Wedding breakfast

What it is

A wedding breakfast is a meal given after a wedding, for the couple who have just married and for the people who came to see it. The phrase belongs to British English, and it describes what other places might call a wedding reception with food. Nothing in the name says the meal must come in the morning. In practice it follows the ceremony, at whatever hour the ceremony ends. Today it is usually not eaten in the morning and does not look like a typical breakfast.

Origins of the name

One explanation says the name comes from pre-Reformation times, when a wedding was usually celebrated with a Eucharistic Mass. A couple would fast beforehand so they could receive Holy Communion. When the service ended, the priest blessed wine, cakes and sweetmeats, and these were passed around the company, the newlyweds included. For them it was a literal breaking of the fast, and the name is said to grow from that. The dates make it doubtful, because the phrase cannot be shown in use before the first half of the 19th century.

At the table

In Britain the wedding breakfast is the meal that follows the ceremony, and it is the same thing as a reception where food is served. The couple and their guests eat together. The writer of Party-giving on Every Scale, published in London in 1880, thought the meal had much more in common with a luncheon and very little with the breakfast people ate then. The title, that writer said, was kept as a courtesy to tradition. The same book noted that fifty years earlier luncheon was not a recognised meal, and the marriage feast had turned into the wedding breakfast.

Today and change

Today the name is mostly British. The Compact Oxford Dictionary labels the phrase British, and Merriam-Webster does not carry it. Elsewhere the words appear mainly where couples marry abroad: wedding breakfasts are occasionally seen in countries that market themselves as wedding destinations, Poland among them. The Oxford English Dictionary found no use of the phrase before 1850, though it is known from at least 1838. Those dates sit awkwardly with the older explanation of the name.

How Wedding breakfast is kept

The meal comes after the wedding service, not before it. A couple marries, and then they and their guests gather to eat. In Britain the wedding breakfast is the reception itself, the part of the day when a meal is served and the company sits together. It can fall at midday or later, because the name does not fix the hour. In the story told about the name, a priest blessed wine, cakes and sweetmeats and these were handed round to everyone present, the newly married couple included.

When and where

A wedding breakfast is held on the wedding day, after the ceremony has finished. Its hour follows the hour of the ceremony, so it may be at midday, in the afternoon or in the evening. The word breakfast does not mean it must be eaten in the morning, and it normally is not.

The phrase is British, and the meal it names is kept above all in Britain and in British English. The Compact Oxford Dictionary calls the phrase British, and Merriam-Webster does not carry it. It also appears now and then in other countries, mainly those that advertise themselves as places to marry, with Poland given as an example.

What Wedding breakfast means

The name is a small piece of memory. It carries an older idea of the day: a couple fasting before a wedding Mass, then breaking that fast together afterwards. Even for people who no longer hold that belief, the phrase ties the meal to the moment the marriage begins. The odd word is kept deliberately, as the 1880 book put it, as a courtesy to tradition.

Questions people ask about Wedding breakfast

See also

ShagoranaA ceremonial wedding feast platter presented to the groom in BangladeshMarriage proposalA ritual where one partner asks another to marry them, marking the start of engagement.Shoe throwingThe act of hurling footwear for sport, wedding luck, protest or overhead display.HandfastingA couple's promise made with joined or bound hands, kept from betrothal to wedding

Good reading and sources

• Wedding breakfast on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-12.