HIGH POINT, N.C. — Noah's Event Venue abruptly closed down following money troubles, leaving many brides and grooms wondering - will I get my deposit back?
If you have wedding insurance, the answer is yes.
The problem is, many don't even know wedding insurance is a thing.
"Most people don’t have it," Alliance Insurance Services President Christopher Cook said.
"I don’t know if it’s a function of lack of knowledge that something like that is out there, or the investment is pretty big anyway so you're looking at saving costs but either way it's not common enough."
Here's a Q&A with Christopher Cook to answer all your questions about wedding insurance:
1. Is there an insurance policy that is specifically called wedding insurance?
Thankfully yes, there is just a wedding event policy, there are a couple of insurance carriers in the market place who market those types of policies. Specifically, Travelers Insurance Company is one of them USLI is another
2. What does a wedding policy cover?
You can customize it for yourself but a general package is going to cover liability, cancellation, lost deposits, basic jewelry, and basic wedding attire.
3. Most venues require you to have liability insurance. In the case of Noah's Event Venue closing, would just liability insurance have helped anyone?
No you would need cancellation coverage added onto that contract
4. How much would that cancellation coverage be as an additive?
Depending on the venue cost, $50-100 dollars additional onto that policy.
5. When did wedding insurance become available?
It's something that’s become pretty popular in the last 5-10 years as weddings have started to exceed costs of 30,000 dollars on average, so that kind of investment folks are starting to ensure.
6. Is wedding insurance not something every insurance company offers?
Correct, to my knowledge there are a select few insurance carriers that have chosen to specialize or create a special product specifically for a wedding. I’ve started to notice some wedding venues have a link on their own websites to quote wedding insurance for the bride and groom.
7. What is the pricing like for a wedding insurance policy?
For just the liability insurance you’re going to need, and a lot of venues they’re not going to let you use their venue without liability, so a very basic policy is going to be under $200 dollars a year. When you start getting into a larger wedding like a cost of $50,000 dollars total, then the premium should be under $500 dollars for that one event.
8. And you pay that once, right?
Yes, one-time, and it actually covers your rehearsal dinner too and potential post day brunch. We’re talking about a one-time expense to insure that special day.
9. Can anyone who was affected by Noah's closure backpedal and get insurance now?
Unfortunately not. You have to buy the policy in advance to the issue arising. That’s just a heartbreaking situation because it could have been avoided. There is no backtracking, it's simply pursuing the venue and we all know how difficult that’s going to be because it's a bankrupt venue.
10. If the bride and groom did buy insurance, are they getting their full deposit back?
They’re going to get that back.
Or even more!
Say a caterer did this to you and you found out 3 days before 'oh my gosh I don’t have a caterer, what am I going to do?' The insurance company realizes that’s going come at an additional expense to find a replacement caterer so fast, so they’re going to offer up to 25% more than what you had scheduled. It’s probably going to be impossible to get a caterer to do a 200-person event in 3 days without some additional costs.
11. Any final thoughts on why everyone should get wedding insurance?
I don’t want folks to come away from this saying 'well I chose a reputable venue' – there are other things that can happen and that’s the reason it's worth the few hundred dollars to protect your special day.