Marriage and cookies

Today is my one-year anniversary. On this day 365 days ago, I married my best friend, the man who has stood beside me for six years and has promised to stand beside me forever. The man I long-distance dated for three years before we finally ended up together in Florida, then got engaged, then planned a long-distance wedding. Needless to say, November 15, 2008, is a day I will never forget, for many reasons.

We live at least 1,000 miles away from our friends and family. Our wedding day was a rare chance to get everyone together, and in that blending of families and brief time of togetherness, I chose to highlight a tradition that was a nod to my Pittsburgh roots: The Cookie Table.

We had wedding cake. We had a decadent raspberry cheesecake as the groom's cake (and incidentally, the groom nearly didn't get a piece of it!). But the thing people have been talking about all year is our Cookie Table.

I first heard of the Cookie Table starting as a Pittsburgh tradition. Really, a western PA tradition. As I started to propose having our own Cookie Table, I received arguments that it was a Youngstown tradition. After doing some research, I found evidence to support both sides. The bottom line for me was that this Pittsburgh-born, Ohio-bred, Florida-living, Columbus-marrying bride was having a Cookie Table. No argument there.

And the basic premise of the Cookie Table holds true no matter where the tradition started. For me, it meant having friends and family (both my own and my soon-to-be husband's) bringing cookies to bridge all the parts of our lives together. Meghan brought cookies from Phoenix. My friend Stef brought cookies from Florida. My sister made some treats. My college suitemate made some yummy cupcakes, among other things. There were cookies from various pieces of our lives, and the eatin' was good. We had a brief period of time between the ceremony and reception, and guests were invited to munch on cookies in the downtime. I put out a short, framed explanation of what the Cookie Table was, and the cookies were all labeled with the name of the baked good, as well as ingredient warnings for people who might be allergic or avoid things like nuts, coconut, peanut butter and other such things.

I love how the Cookie Table represented the caring nature of our friends and family on our special day. After all, when you go to a wedding, you expect to take a gift and get all the good things that go along with a reception: food, drink, cake, dancing. So for us to ask our loved ones to go above and beyond and bring an offering to this Cookie Table on our special day ... it just really makes me warm and fuzzy when I think about how generous the people in our lives are.

And I love the fact that many friends and brides-to-be since then have told me how much they love the idea of a Cookie Table, and I'd like to think it's a tradition that will continue to be passed down along the lines of our wedding guests and others who have seen photos or heard stories about the Cookie Table.

Today I remember my wedding - from the early morning wakeup to the last-minute details, and from the vows I made to the man I married (love you, babe!), but I cannot forget the cookies :)