BEST. WEDDING TRADITION. EVER.

 I learned something new this weekend : In the greater Pittsburgh area, it is not " how was the wedding ?" it is " how were the cookies ?! " From this vantage point, I can tell you that the Cochran - Zwelling wedding was a major success!

 From the December 15th 2009 NYT :

LIKE brides and bridegrooms the world over, the ones in this city and nearby towns bask in the glory of the white dress, the big kiss and the first dance.

But then, a large number of them happily cede the spotlight to a cookie. Or a few thousand of them.

For as long as anyone here can remember, wedding receptions in Pittsburgh have featured cookie tables, laden with dozens of homemade old-fashioned offerings like lady locks, pizzelles and buckeyes. For weeks ahead — sometimes months — mothers and aunts and grandmas and in-laws hunker down in the kitchen baking and freezing. Then, on the big day, hungry guests ravage the buffet, piling plates high and packing more in takeout containers so they can have them for breakfast the next day.

No one knows for sure who started the tradition, or why it hasn’t exactly taken hold outside this region. Many people credit Italian and Eastern European immigrants who wanted to bring a bit of the Old Country to the big day in the New World. Given that many of them were already well practiced at laying out a Christmas spread, baking 8 to 10 times as many treats for a few hundred special friends and relatives may not have seemed like such a stretch.

But even amid the increasing professionalization of the wedding, with florists mimicking slick arrangements ripped from Martha Stewart’s magazines and wedding planners scheduling each event down to the minute, the descendants of those Pittsburgh settlers continue to haul their homemade cookies into the fanciest hotels and wedding venues around the city. For many families today, it would be bordering on sacrilege to do without the table.  ( THE REST  )

 Two huge tables COVERD in just every kind of cookie you can think of - with plates! AND there was LOTS of back up...

 Amanda's Mom, Aunts, family etc all have been baking and baking and baking...

 You can sort of see how big they were, and they never ever, even after all those people eating and eating and eating got empty,  and there were two tables, with different cookies!

and AND you got to go boxes.....