How to Set Up a Wedding Cookie Bar: Display + Packaging Ideas

Wedding cookies station how-to

Want a wedding bar that’s sure to spark sweet sentiments at your reception? Look no further than a Cookie Bar! Whether yours will be a fancy, formal wedding or an intimate, at-home affair, there’s a cookie buffet setup to grace the occasion. These 12 examples we’re featuring show a wide range of display styles, container choices, signage ideas, and packaging options—rustic to modern, conventional to creative. All so appealing! (*this post contains affiliate links)

12 Cookie Bar Examples to Inspire Your Own!

Which setup will suit your wedding style? You might find one among these lovely cookie stations from real weddings, caterers, and blogs.

Unique wedding cookies station or bar.

1 – Sweet and simple is the look of this milk and cookie bar from Hip Hip Hooray (photography by Naomi V Photography). Just tall glass cookie jars with pretty labels, white trays, little sacks for filling with treats, and milk in old-fashioned milk bottles and mini glasses.

2 – Another simple setup is this DIY cookie table with a vintage air, courtesy of The Cravory. As the post points out, all it takes are some pretty plates and platters, perhaps a cake stand or riser to add some height, a bunch of fresh flowers, and an assortment of cookies that serve as decoration on their own.

3 – Amidst its wide selection of full food stations for events, Leaf Catering offers this no fuss but stylish cookie station. Ideal for a midnight snack for lingering wedding guests, it provides cookie and milk choices for everyone to just take and enjoy.

4 – What a charmer this cookie display from Allison Rose Photography (via Wedding Wire) is! The secret is those rustic wooden stands with circular tiers going from large to small, so that all that cookie scrumptiousness is temptingly within reach.

5 – Here is inspiration for a more genteel, vintage-style wedding. See how classic black and white cookie jars and pastry stands, chalkboard signs and labels, a sweet jarful of flowers and a stack of vintage books create a fitting cookie table for this setting. Thanks, Barbee Cookies!

6 – Want to try a modern, minimalist look? Check out the all-white serve ware in varied heights for this simple Thumbs Cookie Dessert Bar, offered by Thumbs Cookies. And that striking graphic-style backdrop!

7 – Now, to get ideas for some delightful details, here’s a closeup view of a cookie station at a real wedding, featured on Alison Dunn Photography. Love the bands of dainty lace to hold the labels on the cookie jars.

How to present cookies at a wedding station or bar.

8 – A cozy cookie station setup is lovely for a backyard wedding, as seen on Snixy Kitchen. Elements that caught our eye are the “fishbowl” cookie container, the take-out boxes for filling with goodies, and all the wooden boxes and stands in the warm glow of candles.

9 – Similarly lovely for a garden reception is this rustic cookie display (via Pinterest) with a woodland or country feel. Note the mismatched vintage pastry stands, trays, and platters; the burlap bunting, chalkboard labels, and that darling wooden stool used as a riser!

10- Find yourselves drawn to the clean lines of the Scandinavian style? Look at this cool and clever cookie wall we found on Sami Tipi (UK). So simple yet so appealing! Just handwritten labels and some woodland trim on the top of the signage. Although of course, those delicious-looking cookies help, too!

11- If your venue has pretty features like a garden trellis, a lattice fence, or a gazebo, take advantage of it for your cookie bar setup! In this family-affair wedding we found on Love to Be in the Kitchen, the couple’s favorite cookie selections were simply set out on a table, framed by an arbor trimmed with tulle.

12- For a casual reception venue, Sweet Buffet Lady offers a milk and cookies bar package that includes milk dispensers, large glass cookie jars that you can fill with cookies from their selection, and practical plastic plates and glasses and paper napkins. Oh, and that charming retro signboard on a stand.

Steps and Tips for Setting Up a Wedding Cookie Bar

  1. The choice of cookies could be based on the couple’s sentimental favorites, heirloom recipes of family members, or specialties of their home town or their wedding destination.
  2. Prepare quantities that would allow for 3 to 6 cookies per person (depending on the size and “density” of the cookies you’ve chosen). Note: If you will be home-baking the cookies, be sure to consider make-ahead options and experiment with a “production timeline” for large quantities to avoid last-minute pre-wedding stress!
  3. Cookies without frosting or a glaze on top are best for stacking on platters, trays, or tiered stands. Those with “iced frosting” that hardens, or fillings in the center or between cookie layers would be fine, though.
  4. Labels for the different cookie types and flavors are not only pretty and practical, they are important, too—in case some guests may have food allergies.
  5. Open trays, platters, and pastry stands make it easy for guests to take their pick. But if your cookie bar will be set up outdoors, you may want to use closed jars or lidded containers.
  6. Set out cookie tongs, dessert plates, and cocktail napkins for ease of handling.
  7. Provide cello or kraft paper bags, takeout boxes, mini mason jars, or organza pouches as cookie favor packaging if you intend the cookies to be your guest favors, too.
  8. Finally, plan on serving accompanying drinks like milk, tea, coffee, juice and/or hot cocoa, depending on the season and the time of day.

Cookie Bar Supplies for Displaying, Serving, and Packaging

Planning to DIY your wedding cookie bar? Here are some basic elements you will need. Then, simply add your own touches to decorate and personalize the display!

Cookie bar wedding supplies from signs to stands.

  1. Cookie Bar Sign (frame sold separately) by Andaz Press via Amazon
  2. Deluxe Glass Cookie Jar with Metal Lid – via Amazon
  3. Anchor Hocking Penny Candy Glass Jar with Lid, 1 Gallon (Set of 2) – via Amazon
  4. Two Tiered Serving Stand – via Amazon
  5. Cookies & Kisses Mr.& Mrs. Wedding Favor Bags – via Zazzle
  6. Stainless Steel Tongs (Set of 4) – via Amazon

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