topic Re: The cookie table in Community Chat

The cookie table

151949 — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 22:59:35 GMT

Is this just a Pittsburgh area wedding tradition or do families do this everywhere? My family owned a bakery and we were italian so , need I say, my wedding had the cookie table of all cookie tables.

For anyone who doesn't know what this is - when someone in the family gets married all the aunts and cousins etc all bake their best dress up cookies and bring them to the reception and they are placed out by the caterer - who completely expects there to be a cookie table and prepares space for it. They are the best , sweetest, richest cookies each person makes (yes, it is pretty competitive). At the end of the reception the caterers usually bag up the left over cookies in a plastic baggie with a bow or some other decoration on it, and put them out for the guests to take home.

So , is this a Pittsburgh phenomenon or do you also do this where you live?

Re: The cookie table

deepwaterdotter — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:06:19 GMT

Was done at all of the weddings I attended in the Midwest where one or both of the newlyweds were of Italian descent. And the cookies are scrumptious!

Re: The cookie table

GCR18 — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:06:38 GMT

I've never heard of it. The weddings I've attended have all been in CT.

Re: The cookie table

chickenbutt — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:07:11 GMT

I'm from the West Coast and I've never heard of it. Of course, that might not say a lot as I don't get out a lot anymore. But for all the decades I was out there socializing, going to weddings, etc, I had never seen it.

My guess would be that it's a regional thing.

Re: The cookie table

lulu2 — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:12:26 GMT

My husband is 100% Italian. My then future MIL told me my parents needed to have trays of Italian cookies at the wedding. We (the bride & groom) were supposed to carry the trays from table to table offering a cookie in exchange for a wedding envelope. No way was I going to do that. MIL got bent out of shape when I left the cookie trays on the table, allowing guests to help themselves to as many cookies as they wanted.

Re: The cookie table

Peaches McPhee — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:12:27 GMT

Upstate NY here. I am familiar with this for Italian weddings, but I think most just buy the cookies from a bakery.

Re: The cookie table

chickenbutt — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:15:37 GMT

@lulu2 wrote:
My husband is 100% Italian. My then future MIL told me my parents needed to have trays of Italian cookies at the wedding. We (the bride & groom) were supposed to carry the trays from table to table offering a cookie in exchange for a wedding envelope. No way was I going to do that. MIL got bent out of shape when I left the cookie trays on the table, allowing guests to help themselves to as many cookies as they wanted.

Yikes! Kinda like begging, eh? I don't blame you. I wouldn't do that either. I'd have been embarrassed.

Re: The cookie table

Kachina624 — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:16:23 GMT

They don't do that in Texas where I spent most of my adult life. I think it's a fun idea and one that I'll incorporate in my next big formal wedding. LOL.

Re: The cookie table

LyndaGee — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:17:05 GMT

I'm half-Italian. I'm familiar with the cookie table, but I'm pretty sure they came from a bakery, too. Around here, that would be Luigi's. I like the little squares dipped in cherry juice and the mini Cannolis. Sometimes, the kids get to them and there aren't any left to bring home. Boo !

Re: The cookie table

151949 — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:17:42 GMT

@lulu2 wrote:
My husband is 100% Italian. My then future MIL told me my parents needed to have trays of Italian cookies at the wedding. We (the bride & groom) were supposed to carry the trays from table to table offering a cookie in exchange for a wedding envelope. No way was I going to do that. MIL got bent out of shape when I left the cookie trays on the table, allowing guests to help themselves to as many cookies as they wanted.

I've never heard of this either.

Re: The cookie table

151949 — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:18:45 GMT

@Peaches McPhee wrote:
Upstate NY here. I am familiar with this for Italian weddings, but I think most just buy the cookies from a bakery.

BUY them. OMG - my mother and grandmother just turned over in their graves.

Re: The cookie table

MaggieMack — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:20:11 GMT

I grew up west coast, been in the Midwest 30 years, and I've never heard of this even though I have gone to Italian weddings. Must be a regional thing.

Re: The cookie table

missy1 — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:20:25 GMT

They don't have a cookie table here, grooms cake, or the wedding gift equaling the dinner costs.

Re: The cookie table

Mothertrucker — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:20:40 GMT

Never heard of a cookie table..Dont ever recall going to a wedding with home made food either.

Re: The cookie table

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:20:48 GMT

@chickenbutt wrote:
@lulu2 wrote:
My husband is 100% Italian. My then future MIL told me my parents needed to have trays of Italian cookies at the wedding. We (the bride & groom) were supposed to carry the trays from table to table offering a cookie in exchange for a wedding envelope. No way was I going to do that. MIL got bent out of shape when I left the cookie trays on the table, allowing guests to help themselves to as many cookies as they wanted.

Yikes! Kinda like begging, eh? I don't blame you. I wouldn't do that either. I'd have been embarrassed.

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@chickenbutt

ITA. I wouldn't want to go to a wedding where I had to make cookies, either.

I did it for years for PTA, bake sales, Brownies, Girl Scouts, church youth groups, plus the requisite Christmas cookies for kid parties.

I am done making cookies unless I am really in the mood for it, I am cookied out.

Re: The cookie table

Jessa9 — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:24:39 GMT

I'm in Pittsburgh and my mother and aunts baked for weeks for my cookie table at my wedding. We always look forward to the cookie table at weddings.

Re: The cookie table

chickenbutt — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:25:24 GMT

Hey, Noel! Yeah, that too! If I were going to have to do such a thing I would feel obligated to MAKE the cookies and not just buy them from the store or something. But never having encountered that I guess it's not a worry. hehe

Re: The cookie table

Noel7 — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:28:25 GMT

@chickenbutt wrote:
Hey, Noel! Yeah, that too! If I were going to have to do such a thing I would feel obligated to MAKE the cookies and not just buy them from the store or something. But never having encountered that I guess it's not a worry. hehe

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@chickenbutt

Me, too. Honestly, there was this thing among all the mothers' groups... If anyone showed up with store-bought, the eyes rolled and she was marked for life, LOL.

Re: The cookie table

MacDUFF — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:32:09 GMT

I'm Italian...from the upper mid-west...been to umpteen Italian weddings, but never one with a cookie table...darn it!

Re: The cookie table

shaggygirl — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 23:38:24 GMT

I married into an Italian family and every family wedding over the years they had the cookie trays baked by the aunts/cousins/whoever and you helped yourself with the bags provided. Oh and the pastel colored candy coated almonds in the pretty little ribbon tied mesh bags on the guests tables, another must do.