<p>One thing I might have changed was my china pattern … I really wanted something like Noritake Shenandoah or Churchill, but ended up getting their Ontario pattern, which I liked OK but was a little plain for my tastes. Thank my chintzy mother, who insisted that the other patterns were too expensive and that no one would buy it for me.
Onward - I looked up Limerick - it really is gorgeous.</p>
<p>footballmom104, I guess we always want what we don’t have. It is a pretty pattern but it seems young to me. Now I would like a white plate with a navy and gold band. It really doesn’t matter since we use china only a few times a year. What I really need to find is an everyday dish that I like. Right now we are on a faded set of Corelle dishes. I have yet to find something that looks whimsical and is not extremely heavy. My family doesn’t care as long as there is food on the plates!</p>
<p>I picked Lenox Charleston for my china, then found out it was the most popular bridal pattern for a bunch of years in a row. Of course it was, it’s Wedgewood Blue and Dusty Rose - THE colors of the 1980’s! I still think it’s pretty, but I very rarely use it. Part of me wishes I hadn’t gotten it and people would have bought us something more useful (or given us cash), but my cousin didn’t choose formal china, just every day Corell, and years later she regretted it because a full set of china is ridiculously expensive so she could never bring herself to buy it and to this day she doesn’t have any.</p>
<p>My Pfaltzgraff was Village. My mom had Heritage, the plain white. It didn’t get dated as fast, but now I find the whole Pfaltzgraff thing just too big and heavy. A few years ago I replaced it with Christopher Stuart Fruit Delight that I got at an outlet store. Now a bunch of that set is chipped and it’s been discontinued. What to do, what to do?</p>
<p>edit - just searched for Lenox Charleston - it’s been discontinued! So much for being a “best seller.”</p>
<p>I think I am just not the marrying kind, although I’ve been married twice, and still am. I adored my first H and was good friends with my second, but I just kept feeling, “Why did I do that for?”</p>
<p>Sad. I love the post about City Hall and the funnest day of her life. That made me smile. It’s great that people felt that way.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I love my China which was given me by my two uncles who got it for half price. It’s Mikasa Nosegay. My first H started a feud because he thought it was too gaudy. I should have known we weren’t going to be suited for the long haul. It’s white white brightly colored, stylized Jacobean flowers – not grandma at all.</p>
<p>I only got service for 8 and made some huge dinner parties so I bought a gorgeous cream with gold bands on ebay for almost nothing. Hundreds of pieces of German china.</p>
<p>Everyday we have Portmerion, which is botanical prints. Very pretty. I would like to get something plainer. I saw them in a very downscale restaurant in my S’s college town. Swirled earthenware that is almost stripped, but not quite. Hard to explain.</p>
<p>At least my current H loves the Nosegay China.</p>
<p>Today is our 36th. 
:o :rolleyes: :eek: 
</p>
<p>No Pfaltzgraff for me. I got Mikasa Amsterdam. It’s white and square with the corners mitered off. It has a single flower on a stem curving up one side with very thin green edging around the rim. It’s not as heavy as Pfaltzgraff but not delicate like fine china. I liked the “differentness” of the squarish shape, making it not overly formal. I still like it.</p>
<p>I think I got every piece in the pattern. I was glad to find a pattern I liked that was moderately priced. My SIL (married three years before me) picked a very expensive china and got very little of it.</p>
<p>LongPrime,
Many congratulations.
Plus, I’m thrilled to find out we aren’t the longest wed on this thread (only at 34 years)</p>
<p>We didn’t pick fancy china or sterling at the time. Noritake stoneware and nice stainless plus a “fancy” set of glasses. We still use them both, and use Ebay to buy what we need as replacements since both patterns were discontinued soon after the wedding.</p>
<p>Have you used replacement.com?</p>
<p>And happy anniversary LongPrime! I would have had my 34th if first H and I hadn’t divorced.</p>
<p>If you’re trying to get more of a particular china or silver: [Replacements</a>, Ltd.](<a href=“http://www.replacements.com/]Replacements”>http://www.replacements.com/)</p>
<p>Yeah, I’d be on 29 if the first had lasted.</p>
<p>I’d be on my zeroth, if she’d have her way. Should’ve, would’ve, could’ve.</p>
<p>dmd77, thanks for the link for china replacements!</p>
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<p>I was skimming this thread while watching my boys move a table out of the corner of my eye. Then this line jumped out at me – I thought it was a website for replacing one’s spouse!</p>
<p>My china went on sale the month of my wedding, I got 27 place settings! I returned 15 and got 4 place settings of silver.</p>
<p>I’ve had a couple of sets of daily wear and lovelovelove my current daily pattern:</p>
<p>[Mist</a> Dinnerware | Crate and Barrel](<a href=“http://www.crateandbarrel.com/dining-and-entertaining/discontinued-dinnerware/mist-dinnerware/f27115]Mist”>http://www.crateandbarrel.com/dining-and-entertaining/discontinued-dinnerware/mist-dinnerware/f27115)</p>
<p>Lots of Noritake around here! I have Noritake Blue Hill. Have some Sears stoneware that my mom picked up on sale and gave it to us for the wedding, and 26.5 years later, I planning to replace the stoneware with something new to mark the empty nest. </p>
<p>Every time I replace something that we received as a wedding gift, DH says, “I hope you don’t replace EVERYTHING around here that’s old and cracked!” :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I would use bolder colors for the ribbons and bouquets. They really look washed out now in the pictures. In fact, at a number of weddings I attended, the colors just didn’t turn out so vivid with flash, sunlight washing them out. </p>
<p>When I go to a wedding now, I wear bolder colors. My favorite dresses to wear at wedding were pale ice pink, buttercream yellow and lilac. Too light. I have a navy dress, a teal dress and periwinkle dress that shows up much, much better in pictures.</p>
<p>My SIL really demonstrated this at her wedding. She had the most gorgeous antique lt gold dress for her first ceremony. (her second ceremony in her home country was when she wore the white gown). The pictures just do not do that gold dress justice, and I look washed out in the pictures with my buttercream yellow dress that is so pretty and I get so many complements about the color, but not for photos</p>
<p>Our wedding was a huge affair. I was in my late 20s & hubby was considerably older. To keep everyone happy, we said that whomever invited the guest would pay for the guest & we’d pay for everything else. That worked well, as my folks invited the vast majority of the guests & it was the only wedding for my in-laws, so they invited people they had gone to kindergarten with (seriously). It was a huge & very happy affair. I have no regrets. </p>
<p>If I were forced to do it over now, 24 years later, I would have a smaller affair (my MIL/FIL are now deceased), but at that time, my folks and in-laws all wanted to invite all the people they wanted to have attend, so I have no regrets about that. It was a great start to a very happy new life together and as far as I know everyone enjoyed it immensely!</p>
<p>I had light blue for the bridesmaids dresses & they looked great in them. I had salmon silk roses, red napkins, and multi-hued rosebud headbands and bouquets for the bridesmaids. I carried a catalaya orchid bouquet, like my mom had decades earlier. We use the same wedding cake topper that was used in my mother’s wedding as well as my sister’s & my brother’s.</p>
<p>Our honeymoon was a lot of fun–we travelled all over the East Coast & stopped in LA on the way home to be in my GF’s wedding party. :)</p>
<p>We had a lovely wedding in a NYC restaurant. The JP ceremony was in front of the waterfalls and just as we said our vows the musician that my father in law swore was the best he ever heard started to play God Bless America. This of course caused a huge outburst of laughter and we still laugh about it to this day.</p>
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<p>In 1980, my own bouquet was a mixture of pink, dark pink and white instead of the traditional all white. I got a lot of comments and not all were positive. I loved it, though.</p>
<p>We have Yorktowne, also. I hate to part with it because I love the serving pieces. But I do have my eye on the Buffalo China online at Williams Sonoma. I agree that food looks better on white. In the hutch is Noritake Adagio, also discontinued. Bought it with $350 from an “inheritance” from my grandmother. I wanted to spend it on something I would never normally buy and know that my grandmother bought it. Kind of fun to pull it out a few times a year but would never recommend buying china these days. Pick high quality dishes that can be dressed up.</p>