Irish brides and grooms-to-be are looking to British-based insurance providers to compensate for hiccups threatening to ruin their big day, writes Laura Slattery
Most couples set their wedding date well in advance, leaving plenty of time for planning, budgeting and panicking over whether they have made the right choice.
Wedding insurance won't solve all couples' last-minute nerves, but under certain terms and conditions it will protect financially against things like cancellation of transport and catering facilities, loss or damage to the all-important dress and photographers who fail to make it to the church on time.
"If I broke a leg or the hotel was washed up in a flood, a lot of money would go to waste so I would like to investigate the possibility of wedding insurance," posts one correspondent to a wedding website with an active discussion forum, weddingsonline.ie. "That's not very romantic, but extremely realistic," the person adds.
Wedding insurance, reasonably popular in the US and Britain, is difficult to find in Ireland. Royal and Sun Alliance was offering an abandonment insurance policy covering cancellation of certain types of event, including weddings, but a spokesman said the insurer had recently withdrawn the product because there was no real prospect of growth in the market.
The majority of couples will be satisfied that insuring engagement and wedding rings as well as gifts under their home insurance policy will be more than adequate. Most insurers will automatically increase the value of contents cover by 10 per cent for a month before and after a wedding.
For single valuable items such as rings, all-risks cover is needed and will attract an additional premium, based on a percentage of the item's value.
But another wedding website, IrishWeddings.ie, is promoting the concept of insuring the day itself with the line "don't get married without it". According to Mr Damien Carroll, managing director of IrishWeddings.ie, more and more people want some kind of safety net in case getting hitched isn't quite the hitch-free perfect day they had imagined.
"If you consider the minimum you're going to spend is €10,000, another €150 for insurance, relatively speaking, is nothing. Insurance companies here say the market isn't big enough, but there were 20,000 weddings in Ireland last year," Mr Carroll says.
"We're actively promoting it on our home page, but there's a wariness with dealing with a company in the UK."
The site provides the application form for Irish WeddingSure, a product underwritten by UK Insurance and distributed through brokers such as Manchester-based Hine Insurance Brokers, whose telephone number is given.
Mr Paul Hine, partner at Hine Insurance Brokers, says the firm has had "quite a few inquiries" from Irish couples who have failed to track down insurance here. Price are £77.50 sterling (€123.35), £130 (€206.90) and £190 (€302.40), depending on the value of the goods or cost of the services to be insured under the package.
The policy covers cancellation due to an accident or death of a member of the family, loss or damage to bridal attire, wedding rings and gifts up to a certain value, public liability, and loss of deposits if a supplier goes bankrupt.
If the photographer fails to show up or the negatives are lost or damaged before copies are made, the insurance will cover the expense of retaking the photographs at a later date.
Sadly, being jilted at the altar or dumped outside the registry office won't lead to any payout.
