How to Serve Cookies for Weddings

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Youngstown, Ohio, cookie tables--long buffet tables filled with dozens of artistically arranged cookie trays and platters--are a wedding tradition. Elsewhere around the country, wedding planners create cookie bars where several cookie varieties and accompaniments like milk are served. Whether you're planning to have a cookie table, cookie bar, or simply trays of cookies to be served with dessert at your reception, here are some helpful tips for serving cookies for weddings.

Tips for Serving Cookies for Weddings

• Confirm with the reception or party venue that you're allowed to bring in outside food, including cookies. Many wedding venues require purchasing in-house catering with the location rental and won't allow outside caterers. Even if that's the case, the venue management may permit you to bring in cookies.
• Calculate how many cookies you'll need. The general rule of thumb is to have between 3-6 cookies per person depending on whether there will be appetizers or other desserts served.
• Make a list of the types of cookies you want served and gather your favorite recipes. Aim for about 10 varieties, which will be more than enough options for wedding guests to choose from. It's also easier to make several dozen of the same few recipes than it is to make dozens of cookies from several different recipes.
• Ask friends and family to help with the baking. Assign those who offer to provide cookies the kinds and number of cookies you need from them.
• For icings, use food coloring that matches the wedding colors.
• Bake and freeze homemade cookies ahead. Freeze them on baking trays initially before transferring them to freezer bags and containers to save space. (Buy lots of freezer bags and containers.)
• Decorate baggies to have by the cookie displays or at guests' tables so they can take cookies with them when they leave. Cookies can also be pre-bagged and given to guests as party favors.

Wedding Reception Cookies Ideas

Cookies By Design Wedding Cookie Favors

Artfully hand-decorated treats shaped as double-hearts, wedding bells, hearts, and wedding cakes customized in the color combination of your choice.

Heart Cookies

They're not just for Valentine's Day.

Pecan Tassies

Cute and delicious bite-sized pecan pies.

Lemon Squares

Tart, rich, and pretty.

Lace Cookies

Baked thin and crisp to create elegant treats.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Tender, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread with a fruity center.

Cigarettes Russes

A French treat; light, crisp cookies formed into tubes and dipped in chocolate.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

A good old-fashioned treat like Grandma used to make.

Pinwheels

Fun spirals of different flavored doughs.

Linzer Cookies

A traditional sandwich cookie with a tender texture and subtle nutty flavor.

Biscotti

Italian almond cookies twice-baked, oblong-shaped, dry, crunchy, and made for dipping in a drink like coffee.

Chocolate Thumbprints

A buttery cookie filled with a sweet ganache or topped with a Kiss.

Meringue Drops

Puffy and fragile on the outside, moist and soft on the inside.

Knot Cookies

Italian farfallette dolci cookies made especially for weddings.

Almond Horns

Horseshoe-shaped crescents with a moist and chewy interior and crunchy almond coating.

Kolachke

A Central European wedding dessert, the kolachke or kolach is a puffy pillow of dough holding a dollop of fruit.

French Macarons

Trendy, sweet meringue-based confections that can be customized with flavors and colors.

Macaroons

Not to be confused with macarons, macaroons are coconut-based.

Magic Bars

Also known as Hello Dollys, these multi-layered cookie bars are loaded with coconut, chocolate, and nuts.

Mini Whoopie Pies

Is it cookie? Is it cake? Is it pie? However you classify these cream-filled cakey sandwiches, they're fun and delicious.

Mexican Wedding Cookies

Buttery balls coated in white confectioners' sugar.

Sandwich Cookies

Two cookies held together with a creamy center.

Peanut Butter Cookies

A kid-friendly classic.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

A decadent dessert for guests to indulge in.

Want more wedding cookie ideas? Cookies By Design offers quick delivery of customized cookie centerpieces for bridal showers and wedding tables, cookie cards for guests and wedding parties, and wedding cookie favors.