If You Give a Guest a Cookie

When Mr. Pineapple and I visited our first venue the hostess kept mentioning wonderful places to put our cookie table. Our cookie table? Weddings have cookie tables?

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Apparently so. The wedding cookie tradition is very popular, and thought to have originated, in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Cookie tables are also common in West Virginia, Virginia, New York, New Jersey and Delaware. The tradition is that the women in the bride's family (her mother, aunts, sisters, grandmothers etc) bake cookies using recipes that have been within the family for years. We are not just talking a couple cookies here either, usually each lovely lady bakes several dozen.

The origin of the tradition is largely unknown. It is thought to have begun with Italian and Roman Catholic weddings during the height of the steel-mill industry. Presently, the tradition sees no religious or cultural boundaries and hardly a wedding takes place in western Pennsylvania without cookies.

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I love these cookies and milk featured on The Bride's Cafe. These shot glasses of milk topped with a cookie would be adorable snacks at the end of the reception. Mr. Pineapple also likes this idea and I think it would be a great twist on the Pittsburgher tradition. We have not yet decided if we are going to partake in the tradition, but I have a feeling that once it is mentioned, our western PA relations will say something along the lines of, "What?! You can't have a wedding without cookies!!"

Mrs. Gardenia also had a cookie buffet at her wedding in lieu of the popular candy buffet.

How are you incorporating quirky regional traditions into your wedding?