PHOTOS BY PHOTOS BY JUST JESS

A cookie table at a Pittsburgh wedding is more than dessert, it can be a centerpiece — and presentation is key.

When Morgan Stout was planning her wedding to Matt Paris for Sept. 30, she wasn’t worried about the details: “as long as I have a really great cookie table.”

With family and friends baking and buying more than 2,000 cookies, Morgan and Matt had to plan carefully for the set up for their reception at Bella Terra Vineyards.

The venue typically places cookie tables right before the barn doors. Two rustic barrels hold up a dark, wood board, making for a warm and welcoming entrance to the reception. 

“The cookie table is the first thing you see. I think it kind of set the vibe,” Morgan says.

Morgan’s mom searched Amazon for tiering systems to fit everything on one table, and the staff at Bella Terra and Morgan’s wedding coordinator, Alyson Huth of Hello Productions, didn’t waste any space.

“I don’t know how they did it, but they managed to squeeze all 2,000 cookies on the table,” Morgan says.

Morgan’s parents, Jennifer and Kevin Stout, her grandmother, Lorraine, and her godmother, Sherry Pawloski, made a colorful and delectable cookie table full of variety with to-go boxes on hand. Homemade offerings included pizzelles, cream wafers, coconut macaroons, pecan tassies and Russian tea cakes. Matt’s mother provided buckeyes, strawberry pinwheel cookies, strawberry pretzel salad cookies and more from Annie’s Gourmet Cupcakes, and Morgan’s mom chose Morgan’s favorite, lady fingers, and peach cookies from Anita’s Sweet Escape Cookies & Sweet Treats.

The elegant but simple brass trays and tiers fit the vintage details of their wedding such as brass candle holders, literary couples on the table numbers and book pages for table runners. 

“The theme of our wedding was like, literary-themed,” Morgan says. “We were both English majors in college, which is where we met.” 

PHOTOS BY LAVENDER LEIGH PHOTOGRAPHY

Becca VanRyzin and Andrew Hanus had a bolder take on a vintage cookie table for their wedding at the Heinz History Center, also in September.

“The theme was probably always going to be antique tools and signs, very vintage, because that’s what my entire house looks like,” Becca says.

“The second we saw the venue in combination with who she is, it was a no-brainer,” Andrew says. The couple added to the decor from their own collections, including antique pieces from Andrew’s grandfather.

Becca and Andrew’s cookie table displayed antique trays, Edison bulbs, and the Pittsburgh bridges to share the sweets and the city’s history with guests. Two 8-foot-tall arches made of pipes gave their cookie table a dynamic element, and the bridges perfectly crossed the cookies over to the wedding cake, made by Becca’s younger sister.

The couple offered a variety of sweets including Italian peach cookies, lady fingers and pizzelles. Their friends and family’s “labor of love” was shared through the baklava and a rainbow tower of macaroons made by Becca’s sister, Rachel.

Rachel made mini ice cream cone cookies and personal cookies for the wedding party that were replicas of their outfits. Cookies in the shape of Pennsylvania topped it off. 

The table smoothly blended into the venue, filled with artifacts and industrial history. “We’re ‘90s babies. All of our friends felt like they were back into their own childhood,” Becca says.