I’m really excited to share these with you today – they were definitely one of my favorite personal touches of the wedding, and I was so proud with how they turned out.  Leading up to the wedding I probably got asked 100 times if I was going to make my own wedding cake, and 100 times I rolled my eyes and said of course not!  But little did they know until the big day that I did make my own escort card cookies, about 90 of them.  I knew my guests would be expecting a little something special in the baked goods department, and I think we definitely delivered with a killer dessert table all put together by one of our favorite local bakeries (Truffles in Farmington), but I wanted to add a little something Sweet Tooth to the evening as well.  So instead of a simple card with each guests name telling them their table number, I made sugar cookies with royal icing in true dessert blogger fashion!  Here’s my Mom and Dad’s cookie front and center:

The reason I was willing to take on this project is that sugar cookies keep SO well in the freezer (and because I’m crazy).  I was able to make the 100+ cookies (extras for potential mess-ups) a month in advance, and keep them in the freezer until a week before the wedding.  This took some stress off the thought of baking and decorating so many cookies so close to the wedding.  And for decoration I kept it simple.  I ordered edible image printouts from Tasty Foto Art with each guest’s name, the word “Table” underneath, and a flower detail that matched all of the paper goods from the wedding.  This way I could do all of that ahead of time, and just write in the table numbers with an edible marker once the seating arrangements were all done (and any bride knows this can be quite a headache up until the last minute!).  A little less than a week before the wedding I thawed the cookies, applied the edible images, and piped a simple yellow border of royal icing around each one.  After setting overnight, I was able to add the table numbers and wrap each one up with a ribbon.  I definitely couldn’t have done the job as quickly and easily without the help of my Mom and friend Colleen – they were lifesavers!

For the presentation of the cookies at the wedding, my Dad helped me construct a huge frame that allowed all the cookies to hang in rows.  The frame was a big mirror I found at Goodwill, and so we took out the mirror, staple-gunned some chicken wire in, and my Dad built the sturdy stand.  The ribbon around each cookie also had a small hook attached so they could easily hang from the wire.  The overall effect was very impressive – and I love that it was truly a family affair!  Ryan even helped by cutting all the ribbon and bending the hooks to make them easier to hang.  After initially dreaming these up early on in the planning process, I never imagined how well they would turn out.  With some careful planning and a lot of help I was able to carry out my vision and leave a lasting impression with our guests.  I will always treasure the memories I have doing wedding projects with my family and friends almost as much as the memories from the wedding itself!

Here is a link to the sugar cookie and royal icing recipe I always use.  I did 2 triple batches of cookies to make sure I had plenty of extras in case I messed up, and I did 1 triple batch of the royal icing to be safe too.  The borders were piped with a medium star tip and as I said before, I got the edible images printed and delivered from Tasty Foto Art.