groom or bride if either gets cold feet and decides not to get married. Most cancellation policies do not even offer this type of coverage, and those that do only make it available as an add-on.

• Foreseeable/known circumstances: Policies will not generally cover you for any losses deriving from circumstances that are either under your control or that could have been easily prevented or foreseen. An example might be not covering the cost of a replacement for the vintage car a friend promised to lend but then failed to honor the promise.

• Jewelry: Any losses related to jewelry — other than the wedding bands — usually won’t be covered by your policy.

• Theft of gifts: Standard wedding insurance doesn’t cover the theft of wedding gifts, including cash, at the reception or other wedding events.

Add-on coverage

Like other types of insurance, wedding insurance lets you add coverage of other items at an extra cost. The type and breadth of coverage you need will depend on a variety of factors, such as how much money you’ll spend on the overall event, the event location(s), the number of guests, and any other coverable item that may be involved (such as having a firework show launch when the couple says “I do”).

While you shop for your policy, remember to read the fine print carefully and make sure to ask any pertinent questions. Until you get clear answers to those, preferably in writing, do not purchase the policy.

While the options vary between companies, the following items are usually offered as add-ons to your main policy.

Honeymoon

Weather, sickness and civil unrest can all potentially interfere with your honeymoon plans. Adding honeymoon coverage protects you if you can't attend your honeymoon, or must leave the destination earlier than scheduled, for a covered reason.

Alcohol liability

Adding coverage for liquor liability provides protection for alcohol liability issues that might arise at a “wet wedding.” This coverage protects against bodily injuries and physical property damages that result from alcohol-related incidents. Wise coverage, especially if some of your guests are prone to having a few too many and getting rowdy.

Theft of gifts

Sadly, wedding gifts are stolen from time to time. Standard wedding liability insurance won't cover their replacement, but adding wedding gift theft coverage will.

To make a valid claim, you'll need to file a police report. The police report is a critical piece of evidence the insurance company uses when processing wedding theft claims, as it verifies the theft occurred. Insurance companies reimburse policyholders monetarily for the approved losses.

Reception and rehearsal

Wedding insurance primarily covers issues relating to your wedding day. However, issues can also arise during the reception and rehearsal that a basic plan doesn't cover.

Basic wedding insurance provides cancellation coverage and liability protection but doesn't protect against everything. For example, suppose the bakery forgets to make your cake or drops it while transporting it. You might also experience mix-ups concerning your caterer, DJ or photographer.

To fully protect your wedding budget, evaluate what your plan covers and add any necessary add-ons to ensure that everything has insurance protection.

Transportation

Many couples hire transportation services to ferry them (and sometimes their guests) back and forth between the wedding, reception, hotel and even the airport. Transportation coverage provides reimbursement if something interferes with any of the transportation hired for the event.

For example, transportation coverage protects you if the limo driver doesn't show up to your wedding. It also covers car accidents the hired transportation company causes. However, it won't cover a driver's refusal to take any wedding party members (including the bride and groom) someplace if they're causing problems. It also doesn't cover mistakes you make, such as providing the transportation company with the wrong address or times.

A transportation company should have its own insurance. However, its plan might not cover all the issues you could potentially experience on your wedding day.

How to Buy Wedding Insurance

Check for coverage from other types of insurance

Before buying a wedding insurance policy, review other policies that you or your friends and vendors may have to ensure you aren’t paying for unnecessary coverage.

For example, if the wedding reception is being held at a private home, homeowners insurance on that property may be sufficient to cover any liability claims from wedding guests.

If you’re renting a venue, check that its liability insurance doesn’t protect you to some extent, especially if you haven’t yet been asked to produce proof of such insurance, as is often required. While this isn’t insurance coverage per se, keep in mind that you’re allowed by law to dispute credit card charges for any vendor who failed to deliver the goods or services promised.

You might find that you don't need special-event insurance if these plans provide the needed coverage.

When should you buy wedding insurance?

The sooner, the better. Most wedding insurance will only cover losses that occur after you buy the policy, which is why you should get insurance before any wedding-related payments or reservations are made.

The sooner, the better — assuming you actually need it, of course. Most wedding insurance will only cover losses that occur after you buy the policy, which is why you should get insurance before any wedding-related payments or reservations are made.

That said, it is possible to shop for wedding insurance at the last minute, with a few key caveats. Some of the best wedding insurance providers — including ones featured in this review — allow you to purchase your policy up to a day before your special day, generally without any increased premium costs.

However, in the event of trouble, you may not then be able to claim the cost of wedding purchases you’ve already made, such as deposits you placed to secure services. Nor will you be covered for events that are foreseeable by that point, such as a major hurricane whose extreme weather is already threatening the wedding site.

What to watch out for when purchasing wedding insurance

Before you make any decisions regarding wedding insurance, we recommend you do your own research and make sure to get all your questions answered. Only then will you have the peace of mind that comes from knowing your big day will be covered if the worst were to happen.

Make sure a company’s policy will cover expenses or commitments made before you got the policy. If you’ve already spent money on wedding-related services, seek out policies that will cover you for retroactive expenses.

How We Chose the Best Wedding Insurance

To choose the best wedding insurance providers for 2020, we spent over 200 hours looking into the most popular companies, analyzing their data, and comparing the four main factors in which policies must excel to be considered among the best. Those key factors are cost, flexibility, online features, and ease of claim.

Cost

To evaluate cost, we referred to the average cost of wedding insurance. Basic wedding insurance starts at about $150 for basic liability and $125 for basic cancellation, which adds up to an average price of $275 when cancellation and liability are bundled together. Remember that, unlike other types of insurance, this is a one-time-only payment. We prioritized companies with lower premiums across the board and no deductible fees.

Flexibility

When it comes to flexibility in customization, we favored companies that allow couples to add or remove covered items according to their needs. Because no two weddings are identical, the best insurance policies allow the fullest tailoring to the particular couple and their wedding circumstances. The option to buy last-minute coverage is vital to many couples, so we gave this factor added weight when looking at this factor.

Online features

We favored wedding insurance companies that best streamlined purchasing, customization, and claiming processes using online tools. The online delivery of your “certificate of liability” is crucial in this respect since most wedding venues require it before you contract with them. For this reason, we chose companies that automatically create an online certificate of liability immediately after you purchase a policy.

Ease of making a claim

As with other insurance types, a claim for coverage under a wedding policy should be processed and reimbursed as quickly as possible. We chose companies with excellent track records for customer satisfaction, revealed in online ratings, testimonials and user reviews. We also rewarded companies whose claims processes appeared to be streamlined and hassle-free.

• Markel Event Insurance - Best for Bundling Liability and Cancellation
• WedSafe - Best for Last-Minute Liability Coverage
• Wedsure - Best for Customized Policies
• USAA - Best for Military Families