Did you Register for China When You Got Married?

When my husband and I were registering for our wedding in 2004 we got into a huge debate over whether or not we should register for china. My husband supported the idea while I rallied against it. I just didn’t see the need for china in our lives. To ask guests to spend money on a place setting that would grace our table once a year simply didn’t make any sense to me, but after a little convincing from my husband I changed my mind and registered.

The dishes in our china cabinet don’t represent expense and glamour. They represent the traditional and old-fashioned sense of ourselves. Although they only grace our table once a year, they remind us of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at our parent’s homes. Of good food and good company on special occasions. They represent the sense of family and celebration that we have grown to know and love throughout our lives. They represent the next chapter in our lives, capturing the traditions of our parent’s and altering them ever so slightly to fit our lives.

Over the years many of our friends have gotten married. In that time, we’ve written checks and purchased gifts from stores that run the gamut. Everything from Target to Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s. But, in retrospect, I’m glad my husband convinced me to register for china. When I pull the china out once a year, I am reminded of the joy and love that we felt on our wedding day and I look forward to sharing years of celebrations and special occasions together.

9 thoughts on “Did you Register for China When You Got Married?”

  1. I am opting to not register for china. Earlier this year my parents found some china leftover from my grandparents house that they hadn’t known about. Not all of it matches, but I love the prints, so I claimed them. I would side with your original argument in that it’s not practical; I’d rather someone spend money on a grill that can be used more often.

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  2. We did not register for it, and I’m glad we made the decision. I thought that if I ever got to a stage in my life where I needed china, I would hopefully be able to afford to buy it. And no, I haven’t gotten to that stage yet!

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  3. If you didn’t register for china what did you register for?

    I should have prefaced this post by saying that my husband and I didn’t need anything when we got married. We had already lived in our home for a number of years.

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  4. We recently attended a wedding where the participants also had two combined households and needed nothing. They requested no gifts or – if anyone wanted – to sponser a portion of their honeymoon, such as one night at a B&B, a dinner out, developing film costs, etc. THe wedding was the best we’ve ever attended. It was free of the ordinary wedding clutter and was a big celebration. As I will inherit china down the road, it seemed silly to me to ask for more just to “have” it. I’m much more a use-it-or-lose-it kind of person.

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  5. Hi:

    We registered for Denby.

    My husband and I had been pursuing higher education for so long that we had never spent any of our money on making homes for ourselves — most things were family castoffs or from the Salvation Army. All our dishes were chipped, mismatched and leftover from previous tenants, etc. Fine and well; but when we got married, we wanted to have a set of matching dishes that We had chosen.

    Our Denby is “friendly” enough to use everyday and we do: they are our set of dishes. But it is also nice enough to use as good china and when the time comes to host a holiday meal we will be proud to serve our guests from it.

    Meadow

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  6. Pfaltzgraff http://www.pfaltzgraff.com/

    My mother-in-law and her mother are huge collectors and the frugal person in me saw this as a chance to get my stoneware dishes and still have them look nice enough to use for Christmas and Thanksgiving. 1 set of dishes! The best thing is that once a year Pfaltzgraff gets out the old molds and will take orders for designs that they don’t make any more. This makes it really easy to replace chipped dishes as you can order them online.

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  7. Because we’re military, we opted not to register for china. There are enough things that are likely to be broken without our adding a bunch of delicate place settings. Movers are thorough, but none too careful. Maybe once he gets out we can buy some.

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  8. we registered for china, but it was a debate (I was pro, my husband was anti). We agreed to buy it on the condition it that we would be intentional about using it.
    We use it almost every time we have company over for dinner, in addition to special occasions (birthday, anniversary, holidays). It has been great to have and to not be afraid to use!

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