WEDDING HISTORY & FAQs
Eat, Drink & Be Married
Wedding Dinners Replace Traditional Receptions
By: Aubrey Omen
Get ready. Ceremony. Pictures. Video. Set up. More pictures. Stand in line. Greet guests. Still in the line… Cut the cake. Dance. Toss the bouquet. Fling the garter. Make a getaway. Rush, rush, rush. As busy as a wedding day can be, more Utah brides are foregoing these statewide traditions and leaning toward the nation’s typical wedding: a formal sit-down dinner Brittany Fenton planned an intimate candlelit dinner at The Pointe for her wedding celebration on July 20, 2005. Earlier that day, they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. When young, she always envisioned having a dinner instead of a traditional reception.
“I didn’t want to stand in a line,” she said. “I wanted to enjoy my wedding like everyone else.”
And she did.
Brittany and her husband Gregory (better known as Bubba) had enough time to enjoy their chicken or steak entrees accompanied with sparkling pear cider, greet their guests during dinner, present a 30-minute program, and end the evening with dancing. Although Brittany and Gregory maintained tradition and cut their wedding cake, she decided to skip tossing the bouquet. Instead, she gave it to her youngest sister because the majority of the girls in the room were already married. Although 250 guests attended the dinner, Brittany said they cut quite a few people from their list. To avoid any hurt feelings, they mailed announcements that arrived the day of the wedding to those who weren’t officially invited to the dinner.
“Don’t be afraid to make people angry just because you want to do something a certain way,” she said. “In the end people don’t want to come to a reception if they don’t know you. It’s just special when you have the people you know and love and your close friends there. It just makes it more meaningful.”
But brides who still desire a traditional reception have another alternative: a dinner the night before the wedding.
Candice and Tim Andrus celebrated their wedding by dining with close family and friends at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building the evening of December 27, 2005. The following day they were married in the Salt Lake Temple and hosted a reception that evening at Le Jardin.
“I’ve heard of other people who had such a hectic wedding day,” Candice said. “They couldn’t even take in that they just made this eternal commitment because they were going from one place to the next and were so tired by the end of the day. So I wanted to have a dinner that didn’t feel rushed where we could just cherish that special event with our closest family and friends.”
Candice said the dinner in the Wasatch Room was a highlight of her wedding celebrations because the people she loved most had the chance to get to know her future spouse before they were actually married.
“The dinner was my favorite part of the wedding because I heard what my parents and my future husband had to say about our marriage the next day and their approval and excitement for the event,” she said. “The next day when [the guests] saw us get married they were all that more excited.”
And with a dinner the night before, Candice was able to get to bed at a decent hour to be refreshed for the next morning. She said she slept well knowing she had the support of her family and close friends.
In reflection of her big day, Candice said if she would have had the dinner the following day it would have been rushed and they would have been talking about something that had already happened instead of sharing a moment in anticipation of the marriage.
“I felt it could be a more intimate and relaxed event,” she said.
