Ding Dong the Bells are Going to Chime

Having got married myself last year, I am more than aware of how easily the costs can mount up.

As with most people, you have an initial budget in mind but then, after browsing the internet and attending wedding fayres, the budget falls by the wayside in favour of the ‘must have’ table decorations that cost more than the hire of the venue.

Ok, so maybe not quite that extreme, but you get where I am going with this.

After the amazing proposal and, of course, acceptance, we booked the venue almost immediately giving us a total of 11 months to plan our big day. The venue was the easy part for me as I had chosen it even before I had a boyfriend (girls, you know what I am talking about!).

Looking back, it seems crazy that the most expensive part of the day, was the easiest part to organise. There was no fuss over the menu choices and no question of alternative venues.

So, the venue was booked and then began the countdown. I class myself as quite an organised person and set about writing lists and researching what needed to be done.

OH MY GOODNESS!

Who knew that wedding cake costs so much?!

I was lucky enough to have parents to help out with the mounting costs but, even with the cash injection we will still be paying this wedding off well past our 5^th wedding anniversary.

The average cost of a wedding in the UK is around £20,000. This is an extortionate amount of money and doesn’t in any way correlate with the average income of a typical UK wage earner.

As a bride to be I got lost in the excitement of planning and spending and left it to my now husband to worry about the costs. One day he sat me down to show me a spreadsheet of the costs and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Although I work in insurance I had never before thought about the need for a wedding cover.

Reading over the contract with the venue I realised that their liability was quite limited if there was, for example, a power cut or if emergency structural amendments had to take place.

Wedding insurance provides cover for a wide range of circumstances such as:

Cancellation of the venue, ceremony or hired entertainment

Cover for rings, flowers and cake

Cover to re-take photographs as a result of loss or damage

Optional cover to include public liability

You can get a quote from as little as £25 for the year and purchase the insurance up to two years in advance of the pre-booked wedding date. There are no excesses to pay and you can cover a wedding up to the value of £50,000. To get a quote click here

Following the sit down talk with my husband I purchased some wedding insurance and it certainly made us feel better safe in the knowledge that, should the worst happen, there was protection in place.