Pennsylvania Cookie Table

This is the cookie table sign we plan to display on ours. It's cute and also explains it in a more fun way. We plan to have a ton of variety because the best looking cookie tables are the ones with tons of different shapes and sizes and is more visually appealing.

My fiancé and I are both from PA (getting married in GA 😁) and a cookie table is definitely a Pennsylvania thing😂. To be honest, I think they can get a little out of hand. Sometimes there are just too many cookies, and/or not enough variety. Granted, we are still having a small cookie table, but we decided on mainly pies instead.

I am from Northeast PA and have never heard of this tradition or been to a wedding that had it. Very interesting to hear of a new PA wedding tradition!

Yes, I am from Pittsburgh and I can attest that this is definitely the norm. Our baker said that typically, each guest consumes about 4-6 cookies, so be prepared to order A LOT. We're doing 50 dozen cookies for 80 guests, and 8 different types of cookies. Usually, "to-go" bags are provided for guests to take home if there are extra, and sometimes people consider the cookies as their favors.

Here are common cookie types. (This is the order form from my baker).

This is definitely a Pittsburgh area tradition but we’re doing it at my wedding too! I’m in the Philadelphia area. My mom and her friends bake tons of cookies at Christmas so they were all excited about helping. We are still having a cake so I assume most people will take them to go, my mom made these “doggie bags” with a picture of our dog on them! For a 150 person wedding I think they’re going to make at least 10 different kinds, and probably way too many of each, knowing them! Also that second picture was from a “Pittsburgh cookie table” Facebook page... it’s insane! Just had to share!

View Quoted Comment Such a neat tradition I learned here on WW.

That cookie table is craaaaazy! 🍪 😋

Yay! It's definitely a western PA thing (your original story referenced Youngstown which is technically Ohio). Here's a photo from my cousins wedding several years ago. I've heard 6/person is a rule of thumb. We're doing 12/person because we are not doing a cake. When we made that decision, several people said "that's OK are you at least having cookies?" My lovely aunts and future sil will be baking 11 different types of cookies. Teatime tassies, thumbprints, sugar, chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, nuthorns, peanut butter meltsaways, mini cheesecake, sweet potato tart, Russian tea cake. Another aunt just gave me money to order some from a bakery so... I guess there willI be more. We will be having a sign thanking our friends and family who are baking for us. I'm also working on some takeout container that is a decent size but not huge where people can pile in a bunch to go.

Part of the beauty of the tradition is that the family members and loved ones make the cookies. We will have close to 1 dozen per guest, which is pretty typical, as they are meant to take home as well. Some tips are to start baking 3-4 months in advance and freeze them. Everyone does this, so don't worry about it, they will thaw just fine!

I just made a batch of different cookies every weekend for a few weeks and have 40 dozen of my own. It is much easier than it sounds, but the biggest tip is to keep the cookies small! Guests expect bit sized so use about half the dough you normally do. This will lead to a normal batch making about 6 dozen cookies or so.

Guests will love it! Pittsburghers will be REALLY upset if you don't have it!

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Hi ! So cute! Can I ask where she had the sticker printed?

View Quoted Comment Oh my gosh! Where did you get that doggy bag sticker?!