The Age-Old Registry Debate

It's a timeless bridal debate...should you or shouldn't you register for fine china, crystal and silver? In some cases brides are lucky enough to have a beautiful set handed down to them from earlier generations. In others, a couple may think the whole idea is just silly. Either way, it is definitely a personal decision. We (okay, it was mostly me) decided to register for fine china. I left off the crystal and fine silver, however. We were well stocked with glassware long before our wedding planning days, so it didn't seem necessary to have Waterford goblets gifted and put directly in storage.

Our home decorating style is a mixture of old and new. It's definitely more on the vintage spectrum. If I could afford to buy all of my home items at Anthropologie, I would. Unfortunately that is not the case. I tend to mix it up with both budget friendly and higher end items. I live at HomeGoods, which is the "home" version store of T.J.Maxx. If you haven't gone yet, plan a trip soon...very, very soon. My friends joke that employees at all HomeGoods know my Mom and I by name when we walk in the door. It's almost true. 

So, when it came to finding a china pattern, I only had one prerequisite: it had to be unique! I ended up falling in love with all of the Martha Stewart collections at Macy's. The prices were surprisingly reasonable too. I ended up doing something that most brides would not consider - mixing and matching two patterns. As previously blogged, we went with Martha's "Garland Moss" and "French Knot" sets (5 of each). We also went with gold accents versus silver. There's something about yellow gold... I can't get enough of it. I love the old-world look it has.

So, next up was finding coordinating accessories. A girl needs matching forks and knives to eat with, right? We already had everyday stainless steal ones, so I wasn't sure that I wanted to invest in something super expensive (or that needed to be polished!). Who would keep them shiny? Then there were the "gold" options. There are not many out there, and from what I could find, none were budget friendly. I ended up finding an absolute charm of a set on Macy's website (pictured below)...stainless steal with a hint of gold. Even better was the price tag, $89 for a full set of 45 pieces. I went with napkins and bamboo place mats from Crate and Barrel. The napkin rings are from Bed, Bath & Beyond. I couldn't resist the pretty glass decanters at CB either. The fancy flutes pictured below were something that my mom and I found at HomeGoods. They're a great addition...and we've actually used them to drink from too!

That's where the irony of the whole situation comes in. I don't like to cook. I'm not bad at it, I just don't have the time to enjoy it. That said, I'm determined to have at least one dinner party in my lifetime so I can break out all of this fancy stuff. Other than that, my fine china will do it's job looking beautiful on display. I mean, that's kinda why I registered for it. I'm not gonna lie. How about you? Did you register for fine china? Or are you currently debating the decision? How often do you break out your special occasion dinnerware? I'd love to hear from some readers...