It is currently March 14th, 2020 and COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on a lot of different things in our world. I would like to speak more to my audience and talk about weddings. Normally weddings tend to have a lot of people attend and if said people are part of the wedding party or closely related to the bride and groom they will attend if they are sick or not. 

But let’s talk about how to cover yourself if you plan on rescheduling your wedding or if a vendor has to cancel because they are sick. 

Wedding insurance…it is not something I would normally push as a wedding photographer, but with all the sickness going on in the world it is better to be safe than sorry. Wedding insurance is an inexpensive way to cover your wedding in case disaster strikes. 

I have called a few insurance agencies around the St Louis area to find out if they will cover your wedding, and I can say there were quite a few that will cover your wedding day. 

I don’t want to point a specific one out because I have not worked with them personally to know if they are going to work well with you, what I do know is the price brackets are about the same. 

I have read a few articles on wedding insurance before writing this. The best one I found was Nerdwallet. So I will be referencing that quite a bit in this blog. 

There are a few different ways to get your insurance that I would suggest. 

1. You can get what’s called special event insurance, which is what I had to ask for when calling around St Louis. They didn’t have plans for weddings, but they did for events.
2. On the other side of that, you can get Wedding insurance but in St Louis, there were only like two that knew what I was asking for. 
3. This might be the best, call your current insurance provider and see if you can put this on your homeowners or renters insurance. 

Now let’s talk about coverage, I am no insurance pro but accord to Nerdwallet there are two, and due to current events I would suggest Cancellation or postponement coverage. According to NerdWallet “This coverage will reimburse you for costs if you have to cancel or delay your wedding because of extreme weather, injury or illness in the wedding party or the bride or groom’s immediate family, or for other reasons beyond your control. 

If you have to reschedule the event, this coverage helps pay for the cost of a new ceremony and reception. Many wedding cancellation policies also reimburse you for a single deposit if a vendor doesn’t show up, even if the wedding goes on”.

There are a bunch of things wedding insurance does not cover so make sure to find out EXACTLY what you are covered for. 

Now I know what your biggest question might be, HOW MUCH DOES IT COST. I cannot tell you exactly how much it cost because there are a lot of variables. 

The biggest variable is how much you are spending overall on your wedding. But I have found a range and some starting prices. With prices starting at $65 and going way up depending on how much coverage you need. Here is a chart below that kinda breaks it down (this is again from Nerdwallet)

Through all the calling I have done and the online research of this new area of weddings that I have never thought of until this crisis. But I have learned a lot and love passing on information to my couples that they may not thank about until it is too late. 

The one thing I would say to look into is making sure you are not overlapping coverage. If your venue cancels on you they might have insurance so don’t pay to have that covered. I am no insurance professional so contact the ones I have provided below to give you a better idea of the coverage you might need and also check out the amazing blog post by Nerd Wallet which is where I pulled most of this information from the blog post. 

I hope everyone has an amazing wedding and stays healthy during the COVID-19 crisis. 

ST LOUIS WEDDING INSURANCE:

https://www.crawfordbutz.com/products/additional-insurance-services/special-event-insurance

https://www.partnersinsuranceinc.com/products/additional-insurance-services/wedding-insurance-and-special-event-insurance

NerdWallet Site for Wedding Insurance Information