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Problems with wedding insurance?

Date published: 17 October 2024 Wedding insurance : Category

Find out more about the types of complaint we’ve seen about wedding insurance, our top tips to avoid problems and how we can help if you have a complaint about your insurer. 

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In the last five years, we settled more than 600 cases where couples planning their weddings have been left out of pocket. A proportion of these complaints were caused by the pandemic, but we also saw cases about:

  • cancelled flights preventing the bridal party and guests from travelling
  • serious damage to the venue including fire and flood
  • suppliers failing to show up or faulty goods
  • venues or suppliers going out of business
  • the bride, groom or guests falling unwell before the wedding

With the average cost of UK weddings rising by 12.5%, costing couples on average £20,700 for their dream day. It’s likely that more people will take out wedding insurance to protect this cost. 

Here, we share some tips for couples to look out for from the cases we’ve seen, examples of cases we resolved and how we can help if you want to complain. 

Wedding insurance top tips

  • To help avoid problems with wedding insurance and be more prepared for your big day, you should: 

    1. Understand what’s covered – ensure your policy covers key elements such as cancellation, supplier failure and public liability. For example, inability to travel to the wedding venue for reasons other than weather are often not covered.
    1. Check exclusions carefully – be aware of what is not covered. Some polices may not cover outdoor weddings, destination nuptials, or pre-existing health conditions.
    1. Understand the relationship with your suppliers – most policies only cover losses where the supplier has a direct contract with the policyholder. If the supplier is paid by a wedding planner, those costs might not be covered.
    1. Ensure adequate cover for all overall costs – ensure the total amount of cover matches the overall cost of the wedding, from venue hire and catering to attire and photography.
    1. Take out your policy early – many couples mistakenly think they can wait until closer to the big day to take out insurance. This puts them at risk of unexpected events such as the venue closing down.
    1. Be proactive at trying to recover costs – insurers expect people to mitigate their losses where possible. Often consumers need to show they have tried and failed to recover costs before the insurer will step in.

How we can help

If you feel you’ve been treated unfairly by your insurer, you should complain to the them first. But if you’re still unhappy and want to take your complaint further, we may be able to help. Our service is free and easy to use. 

Many of the complaints we see relate to the type or level of cover that exists where someone has had to cancel or rearrange their wedding. 

When we investigate a complaint about this, we’ll check what the policy says and what type of cover is offered to decide if you’ve been treated unfairly.

Examples of cases we see and resolved

  • When a serious fire forced a wedding venue to cancel close to a couple’s special day, they found themselves almost £6,000 out of pocket for venue and accommodation costs. However, the insurer would only partially meet the costs, claiming the venue should refund the rest.

    The couple tried and failed to get the rest of their money back, and in the end they brought their complaint to us. 

    We decided the insurer was acting unfairly and the couple should not be required to take legal action to recover their money. The insurer was required to pay the outstanding claim amount plus compensation for distress and inconvenience.

  • During the pandemic a couple were forced to cancel their overseas wedding when the venue claimed it could not honour the booking due to an inability to source staff or supplies.

    The insurer argued that the claim was excluded on two grounds – firstly because government restrictions were in place, and secondly because the venue’s inability to source supplies was not covered under the terms and conditions.

    Following investigation, we found that cancellations caused by ‘infectious or contagious diseases’ were included in the policy and was satisfied that COVID-19 met that description.

    We found that the fair thing to do was consider the cancellation under those terms, adding interest and compensation for the additional upset caused.

  • A couple came to us when they discovered that their wedding venue had gone into liquidation. They sought to recover the costs paid out already as well as costs for arranging at an alternative venue.

    The insurer didn’t think the consumer had a contract with the venue but instead the supplier who was facilitating the wedding. The insurer considered the claim under a section of the policy in relation to the supplier and paid the maximum £25,000 out to the consumer.

    However, the insurer refused to pay for rearrangement costs for another venue. The investigator agreed with the insurer as the venue and supplier are not the same business and so there wasn’t a policy for this to apply.

  • Another couple and their guests were due to fly abroad for their wedding when their flights were cancelled. They claimed on their insurance, but it was refused as the policy terms only covered ‘inability to travel due to adverse weather conditions’. They brought their complaint to us to investigate.

    During investigation, we discovered that the ‘what are you covered for section’ states that the policy cover is limited for cancellations or rearrangements of travel made in respect of weddings outside of the UK. As the wedding was abroad, we agreed that the insurer was right in its decision.

Bringing your complaint to us

Getting a fair answer is free and easy. 

When you bring a complaint to us, it’s our job to weigh up all the facts. We’ll make a decision about what happened using evidence from you, the insurer and any relevant third parties. We'll also consider:

  • the relevant law
  • any regulations that applied at the time
  • any industry codes of conduct that were in force at the time

When we’ve finished investigating, we’ll tell you whether we think the insurer treated you fairly or not. And we’ll explain how we reached our decision.

If we think the insurer treated you unfairly, we’ll tell them to put you back where you’d be if they hadn’t made a mistake. We might also ask them to make an award for any distress and inconvenience caused.

Bring your complaint to us