Registering for dinnerware

Knottie1463501039

Hi! Our families have requested that we start working on our registries. Neither of us really wants fine china so I'm wondering how many sets of casual dinnerware to register for. We're registering for open stock dinnerware at Crate and Barrel. Our immediate families combined, plus our sibling's significant others comes out to about 12 people including us. Plus we still have grandparents that are very involved in our lives. Is 14 too much? 16? I think the max our cabinets could hold would be 16, and that would be pushing it. Any more would need to be stored elsewhere. Thank you for your input! 

bleve0821

My H's family is huge.  We are actually hosting a brunch next weekend, and I think the head count is at 15 (including ourselves) (!!!!!).  We only registered for service for 12, but we went very, very basic so if 12 consistently proves to be not enough for us, we can add to it with relative ease.  Unless you see you and your FH frequently hosting huge family events, 12 might be sufficient.  It certainly won't hurt to register for extra, but if storage is a concern, I would put a cap on the number you need and make sure what you do register is a set/pattern you can add to later.

flantastic

We registered for 12 of most things with the idea that we wouldn't be hosting more than 8 with our non-paper dinnerware - in case anything broke.

Ghostie625

We registered for 16 and got 16. I decided I'd rather get the extra now than be short later. But I do know what you mean about storage- almost half of our place settings are in my parents' basement and will stay there until we get a house.

SaintPaulGal

If you have room for 16 I would go with 16.  Will you or your siblings be having kids?  Do you host dinner parties with friends?  You can never really have too many as long as you have a place to put them.  Plus pieces break over time, and it is easier to have extras in stock than try to track down an old pattern.

I think I wound up buying service for 12 of my C&B dinnerware, but if I wasn't funding it myself I would absolutely have preferred 16.  I have pieces from two complimentary sets and one is discontinued now.  One of those bowls has broken and I am going to have to get creative to replace it.

MyNameIsNot

We also didn't do china but chose everyday dinnerware that could be dressed up. We registered for 12 (which I thought was the most we would ever host). I found myself rushing to BB&B to buy 4 extra place settings one Saturday before a party. 

I would err on the side of more settings. You can always register for 16 and keep 4 settings in a box outside of the cabinet. Most basic patterns will be around for a few years, but you probably won't be able to add extra settings in 5 years. 

SP29

We went with service for 12.

So far, with any particularly large dinner parties we've hosted, I have had to buy paper, but the idea is over time, we can increase our place settings.

It is a good idea to go with a line that is going to last awhile.

We went with Noritake. They do change their collections every so often, but we went with a neutral colour, so could easily mix/match if required.

Knottie1463501039

Thanks for the input everyone! I think especially since it's open stock (and not an expensive pattern), and since I know all of our sibling want kids in the not so distant future, 16 might be the way to go. And if we need more down the road, I think it'd be easy to mix and match with as well 

ernursej

I bought 20 sets but that is mostly to deal with breaking as the most we would have for dinner is 12. If you can easily get more, 12-16 might be best but if not, go for a few extra.