Wedding cover is one of the latest insurance products on the market to come into fashion says Datamonitor. Until now it's not been overly popular but a change of heart is in the air.

Wedding insurance offers cover in the event of your big day having to be cancelled or re-arranged, as well as less expensive wedding related mishaps. But insurance doesn't protect against all wedding disasters, says the report from Datamonitor and some of the things that it does cover may already be protected against by home contents insurance.

Insurers are continually looking to provide new types of cover, and one of the latest products on the market is wedding insurance.

Given that getting married is deemed to be one of life's most stressful events, alongside moving home and getting divorced, and considering the vast number of things that could go wrong on the big day, it may make sense to take out cover against a variety of eventualities.

There are things that insurance won't cover - most notably, you aren't covered if the bride or groom pulls out. Although you can't make a claim if it rains on the big day, you can be protected if there is some other unforeseeable weather condition that prevents the wedding from taking place.

The average cost of a wedding is £10,000. That's equivalent to the cost of a new car or the down payment on a house - items that you would usually insure without a second thought. With this in mind, the £45 usually charged for a basic policy seems reasonably good value.

However, some of the cover offered by wedding polices may duplicate that which is already covered under a house contents policy. For instance many household insurers automatically increase home contents cover for one month before and after the wedding to take account of gifts.

Typically, a basic policy will also provide compensation for cancellation, due to reasons other than a change of heart, damage to the wedding dress and loss or damage to the rings. But many families also include personal liability riders so they are protected in the event of property damage or an accident by one of their guests.

Currently, only a few specialist insurers and brokers offer this type of cover. However as the more traditional insurers look for ways to expand their portfolio of products they may start to include wedding insurance alongside their other personal lines.