When planning your wedding, you’ll need to create a schedule for the big day. This will include a few big moments – like the time of the ceremony and your wedding dinner. However, as you do some research into wedding day schedules, you may come across something called a wedding breakfast.
What is a wedding breakfast?
Traditionally, weddings will start fairly early in the morning. The ceremony itself can be over by 1 pm, meaning you’ve got a few hours to wait until dinner is served – usually after 4 pm, possibly later. It means you and your guests have gone without food since breakfast, and some of the wedding party might not have eaten at all.
So, you bring everyone to the reception venue and supply some food for them to eat. This includes drinks and a buffet-style lunch. Despite taking place in the middle of the day, we refer to this as the wedding breakfast.
Why do we call it a wedding breakfast?
This is where things get a bit complicated and weird. Effectively, it stems from an old tradition from the 19th Century where couples used to get married a lot earlier in the morning. Part of this tradition meant that nobody ate breakfast before the wedding, so a little breakfast meal was held after. We’ve taken this notion and continued it as a trend today, still referring to it as the wedding breakfast even though you may have already had your breakfast beforehand.
Think of it as a chance for your guests to break their fast between the ceremony and wedding dinner. Don’t serve up breakfast foods though; stick to the classic buffet and party nibbles for people to snack on.
