For those of you who register for china....

[Miss Sparkly]

Do you budget for buying the whole set yourself knowing that you'll probably be given just a few pieces? Just thinking about it - DH's cousin didn't and was given odds and end and now can't complete her set until they're done with college

 

[ts44]

It's a bummer for sure to not get at least enough place settings and serveware to use your china yourselves, let alone for parties! I actually did budget for the china, because I love the pattern we chose in a sloppy, irrational way, and it would kill me to not have a full set. I have heard in some parts it's customary to leave the china registry open for a year after the wedding and then people use it to buy the couple 1st anniversary presents to fill in the missing pieces. I'm not sure I could wait a year, but it's something to look forward to in any case.

Our china is actually on sale for 50% off right now so my mom decided to spread the word through my elderly aunts. I hope that means we get a few more pieces than we ordinarily would have.

 

[yssie]

Another thing to consider is how much you want fine china right now.

If it wasn't a priority for me and I expected to only receive odds and ends I'd consider waiting a few years and planning to buy the lot myself. Tastes change, and it would be a pity to register for something, get a few pieces, and in a few years discover that you liked something else but feel 'obligated' to finish this set (somehow I find that I'm always much more unlikely to change my mind on something if I have the full set, or close to it!)

Thing is, china is such a popular wedding gift - if you don't register you might find that people purchase what they think you might like, and they're sometimes quite wrong! So if you go the non-registering route perhaps choose a few statement pieces - platters, a stemware set, tea & coffee set - so that those who are going to get you something of that sort have some direction

We're very lucky to have some extremely generous relatives, and our china and sterling is being gifted to us, which I definitely didn't expect - I had made very clear to FI that we would need to start socking away the necessary thousands for whatever we didn't receive to finish our patterns

 

[JulieN]

Haha, at first I read your post and thought that they wouldn't be able to afford to complete the set until the future kids were done with college!

In college, I remember cooking with my friends, eating together, sharing bottle after bottle of wine (and dessert drinks and digestives after) but it hardly mattered what we ate off of.

 

[rhbgirl24]

I did register for china, but the pattern we chose was retired, so it made it all that much difficult. We got most of it, were given some money towards future pieces when people couldn't find it, and were also given a place setting for the following christmas and the cream and sugar bowl for our house warming!

So people did keep buying it and were extremely generous in the gift giving.

 

[Clairitek]

Another thing to consider is how much you want fine china right now.

If it wasn't a priority for me and I expected to only receive odds and ends I'd consider waiting a few years and planning to buy the lot myself. Tastes change, and it would be a pity to register for something, get a few pieces, and in a few years discover that you liked something else but feel 'obligated' to finish this set (somehow I find that I'm always much more unlikely to change my mind on something if I have the full set, or close to it!)

Thing is, china is such a popular wedding gift - if you don't register you might find that people purchase what they think you might like, and they're sometimes quite wrong! So if you go the non-registering route perhaps choose a few statement pieces - platters, a stemware set, tea & coffee set - so that those who are going to get you something of that sort have some direction

We're very lucky to have some extremely generous relatives, and our china and sterling is being gifted to us, which I definitely didn't expect - I had made very clear to FI that we would need to start socking away the necessary thousands for whatever we didn't receive to finish our patterns

Big DITTO to Yssie's post. If you aren't 1000% sure that one way or another you can complete the set in a timely manner I would consider either not registering or just picking a few pieces of serveware that will coordinate with a lot of other stuff. I am fairly certain in my own decor and dining related items now, but there is no way I could imagine having the same exact taste in 20 years. This is one of the main reasons I did not register for china. Well that and I'd rather have a wide variety of top quality, but not china, dishes and serveware to mix it up often, rather than being stuck with the same formal dining china pattern.

 

[Miss Sparkly]

I didn't even think of the fact that people might just buy you china anyway but that makes sense. All of DH's family has at least one set of fine china and real silverware while I grew up in an area that felt that these things are a waste of energy and time (caring for and cleaning them).

Also, I like the idea of a one year anniversary gift! Now I know what to buy for them

 

[Laila619]

Our china, Noritake Crestwood Platinum, was very inexpensive so I knew we wouldn't have a problem getting all of it. You can buy a 50 piece dinnerware set (service for eight) for $300! I didn't want a super expensive pattern because we didn't want to have to buy the rest of it ourselves.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

I did register for china, but the pattern we chose was retired, so it made it all that much difficult. We got most of it, were given some money towards future pieces when people couldn't find it, and were also given a place setting for the following christmas and the cream and sugar bowl for our house warming!

So people did keep buying it and were extremely generous in the gift giving.

I didn't because I have my mother's set, there are a few missing pieces.

I found this website, http://www.replacements.com/, and they have all the pieces I need. So I have been buying those up as a wedding present to myself, but it is an expensive project.

 

[ilovesparkles]

DH and I knew we wouldn't get much because my family is on the frugal side. I think I got no china from my family, two from my friends, and 6 from his mother's friends who are well off. We both agreed that the wedding money we received would fill our china set before going towards much else. I of course didn't obey my own rule and we are still 6 place settings away from finishing. But I am not too worried. Our setting is on the newer side so I am not too worried about it being retired. And we do have 11 more months to finish our registry. If you want the china, I would register for it and come up with a plan to finish it within the year after your wedding.

BTW: We specifically registered for one of the cheaper sets because I knew our friends and family were not well off and this made it more likely we would get the china as a gift and easier for us to finish afterward. It was our second choice in pattern, but we still love it.

 

[mayachel]

Good question-I'm not a 100% sure what we are going to do. We were pushed very hard to register for fine china, and so far haven't had ANY of the pieces purchased! I think we assumed that if half or more was gifted, we would go ahead and complete the set ourselves. The store that ours is from, holds all the pieces from the registry until we officially "release" them. So while the guests believe they have purchased something specific for us, in actuality it is sort of like store credit. In the event that only one or two pieces were purchased we could choose to easily put the money towards something else in the store.

 

[Gypsy]

I love China, but my guests didn't. I got one place setting, that I ended up exchanging for something else. On the plus side I own one set I purchased outright (Wedgwood) and inherited another (DH's grandmother) and know I'm getting my mom's never used set (ugly lennox). So it wasn't a big deal to me to complete my set. I still love the pattern, but given all the china I have... no I'm not going to complete it. If I didn't own the amount I do though, I would totally have completed my set for myself.

 

[yssie]

minithreadjack-
Awesome site LtlFirecracker, thanks for posting that! I know ours will be missing a couple of pieces and our line is also discontinued, and I much prefer a reliable website to ebay

 

[AustenNut]

minithreadjack continued-Replacements Ltd is a great resource to find that name of a pattern. But you might also want to check with ebay. I wanted a few more pieces of my grandmother's flatware and I lucked out by finding someone selling an entire set of 12 for less than half what it would have cost me to add on the extra pieces I wanted to get.

Ending threadjack, I'm registered for china and when I was on a girls' vacation actually told them it was one of the things I was most interested in off the registry (they asked). If I get most of my pattern then I'll definitely finish it off, as I like it a lot. If I only get one place setting, then I'll probably return it as I already have a fine china set and will probably inherit more as the years go on.

 

[swimmer]

It might just depend on where you are in life... Right after college I was moving a ton and could not have taken care of china and would have registered for a cheap one (thank Goodness I didn't marry my college sweetie). Getting married at 32 we registered for exactly what we wanted (China and silver but no daily as we had been eating off of that already) and were given 16 settings (too many, but just in case I kept them). Later in life and more established, our friends give nicer presents and we in turn give them nicer presents... and now I hire movers when we relocate. Then again mom has two sets of spode so I didn't really have to register...but prying them from her hands would have been risky. So, the answers you get will depend on how settled folks are. I can't imagine having china in college...the platinum rim is not good for nuking leftover pizza...