It's another Pittsburgh Cookie Table

The wedding was Saturday--and at "I really don't care anymore" last count, there were approximately 3,500 cookies. I took a video before the ceremony, but ~1/3 of the cold cookies weren't on display yet. Then a friend of my sister took one mid-wedding and about 1/4 of the cookies are already missing from the table. So...

Lucked out with the weather. It had been raining EVERY SINGLE DAY, right up until the day of the wedding when the weather turned sunny and bright and warm, which was good--because the ceremony was outside.





...we moved inside for the reception and here's the cookie table, mid-party.


View attachment CZ Cookies.mov

(okay...edited to remove cookie table video, it was 58M and must be too big)
(edited again: okay, this is weird...sometimes the video runs. It ran yesterday from my phone, but now it's not running. I have no clue.)

I actually have no photos of the table. Below are my contributions, ready to go at Mom's house...and then packed in my car. This shows 1,400 cookies, plus 100 cold lemon tarts still in the refrigerator plus 100 GF cookies for individual boxes.

The last photo is one of the GF boxes. The label on the lid had the guest's name and the GF contents. It was placed at their assigned reception seat so they would have it early and not be too bummed about missing out on the cookie table and cake.

Okay..I regrouped and took snapshots of the video while it was playing. So here are the images (sorry, some are blurry and you'll just have to hum along with your own music)

Curious, do you have a list of all the different kinds of cookies - it's hard to read some of the signs. I have never seen a cookie table so I am sort of fascinated. I want to do something like this for a party now since no weddings are coming up that I know of.

Picking up my jaw from the floor! Absolutely incredible! They look so professional AND delicious. You never cease to amaze me Marilyn.

What a beautiful couple! What a fabulous venue!

mcm, I have the names of the ones we plated on Thursday, but the groom's family brought 200 cookies (anise pizzelles and huge 4" cookies) and I didn't see those until the reception, so they aren't on this list. I think those ended up on the 3-layer towers.
(edited to add, I made 1,600...my sister Lynda made 250, my other sister Sarah made I have no clue how many and her friend Valerie made roaster pan fulls. She's Italian and had 90,000 cookies at her wedding for 600 people. So ya...that's how they roll in Pittsburgh. It was a collaborative effort...but the groom's family from Boston had never seen/heard of one so it was nice that they jumped right into the gig.)

This list was for the wedding planner to set out the cookies, meaning the images I listed above are the reverse order. Table 1 would be the last photo and Table 6 would be the first photo.

Table 1: lemon Pizzelles, Almond Butter Kiss, Lime Meltaway, Cinnamon Nut Horns, Candied Walnuts
Table 2: Apricot shortbread bars, Russian Tea cakes, Snickerdoodle, Caramel brownies
Table 3: Smiley cookies (Pittsburgh tradition), Lady Locks, Cookie Dough Bites
Table 4: Icing Thumbprints, Stuffed Pizzelles, Apricot rugelach
Table 5: Almond Ginger Biscotti, Caramel tassies, Peanut Butter Kisses, Vanilla Pizzelle, Krumkake, Bridal Chip, Butter Spritz, Funfetti, Walnut Tassie, Oatmeal cookies (CathyZ recipe)
Table 6: Lemon knots, Life of Spice drops, Lemon Cream tarts, Sables

The GF were made with KA Measure for Measure, Almond Flour or Oat flour. Each box had one each of the following:
Caramel brownies
Chocolate chip
Apricot Thumbprints
Halvah Cake
Mint Oat Flour bars
Walnut Tassies
Gingersnaps
Oatmeal Raisin
Hazelnut Thumbprints

Sarah made the Nut-free boxes. I have no clue what ended up in those.

Dishes are placed around the displays to use during the event and then take-out boxes are placed so everyone can take home a box of cookies. Leftovers went to the after-party and a picnic the following day after a Pirate game.

by the way, I used that meat smasher thingee and it worked beautifully for spaghetti Bolognaise sauce. Thanks!!!

Marilyn, There are no words.....what a fantastic job.....I cannot even imagine taking on a task like that. Beautiful, Beautiful

This is simply overwhelming. I am so stunned that you would even enlist for an endeavour of this sort.

Once again, I can't wipe the smile off my face.

What were the reactions of the guests? I have never heard of a cookie table, other than at my mom's teas in the 50s

Marg, to be honest, I was sitting in the corner with my mom, trying NOT to walk around since I was wearing heels for the first time since Nixon walked off into the sunset. So I have no clue of the reactions.

Holy cow Marilyn! What an undertaking! Very impressive. Congratulations

I would say this is overwhelming, but it would be a gigantic understatement. Holee cow woman I can’t even imagine this and seeing it with my own eyes I’m still gob-smacked!

So many things come to mind: do people still eat cake? do they eat these hundred thousand cookies and still eat cake? Does there need to be/is there any other food served? Does this happen in other parts of the country? Is this normal in Pittsburgh? Because this just seems really really really big. Do local people expect this or are they as shocked and awed as the rest of us? How did this tradition start? My feet want to curl up like in the wizard of oz just knowing you did all this. I’m, I’m…stunned and bow down to the master!

ps
the video worked for me

mariadnoca said:

I would say this is overwhelming, but it would be a gigantic understatement. Holee cow woman I can’t even imagine this and seeing it with my own eyes I’m still gob-smacked!

So many things come to mind: do people still eat cake? do they eat these hundred thousand cookies and still eat cake? Does there need to be/is there any other food served? Does this happen in other parts of the country? Is this normal in Pittsburgh? Because this just seems really really really big. Do local people expect this or are they as shocked and awed as the rest of us? How did this tradition start? My feet want to curl up like in the wizard of oz just knowing you did all this. I’m, I’m…stunned and bow down to the master!

ps
the video worked for me

Click to expand...

Perhaps what I'm about to write is common at wedding - I don't know. But we had a ginourmous sweet table that included 3 large gift box decorated cheesecakes and 300 or so eclairs, bon bons etc. No wedding cake - I'm not crazy over them.

Unfortunately - ours was not homemade and made with so much love.

marilynfl said:

by the way, I used that meat smasher thingee and it worked beautifully for spaghetti Bolognaise sauce. Thanks!!!

Click to expand...

It really is a wonderful thing and I have used it for some other things I just can't remember exactly what all.

deb-in-mi said:

Perhaps what I'm about to write is common at wedding - I don't know. But we had a ginourmous sweet table that included 3 large gift box decorated cheesecakes and 300 or so eclairs, bon bons etc. No wedding cake - I'm not crazy over them.

Unfortunately - ours was not homemade and made with so much love.

Click to expand...

I’ve never seen a sweets table at a wedding. Just the cake displayed.

At my most recent wedding in November, we were served a different cake than they cut. I know this because we were served prior to the cake cutting, which had me wondering since they had a full three tier cake, which would’ve served everyone — what happened to the rest of that? At my nieces wedding they had a small cake that they cut, but everyone ate cheesecake with a yummy blueberry sauce because she’s not a cake person. However, at all of these, the only sweets displayed, were the obligatory tiered cake for the photo op of cutting.

Marilyn, that cookie table was out-of-this-world fantastic! I well understand the work, planning, thought and love that went into that endeavor. Big kudos to you! The architectural theme was over the top--yours is quite the talented family. The video worked just fine for me. I also enjoyed the articles about the history of the Cookie Table. Pittsburgh definitely needs to hold another contest because your Cookie Table display would win the trophy for first place!