Wedding Cancellations and Why You should Consider Wedding Insurance
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- Updated: 16th February 2023
This article was written prior to Covid-19
During my time as a working musician I rarely experienced cancellations from clients, especially with weddings. But now, as the owner of an agency booking in the region of 3000 events every year – a large proportion of which are weddings – the volume of cancellations we receive from clients never fails to surprise me (my colleague has literally just had a call as I write this article!).
Dealing with cancellations is without doubt one of the most difficult situations to handle as an agent, after all, there’s usually a legitimate reason for the cancellation and it’s often under extremely unfortunate circumstances. We find the two predominant reasons for cancelling a wedding are a) separation and b) illness in the immediate family – which can either cause a temporary postponement or even be reason to bring the event forward. In both situations the client is understandably already in a state of distress and it’s never much of a joy to be the bearer of further bad news.
Wedding Cancellation Fees
The role of a booking agent is generally split into two - firstly to ensure a smooth and safe booking process for the client and assisting with on-the-day logistics and planning; and secondly to look after the interests of our bands and artists.
The musicians we work with are all professionals in the industry and a booking will always be confirmed by way of a booking contract between the band and client. One of the key terms in a contract will be the cancellation term; a clause in place to protect artists from loss of earnings that can occur from a cancelled or postponed wedding. The majority of bands and agents in the UK work on a tiered cancellation policy, meaning that the cancellation fee due will vary according to the notice given. Anything cancelled within two months of the date will usually result in the full fee being payable to the band or musician.
As you can imagine, all wedding suppliers in the industry work in their own unique way, whether that be the venue, photographer or florist, and many will require a cancellation fee of some description depending on the notice given.
Do I Need Wedding Insurance?
Whilst the break up of a relationship is clearly not going to be covered by wedding insurance, an unexpected illness in your family may well be and that could mean that any financial losses incurred will be covered by your insurance company. The thing to remember is that you simply never know what life will throw at you and so for the sake of a small fee, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
A quick online search and you’ll find hundreds of companies to choose from, but take care to find out exactly what’s covered and under what circumstances.
