As the wedding season gets into full summer swing, compareweddinginsurance.org.uk has published the results of a study which suggests that, on average, couples are underinsuring their weddings by 30 percent.

The average cost of a wedding for the period May 2009 to April 2010 was £17,000. However, the study found that couples insuring their weddings only purchased policies providing £12,000 of cancellation cover. This £5,000 insurance cover shortfall represents close to 30% of a couple’s total wedding budget.

“For many couples, their wedding day will be one of the most expensive purchases they will ever make,” comments Adam Leyton, founder of compareweddinginsurance.org.uk, “so while it’s encouraging to see that many couples are purchasing insurance to protect this investment, it’s concerning to discover this level of underinsurance.”

Adam goes on to say “Should the unthinkable happen and a wedding has to be cancelled or re-arranged, the couple may end up significantly out of pocket despite believing they were financially covered.”

There are a number of possible explanations for this insurance shortfall.  It could be the case that couples ultimately spend way more than their initial budget and don’t increase their insurance cover accordingly.  Or, they simply don’t insure themselves for the full amount, gambling that they won’t actually need to claim for full cancellation or postponement.

Wedding insurance provides financial protection should something that’s covered by the policy go wrong before, during or after the big day. That could be, for example, complete cancellation of the wedding due to death or illness, a supplier going bankrupt or something relatively minor like damage to hired suits.