Tennessee newlyweds hold reception at Waffle House

LEBANON, Tenn. (WSMV) – One Tennessee couple recently spent their wedding reception not sipping champagne but enjoying heart-shaped hash browns scattered and covered with love.

Eli Holbrook and Mary Cate Hedge, of Lebanon, exchanged their vows to be married on Oct. 29 on a family farm. After the ceremony, Mary Cate surprised her husband, a Marine veteran, with a wedding reception at his favorite restaurant: Waffle House. That’s where Eli enjoyed his first meal after returning home from deployment in Japan, said Leah Lilly, Mary Cate’s mom.

Photos taken by Jessica Hamblen with Life Through A Lens show the chefs at Waffle House preparing crispy hashbrowns in the shape of a heart for the newlyweds. The couple fed them to each other as their family smiled back at them. The couple also toasted using Waffle House mugs and posed for reception photos wearing Waffle House hats and name tags that read: “Mr. Holbrook and Mrs. Holbrook.”

“We’re doing it as minimally as possible while still giving them the wedding experience,” Lilly said, adding the couple is saving up for their first house. “(Eli) had always joked he wished Waffle House would cater their reception. I was blown away. It was the cleanest Waffle House I’ve ever been to. They cleared off a spot for them to do their first dance. It was amazing. They truly made this reception the best.”

Eli and Mary Cate met at Wilson Central High School and graduated in 2016. Mary Cate is now a personal banker at First Freedom Bank in Lebanon. Eli now serves as a welder for a Lebanon business. They are currently on their honeymoon in Gatlinburg.

“Honestly, it just felt like we were at home (at Waffle House)” Mary Cate told WSMV4. “Weddings hold so much pressure, but doing it like that, we were just filled in a room with all of our family. We just got to enjoy the moment as a married couple for the first time.”