When we got married in 97, we registered at Macy’s and Crate and Barrel. Neither store had silverplate, much less sterling. At the time, I was a little annoyed by that, because I felt like I was supposed to be registering for silver. However, I’m not sad that I don’t have it. We acquired some silverplate from some relative at some time, but I don’t think it’s ever been out of it’s box.
ETA: Macy’s appears to have silver now, at least online. Holy shit, that’s a lot of money for flatware. Anyway, the particular store we registered at back in the day didn’t have silver, but we also weren’t in the posh end of town.
I know people who do that - cutlery only, mind! Silver goes right in the washing machine just like steel, and it gets de-tarnished every couple of months.
See, once upon a time I bought a set of silverplate for cheap, and put it through the dishwasher like regular stainless. After about a year it began to pit and bloom and no polish will fix it. And that’s why I really don’t want silver.
I never had a hope chest, a registry, or, for that matter, a wedding - we eloped.
I have a set of silver that my dad had given his mother and she passed to me. I have no good china, nor did I ever have any. For a brief period in my life, I was shopping for some, but it made no sense - the type of entertaining I do works just fine with Corelle.
My daughter didn’t ask for or get silver when she married either.
We got married in 2009. We didn’t even register for any, because a) it’s too freaking expensive, even silverplate; and b) it just wasn’t that important to us. (And it’s a bitch to keep clean.) My mom has a set (my grandparents were antique dealers, and they painstakingly collected a set for her), and if I’m lucky maybe I’ll inherit it someday. Otherwise, I’m just not seeing it being a priority for the foreseeable future, though I might go crazy if I saw a reasonably priced set at a flea market or estate sale or something.
To answer the OP, no, I didn’t receive any sterling as a wedding gift.
I have my great grandmother’s wedding sterling, we use it most holidays. I love how it looks, but has a slightly “off” size, which makes it weird to use for everyday. It’s a liitle oversized, so it always makes me feel like I’m eating with serving pieces.
We also have family Limoges, and that is in everyday use. I don’t mind washing it at all. I sort of enjoy it, actually, I love looking at it, using it, and handling it. And it reminds me of my Nana.
It’s not unheard-of for a bride to pick a pattern and register for it, and receive a few pieces. Then people give it as gifts for other occasions down the line, and/or they purchase a piece or two at a time themselves.
We had a tiny wedding and didn’t register anywhere… OTOH, I wound up inheriting my aunt’s silver from the 1940s, so I didn’t need to get silver.
Re every-day use: the biggest thing is that you have to be careful if you put it in the dishwasher - I’ve heard that if you also have stainless flatware, it’ll damage the silver. No cite for this, however. But we wash the silver by hand when we use it.
It had never occurred to me to register for silver! When I got married (an elopement) my husband and mother in law produced dishes and cutlery for our home without my input. (and I am still a bit resentful I never did get to pick out the china pattern, the wineglasses, the silvah! in the same way I’m bummed I never got to shop for a wedding gown, either.) We just never lived a Martha Stewart lifestyle where silver was brought out for the Big Jolly Holiday Dinner, along no doubt with the Special Holiday China. I do have a few bits and pieces of silver. I don’t mind washing or cleaning it, so if I was gifted with sterling silver at this late date - bring it! (and Wedgwood Wild Strawberry china pattern would be lovely, too.)
I inherited both my grandmother’s silver and my mother’s china. They’ve both been sitting in the dining room hutch, untouched, for the last 25 or so years.
As a kid my mother used both maybe twice a year, whenever we hosted relatives for a non-holiday dinner? (We always went somewhere else for the major holidays; my parents were never big on entertaining).
I have no use for either. Nobody is going to inherit either from me. I’m very tempted to sell both, but 1) I don’t know where, and 2) I’ve already been told the antique market here is glutted with china because a lot of people feel the way I do.
We have a set of silver – my wife inherited it from her maternal grandmother. Had we not gotten that, I’m sure that we would have registered for a pattern as part of our wedding-gift registry. We did register a china pattern, and received a number of pieces of that as wedding gifts.
We probably use the silver three or four times a year. We use the china a little less often, because one of the times we use the silver is around the holidays, and my wife has a separate set of Christmas china.
I have my mom’s china (Lynbrook - Noritake), sterling (Prelude - International) and crystal (Cherokee Rose - Tiffin) all in service for 12, plus the attendant serving pieces/dishes. She was married in 1948 and this embarrassment of riches was received - sometimes in 1-piece gifts (I have her bridal shower lists and all - “1 teaspoon - Miss MaryPat Cliburn” or whatever) The sterling is monogrammed, which is kinda neat. The only thing I don’t have is a coffee/tea service - about $10K for the tea service & about $1700 for the coffee pot at replacements.com. I use it whenever I have people over for dinner - it really makes the table beautiful.
I registered for stainless & every day china when I was married in 1985…still have it, still use it.
Most people now register for stainless or sterling plate. It’s rare for anyone to get silver new. A full 66 piece set is around $15k. I have a rather old set around the house that was believed to be sterling, but it plate.
This could very well be it, especially because there is a lone fork rattling around in the box that is on a smaller scale, so that makes me wonder if my grandmother somehow ended up with one luncheon size piece. It’s weird because to my modern hands, the little fork feels much too small (and it’s not a fish fork or anything specialty that would naturally be smaller), and the big forks feel much too big, like a prop designed to make an adult look like a little kid.
A few years ago, I got tired of my Target/KMart/Walmart flatwear and went out and splurged on a nice stainless set. I realized that most people have this stuff because they got married, so it’s either passed down as inheritance or part of a wedding gift. Because I didn’t get married, there was no registry, I will still using the same flatwear I bought when I struck out on my own at 22. I thought, “What the hell, there probably isn’t ever going to be a wedding at this point, so why should I wait to use decent silver? How 'bout I get rid of all this cheap plastic Chinese crap and invest in something nice? What am I waiting for?”
So yeah, the leftover pizza is all that much more delicious when eaten with expensive stainless flatwear. I already have a job, so I didn’t even consider sterling. (Can’t be bothered to polish silver.)
That stainless will last you the rest of your life, quite possibly!
in 1978, I worked a summer job at a store that paid in cash. So I’d have to go down the hall on my lunch break and deposit my pay at a bank in the same mall. They were running a deal where you got a place-setting of Oneida stainless flatware for 5 bucks if you made a deposit.
I still have that stuff and it’s held up beautifully.
We did get a set of flatware for our wedding, but it was gold plate, not silver–my grandmother got it for us. I don’t use it very often, but it makes the table seem very special when I do. (My mom is about to give me her china, which has gold edging and a gold rose design in the center. I think my gold flatware will go very nicely with it!)