As the costs associated with throwing a lavish wedding in India continuously soar, couples and their families have started turning to insurance to cover risks.
According to a report by Times of India, with wedding budgets reaching around INR5 million (US$71,000), many prospective newlyweds are opting to take out insurance to cover the risk and cushion the possible huge financial blow of a cancellation or postponement.
“More families with large wedding budgets have been buying insurance as of late,” Shreeraj Deshpande, chief operating officer of Future Generali India Insurance in Chennai, told TOI. “We’ve sold over 70 wedding insurance policies to event management companies this year, a 30% increase since last year. There’s also been a 25% to 30% increase in individual families who have purchased wedding cover directly, as compared to last year.”
Possible postponement or cancellation of the wedding is the largest fear of most couples, as many venues have no-refund policies, the report said. Meanwhile, caterers usually impose a penalty of between 10% and 70% of the total bill if the function is cancelled. This adds a huge financial component to the emotional and social turmoil to be experienced by the erstwhile bride and groom, as well as their families
Some insurance policies also cover burglary and theft incidents during weddings, as well as personal accidents and perils such as fire or earthquake. Others cover cancellation due to the death of a family member close to the wedding date.
However, no insurance policy will cover a wedding that is called off due to a ‘change of heart’ of one (or both) of the partners.
