wedding breakfast

[derickalmond]

why is it called a wedding breakfast

[Quizmonster]

Because it is the couple's first meal after the ceremony, just as breakfast is the first meal after a night's sleep.

[Quizmonster]

I should perhaps have stressed above the symbolism of the reception meal as a new beginning for them.

[ursula62]

It's also got religious connotations. Before Vatican II (or even in the days before Henry VIII when all the UK was Catholic) the wedding service was a nuptial mass, which included holy communion. It was considered a sin to eat 12 hours before communion.  The wedding breakfast was not only the first meal the couple ate as man and wife, it was also the breaking of the religious fast that allowed them to receive communion.

[Artemis]

Tend to go with ursula62 on this one.