The Ultimate Brunch Wedding Guide: Tips for Food, Decor, and Invites

There’s something magical about a brunch wedding. Even though there’s an early start, you have more of the day to enjoy with your loved ones, the setting is more relaxed, and it’s easy to craft a beautiful atmosphere. There’s that gorgeous early light that creates jaw-dropping photos, plus the practical benefits of affordability and more casual wedding decor and dining options.

To help you make the most of your big day, here’s our guide on planning a beautiful brunch wedding. We’ll take you through tips on planning the perfect breakfast feast, including ideas for the menu and venue — plus share our favorite brunch wedding ideas. You’ll also find inspiration for picking out the perfect brunch wedding invitations, whether it’s a relaxed, intimate affair or a fancy spread. 

How to Plan Your Perfect Brunch Wedding

Ready to get wedding planning? Here’s our best advice on how to plan your dream brunch wedding day — whether you’re going for a sophisticated soirée or a relaxed garden party. 

Find Your Dream Wedding Venue

With a morning or early afternoon wedding, you can open up your wedding venue plans and look for somewhere a little different. Gardens, outdoor cafés, and scenic spots are all perfect for a brunch wedding. 

If you have your heart set on a more traditional space, you may be able to score a discount on the venue — especially if the owners can book it out again in the evening for another event. 

For a really sweet and sentimental setting, consider a backyard wedding. You could transform your home and yard (or a family member’s home) for an outdoor wedding ceremony and reception venue with a personal touch.

Plan the Details

With your venue chosen, you can start planning the finer details — including a wedding theme and decor. 

Brunch weddings give you a lot of creative freedom, especially if you want to host a more laid-back celebration. Swap chandeliers and extravagant centerpieces for a cozy and bright festive theme and fruity cocktails on the lawn. For a more boho chic vibe, choose cotton linens, burlap accents, and contrasting patterns.

Don’t forget about styling your wedding dress or suit, too. Go completely casual with something light, floaty, and beach-ready, or head in the other direction and make a daring statement in a totally not-daywear glitzy gown — or a non-white wedding dress. 

Set Your Menu

One of the best things about a brunch wedding is the food. You don’t need to opt for a formal, three-course meal. Instead, you can enjoy a carefree dining experience, just like your favorite Sunday brunch.

Weddings that take place early in the day are perfect for yummy brunch food. Think waffles, crepes, bagels, French toast, croissants, omelets, and eggs. Serve it up buffet-style, send small bites around on appetizer trays, or make it a simple and sweet two-course meal. 

You can even create food stations so it’s easier for guests to load up on breakfast food. Designate a pastry table with doughnuts, macarons, and pains au chocolat, and set up another table with a savory brunch menu featuring bacon, vegetable fritters, and quiche. Don’t forget tasty drinks with a Bloody Mary bar or a mimosa bar featuring add-ons like mini burger sliders or fresh fruit.

Invite Your Wedding Guests

With the key details sorted, you can start thinking about sending wedding invitations. Select the wedding date, finalize your guest list, choose your invite designs, and spread the word. 

We love the idea of choosing an online invitation that matches your wedding day theme and colors. With our invites, you can easily personalize the design and wording to transform a template into something really special. 

Be Super Organized

With brunch weddings taking place so early in the day, your whole schedule needs to move up. This means you need to be extra organized to make everything happen smoothly. As a bonus, you’ll have the rest of the day to celebrate or unwind — it’s up to you!

Make sure your vendors know you’ll need them at an early time of day, and prepare as much as you can the evening before. Have your team with you bright and early, espressos in hand, ready to help you conquer the day with confidence. 

Our Favorite Brunch Wedding Ideas

Design: Claudia Owen

Planning and styling a brunch reception and morning ceremony is so much fun. You can shake off traditions and really make the day your own. Here are some of our best wedding ideas for brunch celebrations to inspire you. 

Garden Celebrations

Brunch wedding receptions really lend themselves to a beautiful outdoor setting. Hosting your reception in a greenhouse, on the venue’s lawns, or in a scenic forest are all gorgeous ways to mark the moment. A tropical garden wedding is the perfect way to celebrate and decorate with stunning florals like orchids and fragrant plumerias.

Relaxed Boho Vibes

Transform your venue into the ultimate party space with a rustic boho vibe. Add in plenty of string lights, natural fabrics, comfy outdoor seating, and acoustic music, and you have the perfect chill location to enjoy with friends. 

Alternative Wedding Cake

With the relaxed atmosphere at a morning wedding, you don’t need to stick with a traditional wedding cake. Feel free to swap your multi-tier wedding cake for a smaller version or a cheesecake instead. For something really different, forego the cake completely in favor of cake alternatives like donuts. 

Fresh Fruit Juices and Cocktails

A brunch wedding means there’s no requirement to host an open bar all night, which helps cut costs and gives you some freedom with your drinks. Give your cocktail hour a fun twist by serving up fruity cocktails, mimosas, bellinis, and Bloody Marys to your guests. 

Live Local Band

With no evening wedding reception, a DJ and dance floor might not be a high priority for you. Instead, opt for some live music from a talented local band, musician, or singer. Get your party guests involved with an open mic segment so you can sing along together. 

Afternoon of Activities

The all-night dance party might be out, but there’s no reason to exclude party games and activities from your brunch wedding. With an early start, there’s more time to enjoy daytime activities or a wedding after-party with your group. Plan an afternoon of relaxing by a lake together, or set up plenty of lawn games to play.

7 Brunch Wedding Invitations We Love

Ready to start looking for the perfect invites for your brunch wedding? Here’s a handful of our favorite wedding invitation designs for a relaxed and intimate celebration. 

1. Lemon Orchard Wedding Invitation

Design: frau brandt

This gorgeous lemon orchard wedding invitation is perfect for a brunch ceremony and reception. The soft, light colors are ideal for a garden party or a backyard wedding with your closest friends and family. 

2. Modern Arch Wedding Invitation

Design: Signature Greenvelope

We love the combination of bold shapes and textured backgrounds on this modern arch wedding invitation. It’s perfect for a contemporary brunch wedding in a stylish local wedding venue. 

3. Bold Florals Wedding Invitation

Design: aticnomar designs & art

This striking bold florals wedding invitation is a sweet way to invite loved ones along to your bright, mimosa-filled brunch wedding. It gives off a fun, lively vibe. 

4. Brunch Blooms Wedding Invitation

Design: Signature Greenvelope

This stunning brunch blooms invitation is the perfect way to get people excited about your daytime wedding. While this is a birthday invitation, it can be easily styled and customized into a wonderful wedding invite. 

5. Alpine Lake Wedding Invitation

Design: National Park Foundation

With a stylish nod to Glacier National Park, this alpine lake wedding invitation sets the scene for a beautiful, outdoorsy brunch wedding. This could be ideal if you’re hosting an afternoon of outdoor fun after the big celebration. 

6. Brunch & Bubbly Wedding Invitation

Design: Robinson Creative House

If you’re looking for a design that’s modern and bright, this brunch and bubbly invitation could be the perfect option. This example is styled as a birthday party invite, but you can customize all the text and colors to make it a wedding invite standout. 

7. Elegant Overlay Wedding Invitation

Design: Owl and Toad

Put you and your special person front and center with this elegant overlay wedding invitation. There’s space for a full-sized image of the two of you with elegant text that helps you share all the essential details about the special brunch. You can customize the typography and color scheme to match the font on your printed brunch menu and seating cards for a cohesive look. 

Host a Brunch Wedding Your Guests Will Love

Hosting a brunch wedding is a lovely idea. Not only do your wedding photos benefit from the daytime light, but you have more time together for fun in the afternoon — and into the evening if you wish. We hope this guide has inspired you to plan the brunch wedding of your dreams.

Browse our selection of wedding invitations to find the perfect one for your brunch celebration. Whether you’re saying “I do” at a formal French brunch or getting hitched in a casual morning affair, you’ll find an invite style to match the mood. Plus, each one is customizable so you can make it your own when it comes to colors, typography, and design elements.

Be sure to browse our Stationers blog to find more wedding planning ideas. From fun ways to celebrate with your bridesmaids to theme ideas and budget-planning tips, you’ll find what you need to make the best wedding for you and yours come to life.