Wedding Cake — and Tons of Homemade Cookies!

Every reception has a wedding cake (or two). Some have chocolate fountains. A few have a whole dessert table. (Good thing calories don’t count at weddings :>)

But last weekend, I got to experience something that is common in Pittsburgh (read my blog entry about that) but I have never seen before at a Chicago area wedding — tons of homemade cookies!

We ate the refreshingly moist wedding cake. Then, as the evening went on, I heard people wonder out loud, “When are the cookies going to be served?”

Now, in Pittsburgh, a bunch of the couple’s relatives bake and bake and bake more cookies.

At the Westin Chicago Northwest in Itasca last weekend, we all ate the cookies of one woman — Karen. There were, I don’t know, 100 of 7 different kinds of cookies! All made from scratch in the previous 3 days.

Karen is known for her cookies. When she shows up at some place, everyone wants to know if she brought cookies. If she can not make an event, they want to know if she can send cookies anyway! I now know why. They are amazing.

Best yet — Karen brought bags for us to take cookies home.  People joked about having gallon bags to tote them home in. “Take two bags,” Karen told me. I just took one really full quart size bag. And shared them with my wife. And ate more.

It was a labor of love. Karen and the bride’s parents have been good friends for decades. Their daughters have been good friends since age six.

Cupcakes (instead of a Wedding Cake)

An increasing trend, one I like, is to have cupcakes for the dessert at the wedding reception — instead of cake.

Sometimes, the couple will have a really small cake — just to be able to cut it and feed it to each other. See it at the top of this tower? But most often, it’s just cupcakes.

You can do so many more flavors. (My wife said I could choose any flavor for our wedding cake — as long as it was a white cake :>) This presents so many more color combinations. The groom wore a gold colored vest and tie. The cupcakes matched the theme. (Brides, wearing white, don’t have many options, color-wise.)

This couple got married last weekend on the top (open) deck on the Odyssey Boat at Navy Pier. It is, likely, my last outdoor wedding of the year. Considering that it was lower 50′s and windy (but no rain), that’s fine by me and most guests.