by Events • May 3, 2025 • Wedding Planning Guides
Alongside your perfect venue and your dream dress, one of the most important parts of your big day is your wedding breakfast.
It’s your chance to share your first meal together as a newly married couple. Traditionally, it’s the big, communal sit-down event of your wedding, a chance for your guests to welcome you together, share delicious food and celebrate your union.
It’s not bacon, eggs and hash browns… although there are plenty of toasts!
A classic wedding breakfast is just the term given to your first meal as newlyweds, shared with wedding guests. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is. A classic wedding breakfast usually consists of:
The most important thing to remember about your wedding breakfast – especially if you’re celebrating with us at Heaton House Farm – is that it’s your first meal as a couple… so it can be whatever you’d like it to be.
The term wedding breakfast – like your normal breakfast – means to break the fast.
To eat after you’ve been through a period of fasting.
Historically, a wedding breakfast dates back centuries and has its roots in religious tradition.
Its origins can’t be traced exactly, since the first recorded reference of the term ‘wedding breakfast’ wasn’t until the 1850s, but going way back to before Henry VIII, the majority of weddings were held during a church Mass service, which included Holy Communion.
To receive communion, you had to fast beforehand. After the ceremony, priests would distribute food and wine… the first food you’d have as a married couple, hence wedding breakfast.
Nowadays, the religious significance of a wedding breakfast has largely faded, but it’s still a big part of any modern celebration.
We wouldn’t recommend fasting before your ceremony, though – not when you can enjoy our luxurious pamper room, complete with Prosecco, treats and even a proper breakfast butty (just keep the sauce away from the dresses)!
Honouring that first meal as a married couple – the start of your journey together – remains a special tradition. It’s the chance to gather all your loved ones into the same place, at the same time, for a shared experience – one packed with delicious food and heartfelt (and funny) speeches.
The vast majority of couples will have a wedding breakfast of some kind. You might opt for a traditional three-course meal or personalise the menu to your tastes and style. Or perhaps you’ll let your creativity run free and do something completely different.
The choice is yours – your wedding breakfast doesn’t need to follow a conventional format.
What your wedding breakfast looks (and tastes) like is entirely up to you. It varies dramatically from couple to couple, venue to venue, and depends on your theme, your catering and your preference.
These are the traditional elements and structure of a wedding breakfast, but there are many other options.
Other alternatives for your wedding breakfast
At Heaton House Farm, working with our sister company Stable Yard Catering, our dining options go well beyond traditional elements.
You can, of course, have a traditional sit-down meal, but you could theme it around your favourite cuisine or your favourite dish. You could ditch the traditional roast in favour of a delicious seasonal sharing plate. Or you could drop the whole idea of a traditional plated sit-down meal in favour of creative food stations around the room.
You could:
Whatever vision you have for the food and drink at your wedding, we can help.
Nothing should be compulsory for any part of your wedding… other than the legal requirements to officially tie the knot.
It’s your day, so you can celebrate however you like. At Heaton House Farm, we certainly don’t require you to have a wedding breakfast.
Of course, most weddings do typically include some kind of catering, and your guests will likely be expecting food at some point. But when, where and what… that’s up to you.
You can plan your reception any way you’d like. Lots of venues will include a wedding breakfast as part of their packages, so make sure you check these out, but don’t be afraid to customise your food options any way you’d like.
The main difference between a wedding breakfast and a reception is that a wedding breakfast specifically refers to the formal meal served after your ceremony, while the reception usually means the entire post-ceremony celebration – celebratory drinks, the meal, the speeches, the cake cutting, dancing, and evening festivities.
Think of the wedding breakfast as one element – albeit an important one – within the broader celebration that is your wedding reception. This gives you a better understanding of what a wedding reception is, and helps with your planning.
The reception begins after the ceremony and continues until the end of the celebrations. It includes all the activities in between, potentially an evening buffet or late-night snacks, as well as your wedding breakfast.
Your wedding breakfast is so much more than just a meal – it’s a celebration of your first moments as a married couple, shared with those dearest to you.
Whether you opt for traditional dishes or a contemporary twist, what matters most is that this special feast reflects your tastes and vision for your big day.
You can eat whatever you’d like and celebrate however you wish. Make planning your wedding breakfast part of your wedding preparations, tying in the food and drinks with your theme, your table plan ideas and your venue search.
Don’t forget to plan your wedding morning breakfast – so you’re fuelled for the big day – and breakfast the day after your celebrations.
We’ve got both covered at Heaton House Farm, with brunch served in our pamper room as you’re getting ready, and locally-sourced, home-grown ingredients for breakfast in our converted milking parlour the morning after.
Request a brochure today and let’s start planning your perfect wedding breakfast – and the rest of your unforgettable day – together.
