Vendor failures were the leading cause of paid wedding insurance claims in 2025 for the fifth consecutive year, according to new data from Travelers, accounting for 55% of all payouts, nearly double the approximately 27% recorded in 2024.
Illness or injury accounted for 16% of claims, followed by extreme weather at 10%, accidental damage or injury at 6% and military deployment at 3%.
The data arrives at a moment when the financial stakes around wedding planning have never been higher. The average US wedding cost reached $34,200 in 2025, according to The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study, which surveyed more than 10,000 couples married last year. With that sum distributed across multiple vendors, a single business failure can trigger significant unrecoverable losses, particularly where deposits were paid months or years in advance.
Deidre LeBlanc, vice president of specialty lines for personal insurance at Travelers, said that understanding what has gone wrong for other couples is one of the most effective ways to prepare.
"People invest so much time, energy and money into making their wedding day perfect," she said. "Knowing what has gone wrong for others is one of the best ways to prepare, and having the right protection in place can provide peace of mind when the unforeseeable occurs."
The surge in vendor-related claims does not occur in a vacuum. US business bankruptcies have been rising steadily, with the wedding industry among those under pressure.
According to Coface, US business bankruptcies reached 6,574 in the third quarter of 2025, the highest level since the second quarter of 2014 and 15% above the 2019 average. Commercial chapter 11 filings increased 67% year-over-year to 814 in February 2026, reflecting the continuing strain of elevated costs, high interest rates and tightening credit on small operators, precisely the profile of most wedding vendors.
Despite rising exposure, uptake of wedding insurance remains low relative to the financial risk couples carry. Approximately 30% of couples opt for wedding insurance, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, meaning the majority of the roughly two million couples who marry in the US each year bear the full financial risk of vendor failure, weather disruption and liability exposure without a policy in place.
Meanwhile, the wedding liability insurance market grew from $696 million in 2025 to an estimated $731 million in 2026 and is projected to reach $1.06 billion by 2032, as financial protection increasingly becomes a standard part of wedding planning. The broader special event insurance market is following a similar trajectory. The special event insurance market was valued at $5.5 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $10.2 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 7.3%.
The gap between exposure and uptake represents a meaningful distribution opportunity. The average cost of a basic wedding cancellation policy is modest relative to the financial risk it covers.
