Wedding Registry: China?

So I have mixed emotions about wedding china and whether or not to register for it. I'm a bit of a sentimentalist and remember being dressed up in fancy holiday frocks and "helping" my grandmother set our huge dining table with her fine china for the occasion. She had it all -- service for 12 (or something insane like that...we have a huge family), little silver olive tongs and every other conceivable table accoutrement, crystal dishes in every size imaginable and white tablecloth and napkins -- all of which were only used a few times a year. They lived in a big hutch in the living room most of the time. Now, the Sentimentalist in me wants to provide that kind of memory for my kids and grandkids. The Practical Me thinks it's silly, unnecessary, we'll never use it and don't have much room for it anyway OR we'll break a piece and it will discontinue and I'll never be able to have a full set (the kinds of things that keep me up at night, by the way.)

We have white Pottery Barn dishes for everyday use. White matches everything else white, so I feel like we've struck some kind of registry lotto because we can pretty much pick anything white and it will work. That certainly makes things a bit easier, if/when something breaks. And I'm over everything matching anyway...that's so...easy and doesn't exude the charm of carefully chosen pieces mixing and matching. Hey, I have eclectic taste. What more can I say?

But then I see this. Vera Wang by Wedgewood Grosgrain. Swiss dots and pinstripes in platinum have me completely undone. And it's one of the less-crazy-expensive options, so I think I'd be more apt to using it with reckless abandon.

{Courtesy Table & Home}

And let's talk about the funky china options...the liberal little sister to the Vera Wang setting.

How cute is Amy Butler's Vintage Botanica? SO CUTE! Alas, it's not exactly the perfect solution for holiday dining, but maybe a couple pieces here and there in the regular rotation? Like dessert plates or something?

Now there's a topic. Dessert plates. Every big event in our house involves dessert. My hands-down FAVORITE fun, original, funky tableware designer Rosanna takes the cake in more ways than one.

{Courtesy: Rosanna, Inc.}

These two examples are more for a Christmas table than anything else, but she knows her stuff when it comes to vintage inspiration. Seriously, look at Chelsea Flowers. I'm not sure tableware can get cuter than that!

{Courtesy: Rosanna, Inc.}