US town makes largest wedding cookie table with over 1,300 plates and 88,000 cookies

Have you ever walked into a wedding reception, and suddenly you spot it – the holy grail, the piece de resistance, perhaps even the very reason you came to the whole shebang…the wedding cookie table.

Truly a thing of beauty, the wedding cookie table is a classic gift from the wedding party to their guests – here, thank you for celebrating our love, now go nuts on the piles and plates of cookies we’ve brought.

And if you’re a fellow cookie lover, who also gets overjoyed at the sight of that cookie table, then you have to respect the town of Monongahela, Pennsylvania, USA, for their incredible effort on 11 August 2019.

To celebrate their town’s 250th anniversary – and to throw a memorable party for the three marriage ceremonies and three vow renewals that occurred that day – the Monongahela Area Historical Society invited Guinness World Records to witness their largest wedding cookie table event.

These incredible professional and home bakers brought 1,308 distinct “plates” of cookies to spread out across 140 tables in Chess Park, free for anyone attending the celebration. A total of 88,425 cookies were counted at the event, and leftover cookies were donated to 412 Food Rescue.

According to local news, the idea for the wedding cookie table came from Laura Magone, president of Monongahela Area Historical Society, which organized the weekend’s events. She is also an administrator of the widely popular Wedding Cookie Table Community on Facebook, where members share photos, cookie recipes and baking tips. After seeing the large number of people that showed up, Magone said they were “overwhelmed” with the response.

“A wedding cookie table is a celebration of our ethnic heritage and our blue collar roots,” Magone said. “I’ve wanted to hold an event like this for years, but it all came together whenever Monongahela celebrated its 250th.”

An attorney in the town, James W. Haines Jr., said an estimated 4,000 people came to the event.

“There were 30 sworn-in, affidavit-signed cookie counters,” Haines said.

Among the people who contributed cookies was a local science centre, family home-bakers, school groups, and more. 

“This is my hometown, and this is something that’s important to me so that everybody can see what a great community this is,” Magone said.

After the count was complete, the town celebrated with some live music, dancing, and by chowing down on their cookies. 

From the cookies that were left behind, bags and boxes were sold to attendees to raise money for the Monongahela Area Historical Society. While they could have sold them all based on the enormous turnout, 10,000 were reserved to ensure a large donation of cookies to 412 Food Rescue, which provides food to first responders and local area victims of tragedies.

So cheers to this sweet moment!