Planning Your Wedding? Before Champagne, There Was Mead: The Reception Toast You’re Missing
- Apr 15
- 4 min read
Weddings are steeped in tradition — from tossing the bouquet to the "something old, something new" rhyme. But few customs are as ancient (or delicious) as the tradition of drinking mead at weddings and during the honeymoon.
Long before champagne toasts, there was mead—the golden, honey-based elixir once believed to hold the secrets of love, fertility, and lasting happiness. Revered across ancient cultures and famously embraced by the Vikings, mead has a rich history tied to marriage and the rituals that surround it.
Archaeological records show that mead predates wine and beer by over 9,000 years! Across cultures—from the Egyptians and Greeks to the Celts and Norse—mead was believed to carry mystical properties and divine favor.
Whether you're planning your own wedding or simply love a good origin story, here's how mead became the drink of lovers, newlyweds, and enduring romance.
Mead Wedding Rituals
In Norse and other early European wedding traditions, mead was used for the ceremonial toast. The bride and groom would share a cup of mead to seal their union and celebrate their bond. This symbolic act not only marked the beginning of their marriage but also sought the blessings of lasting love, fertility, unity, and good fortune.
Origins of the Honeymoon
The word "honeymoon" is a romantic blend of “honey” (symbolizing the sweetness of new love) and “moon” (marking the passing of time in lunar cycles). The term has ancient Norse roots (hjunottsmanathr) that literally translate to “honey month”.
In early European traditions, newlyweds would receive enough mead to last an entire lunar cycle (about 29-30 days) as a gift or dowry. The couple would drink mead together for one full moon cycle following their wedding. This ritual was thought to enhance fertility, bring good fortune, and ensure a joyful start to married life. Hence, a “honeymoon” wasn’t just a romantic getaway but a sacred, mead-filled month to bless a marriage.
The tradition likely emerged from a mix of pagan fertility beliefs and practical social customs. A month of relative seclusion gave couples time to bond, while the symbolic act of sharing honey wine tied the sweetness of their drink to the hoped-for sweetness of their marriage.
Even in many modern languages today, the word for "honeymoon" translates to "month of honey" or "moon of honey":
This shared metaphor across languages, continents, and cultures shows just how deeply rooted and universal the symbolism of honey and the moon are in celebrating marriage.
Mead & Modern Wedding Ceremonies: Reviving Tradition
Thousands of years before champagne popped its first cork, mead was the original wedding toast. Reviving this tradition can add a meaningful and magical layer to your wedding celebration by connecting your love story to ancient traditions-of-love that span a millennia.
5 Ways to Add Mead to Your Wedding Celebration
1) Wedding Toast with Mead
Instead of champagne, offer mead as the drink for your wedding toast. This unique alternative brings a touch of history and symbolism to the moment, connecting your celebration to ancient traditions. Missing the bubbles? Mix mead with club soda to serve it sparkling.
2) Mead Ceremony
Incorporate mead into your ceremony by exchanging a ceremonial cup of mead with your partner. This could symbolize the sharing of sweet beginnings, reinforcing the deep-rooted traditions of love and devotion. If you are going for a bit of old-world flair, exchange your sips of mead from a traditional Ox horn drinking cup.
3) Serve Mead at the Wedding Reception
Serve mead alongside wine and champagne at your reception bar. Offer a variety of meads to suit different tastes, allowing guests to explore and sample the historical beverage.
4) Create a Signature Wedding Cocktail
Create a signature cocktail using mead as the base. Mead's unique and diverse flavor profiles complement both light and bold spirits, making it perfect for creative mixes.
5) Pairing Mead with the Wedding Menu
Pair different types of mead with your wedding menu to enhance the dining experience. Mead’s diverse flavors complement a range of dishes and pair well with cheeses, meats, and desserts.
Traditional or light meads pair beautifully with fresh starters like salads, seafood, or charcuterie.
Fruit-forward or spiced meads enhance hearty mains like roast meats or vegetarian dishes.
Dessert-style meads are pure bliss with pastries, fruit tarts, & the wedding cake.
Whether you serve mead at your reception, toast with it after your vows, or gift it to newlyweds, it’s a nod to thousands of years of love stories—yours being the newest chapter.
Mead for Eco-Friendly Weddings
Choosing mead for your wedding isn’t just a nod to ancient romance—it’s also a modern, sustainable, and eco-friendly choice. Unlike mass-produced wines and spirits, many meaderies operate on a small, local scale, sourcing ingredients like honey, fruits, and herbs from nearby farms and beekeepers. This supports local businesses and helps sustain regional ecosystems, especially the health of bee populations, which are vital to our planet’s biodiversity and food systems.
By serving mead at your wedding, you're not only offering guests a unique and meaningful drink, you're also making a conscious, eco-positive decision that reflects care for the environment and your community.
Where to Get Mead for Your Special Day
Valkyrie’s Kiss Meadery offers award-winning artisan meads inspired by ancient tradition and made with pure, local honey. Whether you want a romantic mead toast, a signature cocktail, or bottles as memorable favors, we’ll help you bring magic to your big day.
Let's Make Your Wedding Celebration Legendary!