What if on my wedding abroad.......

Congratulations on your engagement! You are super excited and start to plan your wedding abroad researching all of the beautiful venues and different styling options available to you. After months of hard work, your dream wedding comes together and you marry your handsome groom and sail off into the sunset to start your marriage together.

That is the fairytale version and one that I hope happens for any couple planning their wedding, but what if…. Today I am looking at the unsexy side of planning your wedding, the what ifs and the contingency plans that every well bride in training should be planning for.

Source: Huffington Post Weddings

What if the wedding is cancelled….

Let’s start with the one that every bride hopes never happens, that either the bride or groom cancels the wedding. I have personal experience of this what if, many moons ago! Before I found the amazing Mr T, I was engaged and the wedding booked for a sunny wedding abroad. However a mere 6 weeks after booking it, I was left un-arranging everything and thanking the stars above that I had taken out wedding insurance.

At a time when your heart is breaking, the last thing that you need to pour salt into the wounds is your wallet breaking as well! I had been prudent enough to purchase wedding insurance the moment we started to book anything wedding related, which really is the key to wedding insurance as you never know when that unexpected ‘hiccup’ may happen, I know that I didn’t!

What if the wedding ceremony or reception venue is flooded or burnt down…..

You have meticulously researched your wedding venue. You have been over to visit several venues that meet your criteria and then you visit it. The one venue that makes your heart flutter, the one where you can visualise your wedding day taking place.

You pay the deposit and start to plan to send out your save the date cards. During the course of your planning you are visiting forums where you see a post “Help my wedding venue has been destroyed in a storm”. Feeling upset for the poor bride you click to read the post to offer some words of comfort.

As you start to read, “oh it is in the same area that I am getting married” your stomach starts to turn. You frantically skim read looking for the name of the venue and then “OH MY GOD THAT’S MY VENUE”.

Before you can manage to reach for the mobile to dial your fiancé, the tears are well up and your big day is in tatters.

I would like to say that this is rare, but it can happen. Not that wedding insurance can take away from the crushing blow to your wedding planning, but a good insurance policy can mean the difference between no wedding and an alternative wedding to what you originally planned.

What if the caterer doesn’t show up……

The caterer, the florist, the wedding car, there are so many suppliers involved in a wedding, that it is a possibility that a turn of events might occur to stop a supplier turning up.

You might have planned a winter wedding in rural France, at a romantic Chateau with log burning fires. However all of your guests arrived a couple of days before the big day, but now a freak snow storm means that the vintage wedding car can’t get up the rural French country lanes to the remote Chateau.

Not to fear Uncle Edward has a cracking 4×4 that the Aunties set about cleaning and finding some ribbon to decorate for your big day. Although solutions are available for many scenarios, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be covered and recompensed for the ones that can’t be.

What if the wedding dress is driven down to the South of France the week before the wedding. Whilst the family friends have stopped for a coffee at a rest stop, the car is stolen with THE dress inside…..

It could happen and it sounds like a great movie to me! There are two main dilemmas to this story, one that you no longer have a wedding dress, and two that you have paid for your dream dress.

So again those fabulous Mothers and Aunties swing into action helping you to find a dress at the last minute, and old seamstress Aunty can easily adjust and alter a dress to become your dream wedding dress after all! (okay I am a romantic).

The cost of your dress also brings up the different levels available of wedding insurance. Make sure to choose a level of cover that is commensurate to the budget of your wedding.

What if the Groom has too many Pernods in France and falls of his chair ……

Anyone who has been to a French wedding knows that stamina is needed. If the wedding dinner starts at 6pm, the last guest standing could be seeing in the sunrise! With this in mind such as with travel insurance, your wedding insurance for your wedding abroad you should also make sure to have a good level of personal accident cover.

Just don’t tell the Best Man as he might encourage more Pernod drinking!