Cookie Table Question

firegirl1013

I'm planning on having a cookie table at my wedding (and yes I am from the Pittsburgh area) and I have a question about how many cookies we should plan to have. 

A little background info: 

We are expecting roughly 200 people at the wedding

We will have cold appetizers (veggies, cheese and crackers) 

The cookies will be out and available from the beginning to the end of the reception including during the cocktail/appetizer hour

We are having cupcakes as our wedding cake, so everyone will be given a cupcake (or a box to put their cupcake in)

We are also having a candy buffet as our favors, although the candy buffet will not be available until after dinner. 

We plan on having small bags available for guests to put cookies in to take home with them 

My main question is how many cookies should we plan to have at the wedding? I've heard the recommended is 3 to 4 per person, but wanted to double check. My FMIL is insisting she is going to make 100 dozen cookies, which translates to 6 cookies per person. That seems like a lot to me especially because my FMIL is not the only one making cookies. We have about 5 different people who have offered to make cookies and I don't want us to be overwhelmed with cookies!

kmmssg

In our family (both sides) 6 cookies per person would evaporate in a heartbeat.  DH and his 5 brothers and all their sons would make sure those cookies when to a really good home.  I realize not everyone will eat or take 6 but I would think there could be others who would make up for that.  

I do think that 2 bazillion dozen cookies AND a candy buffet is overload.  Maybe knock it back to the 4-5 per person on the cookies and don't plan on having people take some home as a favor since you have the candy bar.

Now the fact that OTHERS are also making cookies comes into play here too.  How many are they making?  Her 100 dozen and theirs could put you into cookie overload.

I would love to go to a Pittsburgh wedding just for the cookie table.  My DH has a computer geek buddy from Pittsburgh he has never met, but they trouble shoot for each other all the time.  Every year his friend's mom sends DH a box of her famous oatmeal raisin cookies.  They are ginormous and she is even known as "The Cookie Lady."

I do wonder about having a candy bar as well as wanting to have cookies for guests to take home.  My oldest DD did a candy buffet and my DD getting married in June is having a cookie buffet -  the two together in a generous amount may be a bit too much.

I guess there are worse things than having too many cookies leftover since they freeze awesome.  I would be so sad if I had a bunch of cookies in my freezer.....really....no, really......I lie.

tammym1001

I just wanted to add that I also think it depends on the kind of cookie. If they are huge chocolate chip cookies then no I wouldn't think you need that many, but if they are smaller cookies like spritz cookies or something then you could need more.

firegirl1013

Thank you for the input @kmmssg! I never actually knew that cookie tables were a Pittsburgh/Western PA thing until I started planning my wedding...I've always taken cookie tables for granted that every wedding in the world had them. 

Any wedding I have been to has had the cookie table as well as actual favors, usually a small bag of hershey kisses, container of mints or a variety of candies in a baggy as the favor. That's why I'm doing the candy bar in addition to the cookie table, so that guests have the favor on top of their dessert. 

You do bring up a great point that since people will probably be eating from the cookie table and the candy buffet I may not need as many cookies. The other cookie makers are making roughly 10 to 20 dozen cookies each.

mysticl

My family is from New Castle, PA.  The guideline I was always given is a dozen per a guest.  It is expected that there will be leftovers for the guests to take home with them.  

csuave

I've heard 4-6 per guest as the rule of thumb and to go on the higher side of that range if you have take home boxes.  I would go with about 6-8 per guest.

Are your bags actually small?  If they will easily fit more than 6 cookies then you could go through cookies a lot faster.  I went to a wedding that had nice little plastic bags with handles.  You could easily fit 10-12 in a bag and you know I was filling that baby up...

 

daria24

Oh lord the cookie tables I've seen people easily take a dozen or more. It depends on how much variety you have. If you only have 6 flavors, people will probably only take 6. But my cousin's wedding had about 15 different cookies, so people took close to that many.

mysticl

daria24 said:

Oh lord the cookie tables I've seen people easily take a dozen or more. It depends on how much variety you have. If you only have 6 flavors, people will probably only take 6. But my cousin's wedding had about 15 different cookies, so people took close to that many.

There was a ton of variety at mine, we also had whoopie pies on the cookie table.  We got to our reception about a half hour into the cocktail hour and the peanut butter blossoms were already gone as well as at least one other type.    

AprilH81

mysticl said:

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daria24 said:

Oh lord the cookie tables I've seen people easily take a dozen or more. It depends on how much variety you have. If you only have 6 flavors, people will probably only take 6. But my cousin's wedding had about 15 different cookies, so people took close to that many.

There was a ton of variety at mine, we also had whoopie pies on the cookie table.  We got to our reception about a half hour into the cocktail hour and the peanut butter blossoms were already gone as well as at least one other type.    

I would take/eat ALL of the Peanut Butter Blossoms.  Those are my favorites!

theartistformerlyknownas

Holy moly. Apparently I need to move to Pittsburgh. 

QueerFemme

We had a cookie table for about 130 guests.  We easily did 6-8 cookies per person, and we also had brownies and lemon bars and a candy buffet.   there were leftovers, but it wasn't an extreme amount.

 

Llikotdesserd

Buy some boxes of Girl Scout cookies and add them in, without adding anything to the baking schedule!

Lizzieyounce

Dang.  I wish I'd had a cookie table at my wedding, and I'm not even from Pittsburg.  I think that cookie table should be a wedding tradition EVERYWHERE.

kristinick2014

My aunt is making all of the cookies for our wedding.  I believe she is doing roughly a dozen per person, but she doesn't make huge cookies either.  The few that I know she will be making are p.b. blossoms, chocolate chip, peanut butter, gobs (aka whoopie pies as others call them), Italian wedding cookies, pizzelles, p.b. cup cookies, nutella brownies, apricot filled, clothespins cookies (aka cream horns), pecan tassies, I know there are more, but I can't think of what they are right off the top of my head what else is being made.

Alikat9614

This reminds me, I need to ask my venue about bringing in cookies. We have to have the dinner catered by the venue, but we have to get the cake from and outside bakery. I wonder if their is a rule about homemade cookies? I am from originally from Northeast Ohio (now in VA) and we always have cookie tables at our family weddings. A lot of my family comes from the Pittsburgh area, so I guess that is why. I think we tend to average 6-8 pp, plus cake and wrapped candy favors.