India has been known for organising, planning, and hosting some of the most lavish weddings in the world. A wedding in the family always meant highly inflated expenses, hordes of relatives and family members, and a prolonged itinerary of multiple wedding functions and rituals. Although the form and type of weddings have altered and adapted to the times, the importance of this activity remains the same.
Weddings were originally traditional and followed a ritualistic way of spending. However, as all things do, this has also changed with time. Today’s weddings are influenced by Bollywood, popular culture, and the latest trends embedded in them. The rituals of the ceremony are accompanied by a lavish celebration before or after the event. In more ways than one, weddings have become a tool to flaunt a family’s wealth and social status simultaneously.
All this merits a sound financial mechanism to help a family tide through and successfully accomplish a wedding. However, unforeseen circumstances can pave their way even into the happiest days of your life. Therefore, it is crucial to protect yourself from such incidents and take financially suitable covers to minimise the losses caused by such events. This is where the concept of wedding insurance, a form of event insurance, comes in. Earlier, only celebrities and HNIs opted for wedding insurance policies. Still, as the scale of a regular Indian wedding keeps increasing, most high-end wedding planners recommend such policies to their clients.
What is a Wedding Insurance Policy?
This is a form of event insurance that can be availed of to insure the owner from major monetary losses that could take place during the wedding. This includes unforeseen circumstances that could be personal – the death of the bride, groom, or any of their closest family members. This also ensures the wedding is against natural calamities, riots, curfews, burglaries, and other disruptive events.
The policy also insures against the damage caused by fire and fire-related injuries. Therefore, broadly, a wedding insurance policy protects your wedding against the three main headers of fire, personal accident, and liability.
Apart from the principal wedding insurance policy, insurers also have the option to purchase additional forms of protection. The burglary insurance enables you to protect the cash and jewellery kept at home before a big wedding. Personal accident insurance protects a set of your close family members against any accident that was to take place during the wedding. Like every other loan, underlying clauses and conditions must be read and understood carefully before purchasing this event insurance.
How do You Purchase a Wedding Insurance Policy?
As this is an event-based policy, the tenure of the policy is inconsequential. It becomes active only 24 hours before the wedding date, as mentioned by the insurer. If any eventuality occurs before that, the policy will not be of any assistance to the insurer. The cost of purchasing this insurance is customised to the requirements of each wedding. On average, an insurance cover of ₹2 Lakh commands a premium of ₹1,000.
As different wedding sections are insured separately, the premium and cover vary accordingly. But it is safe to note that purchasing a wedding insurance policy is not expensive, especially when the scale of your wedding is lavish and grand.
The purchase of this policy requires the borrower to furnish several granular details about the wedding they are insuring. The lender takes full cognizance of the size and scale of the event and decides the risk premium accordingly. This event insurance also includes certain exclusions for which the insurance cannot be availed. For example, if the bride or groom calls off the wedding, the monetary losses cannot be subset using this insurance.
If any untoward incident occurs during the wedding, the affected parties must file an FIR and share all the necessary forms and details with the insurer. The insurance company will thoroughly assess the claim and decide accordingly.
Conclusion
The hype around weddings in India is not expected to change or go away very soon. However, awareness about wedding insurance is still low. As more and more people move in for grander weddings, it is expected that this will change and wedding insurance, as a category, will gain greater prominence. If you are planning a lavish wedding, check out the available wedding insurance options and choose what suits you the best.