We have a great set of Wedgwood, it’s solid white with a fluted or checkerboard pattern pressed into the china. We use it a couple times a year, for special occasions, and it still impresses me every time we do. I can just feel the better quality, even though our everyday dishes aren’t junk.
We should use them more.
We have a full set (8 or 10 place settings, I forget). We use it probably once or twice a year, but it’s good to have for such occasions.
this upcoming summer is the first BIG wedding summers (of my peers), and i’m just floored by looking at the registries (one of brides had the gall/ball(s) to register at tiffany’s). i’d be happy with plates and cups that match, period. if there’s one thing that i don’t get about weddings (and there’s a plenty) it would be the notion of getting wedding china - especially in this day and age. seriously… quality/durable plates/silverware can be bought at a fraction of the cost at wal-mart/target/sears/bb&beyond/etc. and half the stuff we’re eating is carry out anyway. what’s the DEAL with wedding china!?
… sorry for all the ()'s,/'s, and non-capitalizations in this post. i must be a grammar nazi’s nightmare.
Since everybody’s sharing their patterns (some of those are beautiful, some are…not), here’s mine. I have, like, two complete place settings, and that’s it. It’s a discontinued pattern, so if I wanted more, I’d have to hunt around.
And at Replacements, Ltd., a dinner plate is eighty bucks, so I won’t be doing that for a while, if ever.
We had 9 place settings, 3 vegetable bowls, a platter, sugar and cream, and a gravy boat. We used two place settings on our first anniversary (and that was 20 years ago…). I always say that if I had been at bit older when I got married, I would have known that I am not fancy people.
Anyway, a few years ago I was talking with a co-worker who does ebay and goes to auctions to find her wares about my china that I never use (“Noritake Carolyn.”) Another co-worker who by chance has the same pattern and does use hers overheard us and was saying that she had 8 place settings and her kids were getting married so there would be more family at the big dinners, so I sold her everything but one vegetable bowl (I was a *bit *sentimental, I guess).
Yes, everyday. It’s not foo foo stuff though. We specifically registered for something that we would use everyday.
I see no point in fancy china, the dogs don’t appreciate it 
My MIL has some Wedgewood that my FIL brought back from England after a business trip. She never used it, but hauled it from house to house, breaking pieces along the way. About 20 years ago, she finally decided she should use it, and it was brought out a few times for special occasions. I thought it was a rather hideous pattern, but each to his own, right?
It was funny - the whole family was together having a rather uncomfortable “What to do with our stuff after we die” talk and my MIL mentioned her china. None of her sons had any idea that it was valuable, but the other daughter-in-law and I both did. However, none of us like it at all. But everyone wants the hand-made furniture my FIL has made over the years…
We’ve got 8 places of Noritake Crestwood platinum and a whole gaggle of service pieces like platters, bowls and coffee pots.
We do use it - twice this past month, actually. It’s a classic style that goes with just about anything.
I didn’t get wedding china. My everyday dishes are inexpensive, plain and popular. If I’m having a large gathering and don’t have enough, I just buy another box. I fancy up the dinner table with candles and flowers.
I do occasionally get tired of looking at them though. So I have a couple other sets that I rotate occasionally while the others go into the storage closet. They’re not expensive dishes either, though.
Nope, it is a set for 16 of Limoges from 1835. Been in the family for a few generations and to be honest, it stays packed at my parents house. I also have silver [though it was great grandfathers stuff from 1896] and crystal [antique german stuff, or at least the reciept from the 1835 shopping trip was in german]
And to top it all off, the 14th is our 20th anniversary, which is … wait for it … CHINA
Once in 22 years. Our first Thanksgiving I think it was.
We’re coming up on our 20th anniversary. We used our wedding china probably a couple times a year in the early years of our marriage. But the kitchen in the house we moved into a dozen or so years ago had limited cupboard space, so getting to the stored china was a pain, so we’ve used it maybe three times in the past dozen years. We’ve recently added some cabinets, and the china’s out where it can be used. So next time we have company for dinner, we’re using it.
How does this wedding china thing work? Do people buy special china for their wedding, or after the wedding? It sounds from a few posts that people asked for it as wedding presents. That seems like an awful expensive wedding present.
FWIW, my parents bought themselves a set of Wedgewood china when they got married. We used it daily while I was growing up, and they still use it. The only problem is that it’s old and not microwavable.
I got dishes as wedding presents and I love them. They are cheap corelle for the most part. Plain white with a slightly scalloped edge. Other things (tea pots, creamers, butter dish) are also white but not part of the set and I pick up white serving bowls/trays/platters to complete the look.
When I want to be fancy for a dinner, I make it about the tablecloth and napkins and maybe do some table decoration. Gives me all the versatility in this regard that I could possbily want. Don’t have to worry that the pink tablecloth for the baby shower I am throwing doesn’t go with my blue dishes or whatnot.
The rule when I registered for my wedding was that I wouldn’t put anything on there that I wouldn’t buy for myself under normal circumstances. Since we had practically nothing (well, lot’s of unmatched hand me downs from our parents that we obtained during university) it was a joy just to have things that all went together.
Well, your guests can pick a piece/pieces/a cup/a gravy boat/whatever off your registry. No one person is expected to buy the whole set, from what I understand.
of course, I eloped and have no wedding china, so I’m not 100% sure.
We never had wedding china. When my mother died, I inherited her good china. I grew up with it in the house, but had never eaten off of it. She wouldn’t have dreamed of using it because “What if a piece gets broken??” But I like it (it’s a lot like the ‘wedding ring’ china that others have posted links to), and I thought “What’s the point of having something nice, that I enjoy, if I’m not going to use it?”
So, every year at Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, our anniversary, whatever major celebrations are going on, the ‘good’ china comes out.
We’ve been married 22 years now and yeah, a few pieces have been broken. I’d still rather use it than not, though!
We have been married for almost 10 years. The china set in a box for the first 9 years with the exception of our first Anniversary.
Then last year the shelf in our kitchen collapsed taking with it all of our everyday plates. We retrieved the china from storage and have been using it since. Thankfully it is dishwasher safe but I wish it could go in the microwave. And yes, even the 2-yr old eats popcorn off the china.
I am glad it finally feels useful! (Lenox Solitare)
That’s how it works. You pick out your pattern, and which pieces you would like to receive (as well as the number of place settings you’d like). Gift-givers can buy a place setting (or multiple if they’re feeling flush), a serving dish, a single piece, or whatever. Given the price of most china, buying an entire set at once would be an exceptionally generous gift.
We received a number of pieces and place settings as wedding gifts; for the next few years after our wedding, we would occasionally buy additional pieces, until we’d finished out what we wanted.
We user ours about 5 or 6 times a year (holidays and birthdays).
To the OP: instead of giving away your china, why don’t you just use it as if it were regular plates? A friend of mine gave me her wedding china when she got divorced. We used it as everyday dinnerware.
Yup, sure do! it’s plain white china with a gold band. I registered for it when I got married in 1984 and it cost $10.00 a setting. I remember my late grandmother telling me that everyone was saying how smart I was in picking out reasonably priced china. I got a service for twelve at the end of it. it also lasted longer than the marriage. I didn’t have to lug it back when I moved back home, because it never left my parent’s basement. I use it when it’s my turn to host on Thanksgiving, Xmas and Easter. Also, on Sunday dinners when I have my family over, and when all the everyday dishes are in the dishwasher. I say if me and my family/friends aren’t good enough to eat off fancy china whenever I feel like it, what good is it?
