<p>Since the thread has gone off original topic, what is everyone’s feeling on Fiesta wear for everyday china. Today is my 25th anniversary and my husband has been trying to get me to get new everyday stuff for a couple of years. I love all the bright colors and fun shapes, but wonder how it wears? (Given our track record, we keep everything for always.)</p>
<p>I like all the bright colors too. I only have a couple of Fiesta little bowls (like to put olives in)and trivets that I picked up at a Fiesta outlet when passing through West Virginia. I ,of course, needed , more little bowls like I needed a hole in the head but I couldn’t resist!</p>
<p>Count me in as another china fanatic. One can never have enough. Max disagrees, but what does he know?
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<p>Fiestaware for every day is wonderful. We’ve had Portmeirion Botanic Garden for everyday for the last 21 years. I’ve added some bowls and mugs in Portmeirion Roses. I also have Wedgwood, Lennox, Spode Christmas (hand me down from mom) and Johnson Bros. turkey setting (another hand me down) and settings in pink and green depression glass! </p>
<p>Everything goes in the Bosch dishwasher with the exception of the silver. That I hand wash. What I need is what Ellebud has, a built in china cupboard. We have one built in but it’s not enough. I’d love a bachelor’s pantry!</p>
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<p>There is something particularly charming about bowls. My mother–who has even more china than Ellebud…apparently it is a genetic disorder 
– and I were just talking about the charms of bowls the other day.</p>
<p>And your guesses about would be correct. 
(Apologies to owners of L, M, and N. All I can say is chacun a son gout!)</p>
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<p>Well now I’m officially disillusioned. I bought a replacement Waterford water goblet recently, so I just compared. The new one is a smidge taller, has a much thicker stem, doesn’t refract light in the same way and weighs 7.75 oz to the old goblet style’s 8.8 oz. Rats. And I got it from Replacements, Inc, not a local store. I guess from now on I buy on eBay and look for the little seahorse on the bottom.
Thanks for teaching us something new today, ellebud!</p>
<p>Well, all you china fanatics, I am not a young bride, I’m an old parent, but I could use your advice. I have had a set of fine china for years, so I’m not in the market for that. </p>
<p>I had Mikasa English Countryside for a while:</p>
<p>[Mikasa</a> Dinnerware, English Countryside 45-Piece Set - Casual Dinnerware - Dining & Entertaining - Macy’s](<a href=“http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/mikasa-dinnerware-english-countryside-45-piece-set?ID=555432]Mikasa”>http://www1.macys.com/shop/product/mikasa-dinnerware-english-countryside-45-piece-set?ID=555432)</p>
<p>One problem was that the dinner plates were so large that they wouldn’t fit in the microwave. But the major problem was that the plates chipped like crazy. The bowls and other pieces with a sort of finished rim didn’t chip, but everything else did. I had to replace it.</p>
<p>I replaced it with Villeroy and Bosch Audun:</p>
<p>[Buy</a> Villeroy & Boch Audun | 3 lines in stock | Plates, Bowls, Serving Items, Tea, Coffee, Other Tableware, Cookware & Kitchenware, Homeware](<a href=“http://chinasearch.co.uk/buy/villeroy-and-boch/audun/]Buy”>http://chinasearch.co.uk/buy/villeroy-and-boch/audun/)</p>
<p>It’s a mix and match set. I have some pieces in the plain yellow border pattern, rice bowls and salad plates in the black and white crosshatched pattern, soup bowls in the pattern with yellow border and a black picture in the middle, and very few pieces in the really complicated pattern. The problem? Those yellow borders are completely marked with gray/black marks. I periodically remove them with Bartender’s Friend, but they don’t completely disappear and they always come right back. I do put these in the dishwasher and I understand that stainless flatware makes the marks somehow. I use a V&B stainless pattern. </p>
<p>Any suggestions for yet another replacement?</p>
<p>I’m sorry that we’ve hijacked your thread, momof3sons! I’m going to start a new one…</p>
<p>Dragonmom – I don’t have proof, but I suspect china & crystal manufacturers are similar to fabric mills. There’s a first run and a second run.</p>
<p>I just purchased…as a gift…service for fifteen…as a wedding gift. Super sale at Macy’s: buy 4 place settings and another one is free. And the china (I think that it is technically ironstone?) was on super sale at Macy’s. I believe that the entire thing was 260ish.</p>
<p>At the shower a woman walked up to me and pointed her finger at me. She said, "I wanted to buy the china. I always buy the china. Congratulations! You were faster than me.</p>
<p>You bought service for 15? You’re officially invited to my kids’ weddings :)</p>
<p>Agentninetynine: I love happiness. Send the invites… But know that I did nothing special. My budget was $250 ish. A good sale plus the extras.</p>
<p>You bought 5 place settings or 15? $250 is a screaming deal. </p>
<p>I tend to buy china either on sale at Macy’s or on ebay.</p>
<p>I bought 15 place settings with 5 pieces per place setting. Yes, it was an amazing deal. I have purchased some china on ebay as well. But for weddings…if the kids are registered at Macy’s I keep a watch out and I buy when it is on sale.</p>
<p>Going back to an earlier post where the OP described an East Coast wedding: “a one hour cocktail hour, followed by a four hour reception. Sit down dinner in virtually every case. Some celebratory dancing before the appetizer is served, more dancing, salad, more dancing, dinner, more dancing, dessert, more dancing.
Interspersed with toasts, speeches by whomever. (Sometimes only appetizer or salad. )”</p>
<p>This describes the reception we attended recently in the Seattle area of a Jewish bride and groom, both born and raised in Seattle – so – I don’t think you’re going to need to do much “prep” work with your guests. The Groom’s family had a dinner the night before the wedding for all out of town guests, and a brunch the day after the wedding for all of the out of town guests. The wedding was actually held on one of the harbor islands, so the dinner the night before was a BBQ…but…very nicely done by professionals. 1 hour plus cocktail hour at the wedding. Live band with dancing interspersed throughout the meal. </p>
<p>If your friends are expecting the typical NY/NJ Jewish wedding with extreme flowers/decor and heavy traditional food, that might be a little different. The meal we had at the wedding was abundent…with Salmon, of course and lots of local veggie options…but not roast beef or chicken with fancy potatoes and heavily buttered veggies. The dessert choices were wondeful, but the event lacked the tables full of fancy desserts – although, I didn’t consider that to be a “lack”!</p>
<p>If I read a prior post correctly, you indicated you have not talked with the bride’s parents. I understand why you’re not planning to meet them before the wedding, but I am very surprised you haven’t talked with them.</p>
<p>Lastminute:</p>
<p>Fiesta is very nice and wears like iron but can be very heavy. I have the “square” plates and a stack of more than 4 - 5 plates is difficult to lift into an elevated cabinet.</p>
<p>2boysima-our guests aren’t “expecting” anything. As I have repeatedly stated, our experience with the “pace” of the wedding is just really different from that which seems to be a more typical Northwest wedding. Again, we have not spoken with the bride’s parents yet. They really do not want to be involved in planning the wedding, but rather have given their daughter and my son some money and told THEM to make the wedding plans. I am sure that we will call them within the next few weeks after a “date certain” has been set by the future bride and groom. I always thought that phone lines worked in each direction from “coast to coast.” 
Is this one of those unwritten rules as discussed above, that the groom’s family is “supposed” to make the call?</p>
<p>I also don’t necessarily subscribe to your definition of a “typical” NY/NJ wedding. Perhaps that’s the kind of wedding reception thrown by the “monied crowd.” We don’t fit in there. :)</p>
<p>Meant to add at the end of my previous post. We aren’t looking to suggest or do anything remotely “over the top.”</p>
<p>Momof3sons, sometimes I think what happens is that when viewpoints diverge substantially, each side thinks it is compromising and coming to the center, but the whole scale and center is even different! :)</p>
<p>I think it is difficult to really understand the dynamic of whether they want to be remotely involved, or their expectations, without actually talking to them directly-- I understand where you are coming from but it seems like you are a little agitated with them for having “magical thinking,” which I understand, but I would reserve a little judgment until you talk to them. I don’t even believe everything my fiance tells me about what his family says/thinks. He wouldn’t lie, but family dynamics are strange and how your FDIL is perceiving the situation may not necessarily be entirely accurate…</p>
<p>They could also be contacting you, but you just never know why they haven’t… maybe their D told them they were handling wedding plans with you and they think they’re supposed to butt out. It’s best to keep relations as smooth as possible even if that means you have to let some things go that maybe you do have every right to be annoyed about. The wedding is one day, your S has to juggle you with his in laws for the rest of his life. I don’t think you are doing anything wrong and it sounds like you are being a very helpful and supportive Mother of the Groom, I would just wait to start getting annoyed with the bride’s parents until you’ve heard from them what their intentions are.</p>
<p>Emaheevul07, I think your post makes a lot of sense. </p>
<p>“Traditionally”, I believe it is the groom’s parents who initiate contact with the bride’s parents as soon as the engagement is announced.</p>
<p>Emaheevul07: excellent post!</p>
<p>I was raised with the expectation that, as soon as an engagement was announced, the groom’s parents called the bride’s parents to tell them how very pleased they were with the news, using all sorts of compliments regarding their future daughter-in-law. (I am not sure if you haven’t talked to them at all or just not about wedding planning?) If geography permitted, groom’s parents were supposed to invite the bride’s parents to dinner, preferably at their home. However, in my family, if the above doesn’t happen within one week, the bride’s family makes the call and dinner invitation. The point is to get both sets of parents together to start the relationship out right. Ideally, wedding planning doesn’t actually begin until the parents have had a little bit of time to get to know each other.</p>
<p>Also, I was raised with the expectation that the bride’s mother planned the wedding and the groom’s mother planned the rehearsal dinner. This worked out pretty well. Now that weddings have become so very expensive, and frequently take place someplace other than where most guests, or even the parents, live, I get this rule may not make sense any longer.</p>
<p>I become very nervous when I get information second hand. Even your future daughter-in-law may not understand exactly what is going on in her parents’ mind… even if they think they have explained to her their wedding thoughts.</p>