bazaar

How much should you pay ...

to insure your wedding

Soaking a guest in champagne might cost pounds 10 at the dry cleaners; replacing a damaged wedding dress could run into thousands of pounds. Insurance companies offer cover from the cancellation of a wedding to theft of the rings. Some policies exclude insolvency (you are not covered, say, if the car-hire firm goes bust) but all exclude a change of heart.

Jackson Emms (01734 575491): Weddinginsurance: pounds 46.12. This gives cover for up to pounds 2,500 cancellation expenses and includes loss of or damage to wedding clothes up to pounds 1,000; photographs (loss of film, failure of photographer to turn up, etc) up to pounds 1,000. This policy also covers insolvency.

Travellers Protection Services (01603 767699) Wedding Plan: pounds 45.50. This covers cancellation up to pounds 3,000, and rearrangement up to pounds 2,000. No cover for bankruptcy, but the company will consider individual cases.

Methodist Insurance (0161 833 9696) A pounds 30.75 standard package covers up to pounds 1,500 cancellation expenses and also presents up to 24 hours after the wedding.

DJ Hine and Co (01204 385411) A pounds 35.88 plan covers up to pounds 2,000 for cancellation; Super pounds 61.50; Deluxe pounds 97.38. Maximum payout for cancellation due to insolvency of premises, pounds 500.

Leisurecare Insurance Services Ltd (01793 514199) Wedding Care, at pounds 40, covers for up to pounds 3,000 cancellation. pounds 10,000 cancellation cover would cost pounds 232. Also covers bankruptcy.

Top 10 Cadbury chocolates

1 Dairy Milk*....................28p (56g)

2 Roses......................pounds 3.59 (1lb)

3 Cream Egg...............................28p

4 Crunchie......................................26p

5 Milk Tray.........................pounds 5.35 (1lb) 6 Fruit and Nut............... 28p (56g)

7 Caramel................................. 29p

8 Time Out.............................. 25p

9 Whole Nut................... 28p (56g)

10 Flake.................................... 27p

* Cadbury's Dairy Milk is 90 years old on 26 June. Try its 'heritage' bars in 1905 and 1915 wrapping. Only from Woolworth

Unbreakable glasses, from pounds 19.95

for six

A few hours of being flung around the office proved that these are indeed "virtually unbreakable". Glasses they are not, though, as they are actually made from bullet-proof plastic. You would think they had been designed with energetic children's parties in mind, but the grown- up shapes (goblet, tumbler and highball designs, plus a jug) indicate that the manufacturers were thinking more of shaking hands at Ascot picnics. Pricey they may be, but bear in mind that they will be with you for ever. From the Innovations catalogue: 01793 514666

Good thing

Mad thing

Aerator

sandals, pounds 11.95

"Walk your way to a Healthier Lawn!" says the blurb for these strap- on crampons intended to "revive a compacted lawn". The exclamation mark is appropriate - they make you feel as if you are walking through syrup, and you "revive" the balder patches of your lawn by pulling up large clods and flinging them around. Being pinned to the ground by one foot, while a spiky flap of green plastic dangles from the other, is entertaining for your neighbours but will do nothing for your self-esteem. From the Natural History Museum catalogue: 01793 431900

Kendals, Deansgate, Manchester

First impressions Shop till you drop: a big, crowded department store, buzzing on a Saturday. A singalong atmosphere on the ground floor where a band plays and shoppers hum to the muzak.

Stock Seven floors crammed with House of Fraser dependables and more: furniture, food hall (dried ceps, saffron, pork pies), fashion (from Wallis to Whistles, plenty of choice for women but the men's department is unimaginative). Extras include theatre bookings on the ground floor and cookery sessions on the fourth.

Staff Kindly but stressed women. Can be difficult to find help - except in the perfume department where over-zealous assistants brandish bottles.

Customers Most of Manchester.

Reasons to go To mix with Mancunians who aren't grungy twentysomethings. To hunt for bargains: this week's offers include 40 per cent off Le Creuset, half-price Romantique bedlinen, Sunflower plates down from pounds 9.99 to pounds 6.66.

Reasons not to go You hate crowds. You're in a hurry.

Don't buy this buy that

Sioux War Bonnet, pounds 2,000-pounds 3,000 Native American artefacts, from pounds 2

At last month's Festival of Mind, Body and Spirit in London, there was one stall that drew the crowds four-deep. Crystal healers and colour therapists stood around dejectedly as New Agers rushed to shake South American rainsticks and rattle Zimbabwean finger pianos at Tales from the Earth's stand. The company sells artefacts made by indigenous peoples and is specialising this year in American-Indian things. So, instead of rushing along to Christie's tribal art sale on Monday to buy the fine Sioux war bonnet (left) (est pounds 2,000-pounds 3,000) choose from Tales from the Earth's healing spirit stones (pounds 2), "Answer Feather" (pounds 3), or nightmare-banishing "Dreamcatcher" (pounds 5), all made by the Ojibway Indian Nation, or send for a catalogue. Tales from the Earth, Studio 51, Warringer House, 140 Battersea Park Road, London SW11 4NQ (0171-720 4990). Prices don't include p&p