Wedding Dress Insurance: Important Points

A wedding dress may be the most expensive garment that a woman purchases in her lifetime. It is not only a centre piece to her special day, it is also a symbol and gift of tradition that is often passed from mother to daughter.  Wedding dress insurance is an important part of the wedding insurance package.  The focus of this article is to help consumers understand how to pick wedding insurance that meets their needs.  This is sometimes a comparison of price or a comparison of value.

Wedding Dress Insurance-Wedding Insurance Options

Wedding insurance is sold by the amount of coverage needed if a wedding is cancelled. Wedding insurance is sold in a package that contains coverage form many different aspects of a wedding. Expect to see coverage for wedding cars/transportation, rings, failure of suppliers and wedding dress/attire.  The chart below gives a good comparison of the different types of coverage that a wedding insurance policy may have.

As we can see from the chart, wedding insurance and wedding dress insurance is complex in its coverage.  Because wedding insurance is sold by the cancellation coverage the first place that consumers should start with in planning their wedding is the wedding budget.  This will be the total amount of money that is expected to be spent on a wedding and reception.

How Much To Spend On The Dress?

This is a question of price, but the consideration of how much to spend on a wedding dress is a question that every bride asks.  A good suggestion is to compare the cost of the wedding itself to the cost of a dress.  Usually, the wedding dress is about 10-25% of the cost of the wedding.  The variation is due to many factors such as wearing your mothers wedding dress, etc.  So when shopping for wedding dress insurance look at the cost of your wedding and choose a coverage that is about 25% of the total cost of the wedding.   A good example of how to compare wedding insurance policies is listed in the Wedding dress comparison table below.

Comparison Table

In this chart, the data allows the consumer to compare current wedding insurance prices, which are by listed by wedding cancellation cover, to the cover that is offered for wedding dresses.

If we compare the policies by price then John Lewis Insurance is highest and the lowest is Cover My Wedding.co.uk in price.  But the coverage is very different.  The range of wedding attire cover is from £5,000 to as low as £2,500.  The wedding cancellation cover has a range of £9,000-£10,000.

To interpret this data we are comparing price to coverage with the assistance of policy cancellation limits.  How likely is it that a wedding dress would cost half of the total value of an entire wedding?  Not too likely from the perspectives of most consumers.   If a consumer were choosing wedding insurance cover from this list of five vendors, then it is likely that the two vendors with £5,000 cover for wedding attire would be eliminated.  That leaves three choices left. Two policies at £3,000 and one policy at £ 2,500, respectfully for wedding attire cover.

The question again comes down to how many pounds will be spent on the dress. That is a question we can not answer in this article, however, we can further the discussion on which of these policies best suits the insurance needs of your wedding.  If you follow the the philosophy that wedding attire should run around 25% of the total cost of the wedding then the best policy to pick from would be the one that matches that goal the closest.  Of the three policies that remain, there is a separation of only £500.  One is spot on and the other two are just slightly over, but the difference in cost is still considerable.  This is where the complete comparison table comes into play.

We begin to look for items in the chart that add value to the policy without adding coverage that might be considered to be excessive.  A good example of excessive insurance is cover that goes way beyond the realistic price of the section being covered.    £5,000 cover on for wedding attire on a wedding with a total cost of £10,000 is most likely an example of excessive coverage.  Why pay for cover that will never be used.  That is an interesting statement for wedding dress insurance comparisons.  The explanation is that wedding insurance pays based on receipt and not cover value.   If you wedding dress cost £2,000, then that is what you would be reimbursed for if a claim was filed and approved.  That is even despite the fact that your cover was £5,000. This is why understanding how wedding dress insurance is applied to the whole policy is important.

The Important Parts of The Policy

Items within the policy that add value are important.  These would include legal expense, failure of suppliers, and public liability.  All of these items can occur and are most likely outside of the control of the bride and groom. Having additional value in these areas adds value to the policy.  Over inflated areas are often wedding attire, rings, cake, etc.  These have a specific monetary amount that can be appraised before an incident and as such can be covered exactly by a policy. Legal expenses, and public liability are unknown factors so adding more coverage here is exactly the point of having insurance cover.  When you consider these factors, there is only one choice for wedding insurance.  The comparison has shown that John Lewis Insurance is offering a better policy for the amount of money being paid for the cover.  This is because this policy adds value where it needs to and does not over inflate the cover on items that have a specific reimbursement rate.

related articles: Wedding Insurance Reviews