Talk:wedding breakfast

Etymology

1. the main celebratory meal held after a marriage ceremony (so-called because of pre-1887 English law which required that weddings be performed before noon)

I'm going to remove the bracketed portion as (a) that's not how to show etymologies on Wiktionary (b) it seems very dubious, as it contradicts what I've heard before.

I've read before that nobody's sure of the term's true etymology. But there are at least three theories:

1. By analogy with breakfast as the first meal of the day, as it's the first meal of the couple's married life.
2. In former times, a wedding was also a service of holy communion, and people were required to fast before taking communion, so the wedding breakfast was the breakage of this fast.
3. And now, a former law whereby weddings had to be performed before noon.

Furthermore, theory 3 makes me wonder, in those days would it still normally be before noon when the wedding breakfast was held?

@Widsith I realise it was a long time ago, but still, have you any evidence to indicate that the etymology you put in is the correct one? — Smjg (talk) 11:23, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

• @Smjg I don't remember! The OED (usually my primary source) says "a celebratory meal eaten just after a wedding (now at any time of day)", which certainly implies that weddings used to take place in the morning. But I don't know where I got that specific law from, I'll have a look through what I was reading back then. Ƿidsiþ 13:00, 2 March 2023 (UTC)