Tips For Planning a Brunch Wedding Reception

Venues & Menus

Jan 26

table set with dishes and white flowers for a brunch wedding reception — *Elegant table setting with blue napkins and white flowers.*

If you’re looking for a way to plan a casual, fun wedding without ruining your budget - a brunch wedding reception could be the perfect choice. A great venue, gorgeous light and a delicious meal are some of the highlights of a brunch wedding. If you want a wedding that’s unique and fun for your guests, you can’t go wrong with a brunch.

What to Look For at Your Venue

Brunch weddings can be smaller and more casual than a formal wedding so you don’t need to rent a ballroom. Look for a venue that’ll be attractive during the day. A botanical garden or a greenhouse with an outdoor view would be ideal. Or you can look for a restaurant, a bed and breakfast, a park or a clubhouse that fits your style. Since it’ll be daytime, the view will be the main backdrop for your wedding. Consider venues on a rooftop, near a lake or a rental space with lots of windows and a good view.

Is a Brunch Wedding Cheaper?

If you’re trying to stick to a budget, a brunch wedding is a great choice. A brunch wedding can be held at a less expensive venue - you’ll save a bunch of money right off the bat. By avoiding peak times, you could get a better price by planning a daytime wedding.

Catering will be less expensive, too. The food itself will be cheaper - breakfast is less expensive than dinner. Plus, avoiding the peak pricing of Saturday night could save you even more money.

As well as the food, you’ll spend less on alcohol. At a brunch you don’t need a full bar. Even if you do offer beer, wine and cocktails, people won’t drink nearly as much as they would on a Saturday night.

How to Serve Your Wedding Food

If you’re aiming for an elegant style, plan a plated meal service. If you want more of a semi-formal or casual style, choose family style, buffet or food stations.

Brunch Wedding Menu Ideas

Individual Plated Meals

If you’re planning a plated meal, you can choose a classic breakfast, like french toast or pancakes. If you want a more elegant meal, your caterer will probably have a special menu with signature dishes, like eggs Benedict, tarts, quiche or salmon.

Breakfast Buffet

If you’ve got a small budget, you can make it go further by choosing a buffet service. You can offer a selection of breakfast dishes that everyone loves: scrambled eggs, waffles, sausages. If you’ve got a bigger budget, you can treat your guests to some special items, like smoked salmon or frittata.

Food Stations or Food Bars

Food stations are a perfect fit for a brunch wedding reception. There’s so many choices for a fun, delicious menu if you plan your meal service around food stations. Nearly any dish that has a variety of toppings can be set up as a station for your guests. Choose a main dish then go wild with the toppings. Offer toppings like jam, jelly, peanut butter, almond butter, Nutella, fruit and berries. If you want to get creative, you can come up with lots of unique and tasty ideas for food stations. Start with a classic dish as your base and go from there:

Biscuit bar
Pancake station
Omelette station
Crepe station
Bagel bar
Waffle station

Signature Drinks for a Brunch Wedding

*Champagne cocktails with strawberry garnishes.*

Most people won’t want a lot of alcohol at lunch time. But it’s always nice to have a cocktail when you’re celebrating. If you want to keep your bar service easy (and budget friendly) you can offer wine, beer and a signature drink to your guests. Choose your signature drink based on the season, the color or your favorite flavors. Some cocktails go better with breakfast than other, so start by considering some of the classics:

Mimosa
Bellini
Tequila Sunrise
Screwdriver
Bloody Mary
Irish Coffee

Non Alcoholic Bars For a Brunch Wedding

If you don’t want to serve alcohol at your wedding, there’s a lot of ways to make your beverages special. Think about setting up a self serve station, where your guests can make their own drinks and add their favorite toppings:

Mulled apple cider: serve hot cider with spices
Hot chocolate bar: offer cocoa or hot chocolate with decadent toppings like whipped cream, chocolate and cinnamon
Coffee bar: Provide coffee makers with local or gourmet roasts and flavored syrups and toppings
Soda bar: Offer soda pop with flavored syrup, peanuts and ice cream

What Time Should a Brunch Wedding Start?

Typically, a morning ceremony will start at 10:00 am. That gives your guests plenty of time to arrive, and you’ll finish just in time for brunch. Ask your vendors how long they need to set up, then work backwards to figure out your start times.

Getting Ready, Hair & Makeup 7:00 to 9:00 am
Photos 9:00 to 10:00 am
Ceremony Starts 10:00 am

Timeline for a Brunch Wedding Reception

Your ceremony start time also depends on the location. If your ceremony is at the same venue as your reception, the timing is simple. If you have a 4 hour rental window, start your ceremony at 10:00 am. After the ceremony, you can move straight into the reception area.

If your ceremony is at a separate venue, you might need to adjust the start time for your reception, to allow time for traveling. If you’re having your ceremony at your place of worship, you’ll also need to check how long the service is. A full mass or service might take longer than a simple ceremony. If your service is going to run longer, make sure to adjust your timeline.

To include all the wedding traditions, a typical timeline for a brunch wedding reception would start at eleven o’clock:

11:00 am guests are seated for the meal
11:15 am grand entrance and first dance
11:25 am welcome toast from the parents or host
11:30 am meal is served
12:15 pm best man & maid of honor make their toasts
12:30 pm special dances
12:40 pm cake cutting
12:55 pm bouquet and/or garter toss
1:00 pm open dance floor
1:50 pm last dance and your grand exit

bride holding a bouquet of white peonies and greenery — *Bride holding a bouquet of white peonies.*

Brunch Wedding Reception Activities

You can include all the traditional wedding events at a brunch wedding. If you’d like, you can plan toasts, wedding cake and a bouquet toss. If you want dancing, go ahead and rent a dance floor. It won’t be a wild party, like on a Saturday night, but most people will get up for a dance or two.

If you don’t want to have dancing, you can make your toasts and the meal last longer, then spend the rest of the time mingling. Or you can make the cake cutting last longer by skipping the traditional cake. Instead of one big cake, some couples will place a small cake on each table. After the meal, the couple can go around to each table to cut the cakes. Visiting with your guests and cutting the cakes will fill up the last hour of your reception.

If you still have extra time in your reception, you can plan a photo booth or a selfie station for your guests. But the time will go faster than you expect. So don’t worry too much about scheduling every minute. Your guests will be happy chatting and mingling after the meal.

Real Weddings - Brunch Wedding Receptions

Need some inspiration? This real wedding from Martha Stewart highlights a fantastic brunch wedding:

This Couple Celebrated Their Wedding With a Colorful, Bohemian - Inspired Brunch

DIY Projects For Your Brunch Wedding Reception

There’s lots of DIY projects you can do ahead of time for your wedding. Invitations, favors and bouquets are fun projects to make yourself. If you’re planning to make your own decorations, you can do those ahead of time, too. Just remember that you’ll need to start early on the day of your wedding. If you’re allowed to set up your venue the night before, doing your own decorating will be easy to plan. If you’ve only got the morning, make sure you have enough help to set everything up on time.

DIY Food For Your Brunch Wedding Reception

It’s a little ambitious to plan your own wedding food. But it can be done! If you want to make the food yourself, think about making picnic boxes, sandwiches or other food that can be set up quickly and easily.