THE COOKIE TABLE

Those of us who live in the Pittsburgh area should know what a "COOKIE TABLE" is.
Do you know what a "COOKIE TABLE" is? Did you have a "Cookie Table" at your function? If you did, how long was it? What?,you say. Well,yeah - how long was your "Cookie Table"?
Some functions have 1 table, others have 2 tables. BUT - the longer the tables the more cookies you had. Let me tell you we had loooonnggg tables for my wedding and all of my sons!
What would a wedding be without a "COOKIE TABLE"? People looked forward to taking small paper plates filled with cookies for home when they left. (I hate using the word "FUNCTION: because they were mostly made for weddings.) You never had a store bought cookie on the table, that would be a cardinal sin.
As soon as the meal was done, everyone could not wait to make their way to the cookies. They would fill little plates sky high with cookies to take back to their table. People would rather have the cookies than have the Wedding Cake"! There would be both men and women gathering cookies for their plate. After all, it's not very often that you get to indulge in all the different kinds of cookies.
They still have "Cookie Tables" for today's weddings. It's a tradition, a Pittsburgh tradition thats been going on for years and years. A lot of people might have "cookie tables" for Wedding Anniversary's. Not so much for wedding or baby showers that I know of.
When people got married back in '6oty's, the ceramony (Mass)was held @ 10 am. At my wedding we then went to a resturant for breakfast. Of course, as custom, the wedding party went driving around town beeping the horns as long as they could. After doing that for awhile we went to the Photographer's Studio for formal picture taking. Our reception started at 7pm & went on till 11 or so. The Bride & Groom left after the Bridal Dance, around 10.
That's how it was back in the day. Weddings were a all day affair, We also had a live band, a polka band - so fun!
I remember when my parents were planning for my wedding. Cookies were made in advance by them, aunts, friends,and cousins.
Every kind imaginable. Italian Cookies, Polish Cookies, they were all mostly ethinic. I can't remember seeing one chocolate chip or peanut butter cookie.
I remember Nut Horns, Apricot Horns,and Pitzells along with all different kind of fancy cookies. They still cut our wedding cake. and the tradition at that time was to have a money dance where people danced a short, very short dance with the bride, then dropped a bill in the maid of honor's little purse. People would than be offered a piece of wedding cake wrapped in a heavy paper napkin. The woman could either take it home to put under her pillow to sleep on if she were single, or to eat it there. The guys would get a shot of whiskey or if they declined the shot then they got cake. No matter what, everyone got a piece of wedding cake when they left. The pieces were wrapped in a paper napkin and laid out on a dish by the exit door. The cookies tables were pushed by there also.

I had a Firehall wedding. The same people that made the cookies made all the food. So much food, it was unbelievable. They too were the servers at the firehall. All my mom's friends were the ones serving and cleaning up. The bartenders were friends of Ron's, except for Ray, a guy I went with for a couple of years who wanted to bartend.
My wedding was different then most because we had a uninvited guest - a tornado hit the town and our reception was cut very, very short but the main thing was that no one got injured.

Today's weddings are different and much easier for the parents as far as the food goes. They usually have it catered