The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently ran an article about wedding insurance.  Included in the article were a couple of stories that made the insurance well worth the price.  We imagine weddings where the insurance wasn't needed simply aren't newsworthy.  In the hundreds of weddings we've been part of, disasters have been very rare, but they were big.  Until 2004, the worst problem we'd seen was a bride's dress delivered to her ready room with a stain on it.  The dress shop sent someone out, and it was cleaned in time for pre-ceremony photos.  2004 brought on a couple of doozies.

One bride spent 2 years planning every aspect of her wedding--double, triple and quadruple checking everything.  She wanted everything perfect, and to remember it all, hired a videographer to record every memory for posterity.  On the day of the wedding, the videographer (a local rep for a national agency) failed to show up.  They were not present at any part of her day.  To make matters worse, a thunderstorm knocked out the power to the reception hall, and the hall had no backup power.  Fortunately, the groom's father owned a farm nearby, and had enough portable generators to power the rest of the evening.  She contacted the national agency, who confirmed the videographer should have been at her wedding, but did not offer a full refund.  Several months later, she was planning to take the agency to court.

2004 was a very wet year for Western Pennsylvania.  By September, we had already received an average year's worth of rain, and we still had the fall rainy season to go.  The three rivers of Pittsburgh are fed by thousands of small tributaries, which normally pass under roadways with no problems.  Early in September, the remnants of hurricane Frances added several more inches to the total, swelling the rivers and tributaries to near record levels.  One week leter, Ivan's remnants dumped 5 inches in a matter of hours, causing streams and tunnels to flood, roadways to wash out, and entire towns to be evacuated.  By the time it was all over, nearly 8000 homes were damaged or destroyed, along with 600 commercial buildings and 300 governmental buildings.  Cleanup and recovery continue 9 months later.

It was during Ivan's visit that we were attempting to deliver a wedding.  A trip usually 30-45 minutes took over four hours to make because roadways were closed.  The ceremony had to be delayed over an hour so guests, flowers and the cake could arrive.  The hotel was running on emergency power, but the kitchen was not fully functional.  Because of road closings, few guests (even those close by) could make the trip.  The couple was married, but little turned out as planned that day.

Whether to add wedding insurance is a decision you have to make, and the budget should be considered.  We can't really offer advice on way or the other.  Be sure to fully understand what is covered and what is not.  Hopefully, our stories, as well as those in the Post-Gazette article, will help you evaluate the risks and the need for wedding insurance.  Like most things about your wedding, it's not an easy choice.