weddingrisk

As most of you know, I’m a big Craigslist proponent.  Bargain hunting is in my genes and Craigslist offers an opportunity for both bargains and vicarious forays into other people’s taste which appeals to my spying inclinations.  It runs in the family - my mother also loves Craigslist and sends me myriad emails about cute animals for adoption despite my protests.

While I was visiting my parents’ house over Christmas, I was perusing Craigslist and came across a listing for 6 place settings of fine china.  Briefly:  I showed my mother (”oh yes, I saw that, I like it”), showed B (”I don’t care about this kind of thing, but I’m not opposed”) emailed the seller, we arranged to meet today in a Panera in Apex, and I am now the somewhat sheepish owner of a partial set of platinum rimmed bone china.

Dear readers:  Are you still breathing?  Laughing?  Rolling your eyes?  Everyone OK?

I don’t really consider either of us “china people.”  I am attached to my cheap Target dishes (not too round, not too square, not too white) and figured that Crate and Barrel was as high-end as we’d venture on the gift registry spectrum.  One of the reasons china has never appealed to me is that it always seemed fussy and staid (totally unfair I realize) like something that would have to be relegated to a cabinet because it would be ridiculous to use it for regular food.  Lots of patterns are just like this - gilded old world plumes of stuffy hell.  But my/our patten is fresh looking.  It’s not totally matchy, and the decoration is  unobtrusive.  And the china itself is really beautiful:  deep, creamy white with a lovely sheen.

The woman who sold it to me, along with throwing in a few extra pieces, advised me to be look on ebay for bargain dishes to add to the collection and I figure we’ll register for separate items (like soup bowls) instead of place settings.  Though in some ways it feels frivolous to begin a china collection in a recession (even one spawned on Craigslist), I think it will be a nice marker of our marriage and a fun tradition to start. And damnit, we’ll eat frozen pizza off our china with pride.

Make with a picture, you say?  Here it is, though I will caution that it is at once more subtle (more gold-toned) and more graphic than it looks in these pictures.  Quite modern…really it’s cool looking…you’ll like it when you see it….  Fine.  Commence with the teasing.