Since your daughter wants to accomodate her unreasonable future sister-in-law, probably to support her brother, this is what I would do, if I could still afford to do so at this point in the wedding planning and spending: insist on gifting daughter a dress in the “correct” color that she will feel good in.
I’d feel a tiny bit less aggravated about all this if she is purchasing dresses she will have an opportunity to wear again. If this is some sort of ceremonial dress, probably worn just once, I would be hugely ticked off about it.
@Silpat, we are chartering busses to transport many of the guests from one borough to another in NYC. Public transportation to the venue is unreliable and difficult, and the out-of-town guests will not have cars. Uber and taxis are expensive, given the distance so it was decided that we would provide busses. It’s expensive, but the company we’re using will split the time - they pick up at the hotel, drop off, and then return to pick up at the end of the evening. We’ll have one bus available to return to the city earlier in the evening, and that bus will return for the final return trip. Our issue now is insurance because although the company has insurance, the contract disclaims liability and even if they are sued, they will turn around and sue us. Problem with a family of lawyers…we see all the loopholes for liability…but my H is on it and will figure it out. As for eloping…i"m the MOG and just made that comment to a friend of mine this morning. I know a lot of it is because we are not 31/2 weeks out, but it’s turning me into a large ball of stress.
I think we will get additional liability insurance to cover the whole event. Our planner said we don’t need to get one just for the bus, but to get one for the wedding. It is not that expensive.
My friend’s son used WedSure and they paid on his claim. @oldfort, apparently transportation isn’t covered in all wedding policies - check the fine print! Also, since we are parents of the groom and not paying for the whole wedding, we are just now dealing with this issue, but may try to get a separate wedding policy to cover the rehearsal dinner, brunch , and bus transportation.
Later, it talks about supplemental policies and this:
"Personal liability: Personal liability covers bodily injury or property damage caused by an accident that occurs during the course of the wedding (your best man trips and falls on his way up to the mic to roast you, or Uncle Dennis suffers a Harvey Wallbanger wall banger).
Medical coverage: This covers reasonable medical expenses (up to the policy’s limits) for each person who is injured during the covered events from a cause of loss, which would be covered by your personal liability."
Btw, if someyhing happened and the vendor sued us, the grounds would need to be it was something we were at fault for. Maybe lighting a real bonfire on the dance floor. Not that they got sued for a wet floor someone fell on. And if we were responsible (that bonfire,) couldn’t the insurer refuse? Just check.
May I please chime in with another insurance-related question? Is there such thing as wedding cancellation insurance (similar to trip cancellation)? It seems that many contracts with non-refundable deposits are signed months or even years before the wedding. What happens if the plans or the date must be changed due to unforeseen circumstances?
It never occurred to me that we might need liability insurance, with or without providing transportation for guests. If the best man falls and is injured on the way to the mic, wouldn’t his health ins. take care of his medical expenses? And if he claims there was something about the venue’s construction that caused him to fall, how would we be responsible instead of the venue? We do have an umbrella liability policy, but I’m under the impression that short term event specific coverage is expensive for what it provides and rarely needed.
“Deep pockets.” If it’s clearly the venue’s fault, fine. But suppose their insurance disputes or has lower limits than needed. Suppose he tripped over Grandpa’s cane or whatever.
Personally, I’m very wary of the need for a liability rider. You could look over your shoulder with every single thing you ever do. But I can see a cancellation policy. I don’t think, on the whole, that this is prohibitively expensive and it’s a one-time thing, not a long commitment.
We got liability insurance only for the rehearsal dinner, the only part of the wedding that we paid for. Since we were the ones essentially providing the beer and wine at the dinner, we figured it wouldn’t hurt to protect ourselves in case someone got into an accident. The insurance didn’t cost very much and gave us peace of mind.
The venue S1 used required a liability policy, mainly for the wine and champagne (no other alcohol). I called USAA, who has our policies, and they directed us to a company they recommended for these situations. Coverage was $125. It was pretty painless. We didn’t provide transportation, though, and everything was at one site.
Back in the day, we didn’t have any insurance for the wedding or the venue. Our wedding was in the church and reception was in hotel ballroom. No one had any incidents and everyone did what they promised, exactly as expected. I don’t believe my sis had any insurance for her 3 Ds weddings and weddings were at churches and receptions at CClub. Everything went according to plan.
We dealt with the insurance issue for the venue (since we are now arranging and providing dessert) by having MOB sign the contracts and we’ll send her a check. She already has event/venue insurance as required by the venue, so I saw no need to duplicate it. I also found the appropriate insurance to cover any liability we might have for the transportation and we will sign the contract tomorrow. It’s not a lot of money for piece of mind. There’s something called hired non-owner coverage that deals with these situations. My H is a lawyer and runs a real estate business for his family - unreasonable tort litigation is the bane of his existence so it is important to him that we be covered for as many contingencies as possible. Next up, menu for the rehearsal dinner.
Honestly, if I were having a wedding at one of those “wedding hall” places that seem to go out of business abruptly, leaving a lot of couples in the lurch, I would definitely have insurance. Actually, if I were hosting a wedding that involved any kind of substantial non-refundable deposit I would happily spend a few hundred for cancellation insurance.
MOG and I had a really nice afternoon together. We visited the wedding venue and hotel, and then she treated me to lunch. I had invited her to come…so the lunch treat was very unexpected.
She showed me a sample of the kind of invitation she might make. It’s very nice…but might be a little too fancy for DD. They will be discussing this together…but she is a scrapbooking person…and has some terrific ideas.
Sounds like a lovely afternoon, @thumper1. Am I understanding that the MOG is making all the invitations? That will be very special, I’m sure.
We are now 3 weeks out from wedding weekend…it’s hard to believe. Details are starting to fall into place and I’m feeling like it will actually all come together. My S and his crew are hiking in Colorado this weekend and my friends are hosting a shower for the B on Sunday.
Yes…MOG will be hand making all of the invitations. The sample I saw was beautiful…but not really DD’s style. But the idea is so nice. MOG does a lot of scrapbooking and card making. She is thrilled to be doing this.