How I Almost Lost My Wedding in a Mudslide

A disaster brought a community together to help one couple pull off a dream wedding they couldn’t imagine.

By Kate Ashford for ValuePenguin
Published December 29, 2018

Excerpt below – Read full article on ValuePenguin now

Preparing for the worst-case scenario

When something unexpected, such as a wildfire or mudslide, wrecks a wedding, couples stand to lose a lot of money, but event insurance can help protect what you’ve planned. “One of the first conversations I have with people is about insurance, Collins said. “If you have to use this policy, life sucks,’” she said. “But if you do have it, it’s going to be OK, because you’re going to be whole again.”

There’s no end to the variety of catastrophes that could ruin your special day. A hurricane could force an evacuation from your beach locale. Your wedding venue could go bankrupt or get damaged due to inclement weather. After the mudslide, for instance, The Biltmore Santa Barbara was damaged and had to close. “They reopened five months later,” Collins said. “But every bride who was booked there was unable to have her wedding.”

Thirty percent of brides with event insurance used it to cover vendor issues, according to research from Travelers Insurance. Another 29% made a claim due to illness or injury. Other glitches: weather issues (16%), military deployment (10%) and property damage (6%).

Event insurance isn’t prohibitively expensive, costing around $300 to $400 to insure a $30,000 wedding. Collins compared it to cellphone insurance. “You’ll spend $10 a month insuring a $600 phone, but you won’t spend $300 once to insure $30,000?” she said. “It’s madness.”

Collins sends clients to Wedsure.com to price out a policy. “They are wedding related, so they understand how to indemnify based on a wedding,” she said. “They even have change-of-heart insurance.”