It was an Elizabethan Wedding custom to celebrate the marriage with a wedding feast. The menu was discussed and arrangements for acquiring the content of the more exotic dishes, such a peacock, had to be made.
The Elizabethans were keen on presenting dishes as attractively as possible - in the case of the peacock its colorful feathers would adorn the dish. The staple drink of the Elizabethans was ale (water was unclean) but wine was also available and would have been ordered for the wedding feast.
This particular example of an Elizabethan wedding custom totally back fired.The same procedure still applies to Church marriages in England today.The Elizabethan Wedding custom dictated that the couple's intention to marry had to be announced in the church three times on three consecutive Sundays or Holy days.Many couples would meet for the very first time on their wedding day!This particular Elizabethan custom usually applied to the nobility - two famous examples of the tradition of arranged marriage were between the tragic Lady Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley and King Henry VIII and his fourth wife Anne of Cleves.